Maine Democrats Push Massive Middle Class Tax Hike

Democrats Push Massive Middle Class Tax Hike

Bring omnibus tax hike to committee in one day,
multiple bills to raise taxes on hard-working Mainers to be considered

Augusta – The Maine Republican Party is sounding the alarm on an attempt by legislative Democrats to impose a massive middle class tax hike on the Maine people just one day after they punched a series of holes in Governor LePage’s budget proposal, worsening Maine’s budget situation.

“It was clear from day one that Democrats planned to raise taxes, but this is breathtaking,” said Maine GOP Chairman Richard M. Cebra. “Multiple bills to raise taxes on everything from meals and lodging, to income and sales tax and anything else they can find.”

“Even worse,” Cebra continued. “Is that just yesterday they made the budget situation worse by refusing to cut spending.”

In total, Democrat’s massive middle class tax hike bills would take hundreds of millions of dollars out of the pockets of hard-working Maine people over the next two years.
A list of the bills follows this press release.

“It appears that Maine Democrats are much more concerned with appeasing the far left fringe of their base with massive tax hikes on the middle class than in doing what is right for Maine’s taxpayers and economy,” said Cebra.

“One thing we can be sure of is that last year the hard-working people of Maine did not vote for Democrats based on the belief that they would raise taxes on Maine’s middle class, but they are preparing to do just that,” Cebra concluded.

Earlier this year, the average Maine family saw the Obama administration raise their taxes by about $1,000 per year. Increases in Maine state taxes being proposed will take an additional bite out of the budgets of Maine families.

Among the proposals are attempts to raise income taxes by as much as 26%, sales tax by as much as 20%, increase the tax on hotel rooms by as much as 70%, increase the tax on meals by as much as 28% and increase the liquor tax by as much as 28%.

In addition, there are complex proposals like Rep. Seth Berry’s so-called “tax fairness” bill that appear to be administrative nightmares with frightening potential to put Maine in a tax-hike death spiral.

Tax Hike Proposals To Be Considered Today

• LD 692 – “An Act To Provide Funding for Education by Restoring the 8.5 Percent Income Tax Rate for High-income Taxpayers” (Kicks in at about ½ what Obama administration defines as “rich”)

• LD 815 – “An Act To Tax Political Action Committees”

• LD 834 – “An Act To Make The Income Tax More Equitable For Citizens Of The State” (Mirrors Obama administration income tax hike proposal levels)

• LD 1113 – “An Act To Provide Tax Fairness to Maine’s Middle Class and Working Families” (Seth Berry’s dangerous, so-called ‘tax fairness’ bill that would seek massive tax hikes based on a necessarily convoluted new measure and an even more complex reporting system — a better title would be the ‘Class Warfare On Auto-Pilot Reform of 2013’)

• LD 1124 – “An Act To Provide Income Tax Relief” (Actually anything but income tax relief – would put taxpayers on a scale that would change periodically based not on their income, but on their income relative to other taxpayers, effectively creating enough uncertainty to drive taxpayers out of Maine to more stable tax environments, and potentially moving some taxpayers into a higher marginal rate in the future even if they didn’t earn more money than the year before)

• LD 1256 – “An Act To Establish Tax Fairness” (Yet another attempt to raise the income tax – this one has the lowest threshold on income tax hike bills of the day – kicking in the top rate on couples who both work and earn on average $60k each)

Additional Upcoming Bills (Thursday, April 25)

• LD 1141 – “An Act To Increase the Sales Tax To Support Revenue Sharing” (Would increase the sales tax from 5% to 6%)

• LD 1227 – “An Act To Promote Tourism and Economic Development” (Raises the sales tax on hotel rooms from 7% to 12%)

• LD 1297 – “An Act To Provide Funding for Public Education by Increasing the Sales Tax” (Raises the sales tax from 5% to 5 2/3%)

• LD 1314 – “An Act To Allow a Local Option Tax on Meals and Lodging” (Allows for a 2% tax hike on meals and lodging, determined at the local level)

• LD 1402 – “An Act To Amend the Taxes Imposed on Alcohol and Lodging” (Raises the sales tax on liquor and lodging from 7% to 9%)