Tag Archives: corruption

Feb 12 2016

Governor Calls on Democrats to Stop Holding Tax Conformity for Ransom

AUGUSTA – Governor Paul R. LePage once again called on Democrats today to stop hurting the livelihoods of teachers, low-income earners, students, small and large businesses by refusing to enact tax conformity unless it is tied to an additional windfall in education spending, which would be over and above the significant increase already in the current budget.

The Democrats want to raid the Budget Stabilization Fund for $23 million in additional education spending before they approve tax conformity, even though education spending has already increased by $80 million over the last budget.

“The Democrats are holding tax conformity for ransom by tying it to education funding, which is totally unrelated,” said Governor LePage. “They are raiding $23 million from the rainy day fund to deny teachers, low-income earners, students and small and large Maine businesses the tax refunds they deserve. There’s no reason to pay ransom for tax conformity. The Democrats are either for it or against it. If they think tax conformity is good for the Maine people-which it is-they should vote for it. If Democrats disagree with President Obama and think Maine taxpayers do not deserve the same tax refund the federal government is giving them, they should just vote against it.”

In school year 2016-17, state spending is $114 million higher than it was in the LePage administration’s first budget for the 2010-11 school year.

School spending from the state is now $150 million higher than the 2005-06 school year-an 18% increase. In the same period, student population has declined by over 25,000 students-a 13% decrease.

In this biennium, Governor LePage added $40 million over last year. The Legislature added another $40 million. School spending is up $80 million over the last biennium alone. Now the Democrats want to seize $23 million more, which would be a $100 million increase over last biennium.
Jan 28 2016

Maine Tax Entitlement Reform

http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2015/12/10/tax-entitlement-reform-question-heads-toward-maine-ballot

Tax, Entitlement Reform Question Heads Toward Maine Ballot
December 10, 2015

ANDY TORBETT

Andy Torbett (meconservativevoice@gmail.com) writes from Atkinson, Maine. (read full bio)

Maine voters will get a chance to vote directly on significant tax and entitlement spending reforms proposed by Gov. Paul LePage (R) and blocked by lawmakers, if a referendum question currently being circulated makes it to the ballot in November 2016.

The proposed ballot amendment, as currently written, includes gradually eliminating the state’s income tax over a three-year period and reinstating work requirements for individuals receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) entitlements.

Tax Cuts, Economic Growth

Liam Sigaud, a policy analyst with the Maine Heritage Policy Center, says allowing taxpayers to keep more of their money helps everybody in the state.

“Government is often inefficient and wasteful, as Maine’s oversized welfare system demonstrates,” Sigaud said. “Reducing the income tax and enacting substantive reforms to welfare programs would allow hard-working Mainers to keep more of what they earn, spurring economic growth in their communities.”

Reform ‘Desperately Needed’

Sigaud says streamlining the state’s entitlement system will help focus the program on helping the truly needy.

“Welfare reform is desperately needed in Maine,” Sigaud said. “The people’s referendum would, among others things, require able-bodied adults to seek work before qualifying for welfare benefits; prohibit TANF spending on tobacco, liquor, and other non-essentials; and eliminate welfare benefits for noncitizens. These reforms will help the poor to climb out of poverty, while saving taxpayers millions per year.”

Jonathan Williams, vice president of the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Center for State Fiscal Reform, says income tax reform is a no-brainer for Mainers.

“Eliminating the income tax would unquestionably benefit the citizens of Maine and certainly allow for Maine to grow a more prosperous free-market economy,” Williams said. “State income taxes are some of the most damaging forms of taxes that state policymakers can use to raise revenue. Income taxes inherently create a barrier between work and reward, harming economic productivity.”

Andy Torbett (meconservativevoice@gmail.com) writes from Atkinson, Maine.

 

Jan 26 2016

King Me, Desperate!

A lot can be discovered about one’s beliefs and convictions by the decisions we make in the crucible of passion and desperation. Our mettle is tested when we are faced with the stark realization that the burden of the beliefs we claim to treasure may preclude us from traveling down the path well trodden joining the choral swell of the populace euphoria. For all our preaching, the pomp and bluster are mere words when life’s practicum calls the bluff demanding validation of our zealous verbiage and we capitulate.

 

How we have railed against this President for trampling the Constitution. We have questioned the reasoning of those that voted for him and supported his policies. But irony always prevails, doesn’t it, and the pendulum swings both ways.

 

Eight years ago the nation was desperate for change. Unhappy with what they saw in government but not sure of what changes they wanted and what the repercussions were, the voters were ripe to be plucked by a persona with lofty well-crafted speeches with ambiguous substance trimmed in utopian promises. Now, eight years later, there is a growing bipartisan pall that has settled over our Nation as we realize that the actions of our top executive and congress has not done the good promised, but has accelerated and exacerbated the Nation’s downward spiral.

 

So, we are desperate all the more. Now, with all the bluster and blow of a circus barker, a new persona has emerged to tantalize the desperate hearts of Americans yearning for a man with the solution. Therein lies the greatest problem we face in this Nation.

 

This Republic was designed, from its foundation, to be a Nation, which found its solutions through the people of that Nation. No one man could ever have a solution for we the people were built to repel that very notion. Yet Americans, in their desperation, have in recent years begun to seek out a man, an individual to solve their problems rather than solve the problem themselves and the Republic crumbles.

 

America has weathered and recovered from disaster in the form of war, nature, and poor leadership time and time again. It is not the fallout from poor leadership that cripples our Nation; it is the causal mechanism of that fallout, which left in place, causes irreparable damage to the people. Still, in desperation, we go from bad to bad “lookin’ for love in all the wrong places.”

 

Anyone with a nominal understanding of government knows that most of Donald Trump’s grand promises cannot be accomplished without the use of Executive fiat, the very thing so many of us were appalled to see Barack Obama abuse. Yet those who claim to support an adherence to the Constitution are willing to behave like Sarah Palin and swoon at his feet like a teenage schoolgirl. And then there are the many social conservatives who have tossed aside their convictions to bask in the hope of new savior. Why such a quick change in beliefs?

 

The answer is really not that difficult. It’s simply a matter of conviction. We can toss aside the Constitution in tough times because we really don’t believe in it. We can trample the Bible as Christians because we simply don’t believe in it anymore. They are merely icons, verbiage, and a trophy we pull out to prove a point or gain an edge.

 

Our desperation exposes us. We are too impatient to wait for the Republic to fix itself like it was designed to do. So now again, to the throngs of the desperate masses a persona rises once more and cries out, “King Me, O’ desperate fool!”

Dec 30 2015

Nottingham Returns

It’s perplexing, at best, to find that a villain so reviled and mocked throughout history has gained such an ardent admirer here in the State of Maine. The sheriff of Nottingham, fact or fiction, remains a source of some debate for those who wish to bother. Still the fact remains that the sheriff of Nottingham, fable or no, has long invoked metaphorical images of the pompous, indifferent politician who’s every detached existence is made possible through taxes culled from the hard labors and bent backs of a people long siphoned and beaten beyond any hope of returned independence or prosperity. Yes, that is all one sentence and I’m sure I offended the syntax gods somewhere in there, but let’s move on.

Last election cycle, Emily Cain and her running mate Blaine Richardson, were defeated by Bruce Poliquin. Poliquin had just barely finished arranging the furniture in his office in Washington D.C. when he was informed that Emily Cain had announced her candidacy for the office he had just finished dusting. (You do realize the office needed a lot of dusting, as Mike Michaud preferred to stay hidden in the closet and rarely used the desk for anything. Incidentally, Emily Cain has not announced whether she will allow Blaine Richardson to tag along as her running mate this time around…we all wait with bated breath, but I digress…) There was much consternation and head scratching as to why Ms. Cain needed to announce immediately if not sooner her intention to run for office. It’s really not that confusing.

Emily Cain was afforded a great opportunity after her defeat. She could have entered the private sector and got a job, establish some “street cred” if you will. She must have quickly realized that she was in the party of fat cats, trust fund brats, and all around tax sponges. The Democrat Party greatly discourages their politicians against entering the private workforce and risking having candidates with dangerous amounts of commonsense accrued. So she’s followed a time honored Democrat tradition, suckle up to the teat of public tax funds.

Yes, the Sheriff of Nottingham has been reincarnated in a much more likable, effusive, and feminine persona, but still demands your taxes to fund her very existence. Since graduating college, Emily Cain has not held one private sector job. Everything she has done, everything she has accomplished has been funded by tax dollars. When provided an opportunity to move into the world of the self-made, entrepreneurs, businesses, and the workforce, she chose to stay in her sheltered gilded world wrapped in walls built up to shield her from the very people whose hard earned dollars were taxed away to build them.

While it’s more than ironic that she wishes to represent a people whose lives she cannot comprehend or identify with, it’s the hypocritical attacks on Representative Poliquin that reek with the cloud of stupefaction that blankets the Democrat Party. Her claims that the self-made millionaire has somehow cheated the public would be laughable if they were bits in a cheap sitcom, but instead are a sad commentary on how completely detached from reality she is. Perhaps it is the term “self-made” that she cannot grasp.

Along with her Party, Emily Cain has spent so much time living off the accomplishments of others that she cannot comprehend that anyone can create their own wealth by using their own talents, own initiative, and own hard-work to carve their own slice of the American dream. Remember this is the Party that has told American innovators and business owners “they didn’t build that.” It’s the stuff of socialism that says everything belongs to the collective and only the elite can live off it.

Everything Emily Cain has is funded by taxes. All her salaries have come from the wallets of taxpayers. Her clothes, her food, her fancies, her empire, her very existence are all a product of tax dollars. It can’t help but invoke images of the fabled Sheriff dining in opulence by the fire while his minions scour the shire of Nottingham pounding on battered hovel doors demanding new taxes to fund the sheriff’s lifestyle whims. Perhaps Emily Cain should take an honest look at who she is instead of trying to smear her opponents with the very lifestyle she has embraced.