Maine Governor Talks Sales Tax Increase
- Feb 18, 2016 | Gail Cole
We expect the unexpected from Governor Paul LePage of Maine. He has a temper. He makes vulgar and offensive statements. He’s a bully. Nonetheless, a recent effort to impeach him failed.
But all that talk of impeachment can rattle a fellow, even an abrasive one. And so instead presenting his 2016 State of the State speech in person, as is customary, Gov. LePage decided to deliver his via letter. As he told George Hale, co-host of WVOM:
“Why am I going to go up and face people and talk to them in an audience that just a week or two before, they’re trying to impeach me? That’s just silliness. So why don’t we just, I’ll just go to work, keep working, I’ll send them a letter and call it a day.”
The letter, dated February 8, 2016, begins, “As you know, I have chosen to forego the pomp and circumstance of a live speech so we can spend our time and energy on what truly matters: getting work done for the Maine people.” He then went on to address key issues for the coming year, which include combatting the drug crisis, welfare reform, and revamping the tax structure.
The governor would like to lower income tax, eliminate the death tax, and make a “moderate adjustment to the sales tax.” By adjustment, he means increase. The benefit of raising sales tax? “We can export this moderate sales tax increase to the tens of millions of visitors who come to Maine every year.”
This isn’t the first time a change to sales tax has been proposed. In 2015, the governor worked to drop the rate and expand the sales tax to numerous services, including admissions to events, music and martial arts lessons, and comedy acts. That didn’t happen.
Read the 2016 State of the State.
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