Candidate appointed to tax reform task force

Maine House candidate Gerald Robertson has been named to a special GOP task force to explore tax reform. The group will seek to change Maine’s tax system and will present recommendations to the next session of the Legislature, Robertson said.

Robertson, a member of the Brewer City Council, was named to the panel by House Republican Leader Mary Clark Webster, who said she needed someone of Robertson’s skills and experience.

“Mainers bear a heavy tax burden. In New England, they pay the second-highest percentage of their income to income tax and they pay the highest percentage of their income to sales and use taxes,” Webster said. “We need to find ways of modifying our tax system to keep Maine people from being the victims of tax inequity.”

Robertson said his 43 years of experience on the Brewer council would help him understand issues involved in tax reform. “I have seen the impact of taxation on local governments and on people and I am concerned that Maine’s tax system be as fair as it possibly can,” he said. “I plan to make my views known in the formation of new tax policy.”

The task force will complete its study during the next eight weeks and the result will become Republican initiatives brought to the next session of the Legislature.