Mainers work 122 days to pay taxes

WASHINGTON — All the money earned by the average Maine taxpayer during the first 122 days of 1992 will be consumed by the $8 billion in federal, state and local taxes imposed on state residents, according to a study released Wednesday by the Tax Foundation, a Washington-based public interest group.

This year, the tax man will take an additional four days of earnings from the average Maine taxpayer because of higher state and property taxes.

According to the Tax Foundation, Mainers must work 73 days to pay the $4.8 billion in federal taxes assessed against them. Maine ranks near the bottom, or 46th among the 50 states and District of Columbia, in the number of work days needed to pay federal taxes.

State and property taxes are another matter. The Tax Foundation estimated that Mainers must work 49 days, or from Jan. 1 to Feb. 18, to pay the $3.2 billion in state and local taxes assessed against them this year. Residents of only seven other states, led by New York, will have to work longer to pay their 1992 state and municipal taxes.

Even Massachusetts, derided as “Taxachusetts” during the 1980s, ranked lower than Maine in the Tax Foundation survey, finishing 26th in the national ranking for state and local taxes.

The average Massachusetts resident worked 43 days, six less than taxpayers in Maine, to pay state and local taxes, according to the Tax Foundation.

That gap widened when Maine was compared to New Hampshire. The average New Hampshire taxpayer must work 36 days, 13 less than Mainers, to pay 1992 state and municipal taxes. New Hampshire ranked 48th in the national comparison for state and local taxes.

Nationwide, the average taxpayer will have to work until May 5 this year to earn enough money to pay all federal, state and local taxes, four days longer than last year, according to the Tax Foundation study.

“Compared with 1991, slower income growth, higher federal taxes and higher state taxes are largely responsible for the four extra workdays needed to reach this year’s Tax Freedom Day,” Tax Foundation Executive Director Dan Witt said. “This is disturbing news and part of a disturbing trend.”

The Tax Foundation disclosure came as another group, Citizen Action, chided President George Bush for avoiding the payment of $25,000 in Maine taxes by claiming Texas, which has no state income tax, rather than Maine as his non-Washington residence.

A spokesman for Citizen Action said the group would launch an advertising campaign in 15 cities charging that President Bush has avoided paying state taxes in Maine by claiming a Houston hotel room as his official residence.

“This is an example of the kind of wealthy tax avoidance that the American people are fed up with,” Robert Brandon, the group’s vice president, said at a news conference.

Brandon said the group tried to run the ad earlier this year in Houston but was turned down by all three network affiliates there. The corporation that owns Bush’s hotel home, the Houstonian, filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors earlier this year. The group said it was hanging a 35-foot banner in front of the main Washington Post Office reading, “President Bush, read our lips: Pay your taxes.”

The White House, meanwhile, released President Bush’s 1991 tax return which showed that the income of the first family soared to $1.3 million last year, largely propelled by profits from Barbara Bush’s best-selling book, “Millie’s Book,” about the White House dog. The $789,176 income from book royalties were donated to a literacy foundation.

According to the White House, the president chose to claim no deductions for an estimated $300,000 to $400,000 storm damage to his vacation home in Kennebunkport.