Balk at bailout

The BDN featured a front page story on May 7 about the $361 million subsidy which Maine taxpayers provided to savings and loan banks under the federal bailout of those institutions which were located almost entirely outside of Maine. In your report, Rep. Visclosky of Indiana concludes, “The tragic irony of the resulting redistribution of wealth is that crime pays.”

I thought it ironic that a comparative proposal had surfaced … in Augusta asking our legislators to transfer more than $500 million from Maine consumers of auto and homeowners’ insurance to Workers’ Compensation companies in Massachusetts and Connecticut. This $500 million bailout would protect these companies from their own failures.

They aren’t even required to write insurance in Maine, anymore. These companies failed our Maine business and our workers. Although they have largely departed Maine, they have the nerve to ask to attach a $500 million surcharge to our alrady high rates which we pay for auto and homeowners’ insurance. The idea of the Maine Legislature transferring this money to bail out these insurance companies is horrible and would be a disastrous move in these extremely tough times. … Bruce King Brewer