Circuit-breaker

Almost everyone in Maine agrees — or at least pays lip service to the idea — that our most burdensome tax is the local property tax, which goes to pay for city and town expenses, county services like the sheriff’s department and the jail, and our local schools.

If our legislators are serious about reducing property taxes, there are several things they can do. One of the most obvious is to increase funding of the “circuit-breaker” program, which refunds a portion of the property tax to persons who have low incomes but high property taxes. If the drastic cuts made in this program two years ago can be restored, it will help many of the homeowners who need help the most.

A less direct but equally effictive action, and one that will help all property owners, is to increase state funding of education, thus reducing the amount of education funding that has to be raised locally. Similarly, the state must fully fund its share of county expenses.

Finally, legislators must remember that if they reduce any state-level tax — be it income tax, sales tax, snack tax, or whatever — this loss of revenue will mean less opportunity to fund education, county costs, and the circuit-breaker program and will tend to raise local property taxes. If it’s really property taxes that need reducing, then let’s resist the temptation to reduce state taxes arbitrarily.

I understand that the Democratic leadership in Augusta is thinking along these lines. I hope rank-and-file legislators of both parties will agree. Percy O. Daley Jr. Belfast