All in good time

Repealing Maine’s snack tax and reducing the state income and sales taxes may sound like great ideas. But timing is everything. Our District 5 senator, Jill Goldthwait, believes the time for these great ideas has not yet come. I agree.

It would be nice to improve all of our state’s financial issues “yesterday.” But the combined impact of addressing them all at the same time could well create more problems than would be solved.

Governor King and our legislators need to prioritize the problems, starting with those having the greatest effects on the largest numbers of Maine citizens. The hospital “sick tax” is a perfect example of a high-priority issue — every Maine citizen will pay more for his or her hospital care until this tax is eliminated. While there is no resolution on the sick tax as yet, the cooperation and efforts to compromise are promising.

As for the snack tax, some people’s beef is that the tax currently applies to some foods deemed to be nutritious. Some of us who advocate efforts to keep down health care costs actually favor a true snack tax. When was the last time you read the fine print on a peanut butter cup label? If the “nutrition facts” don’t give you a coronary, a steady diet of those ingredients just might. A tax that encourages us to buy fruits and vegetables instead of fats and sweets may not be altogether bad. But all in good time. Let’s encourage our Maine legislators to deal with the bigger problems first and to leave snack, sales and income tax reform for another tax. Lynda Tyson Bar Harbor