The speaker of Maine’s lower house is proposing “An act to comprehensively realign the tax structure of the state” [BDN, Feb. 22-23]. Translation: An act to levy the sales tax on items previously exempt.

Madam speaker is selling this bill of goods as a dedicated revenue measure by which the new money would be refunded to our towns and cities for property tax relief. If you believe that, there’s an antique bridge here in Sullivan I’ll sell you at a deep discount. No, the proposed bill, if enacted and implemented, would give a green light to our local school bureaucracies to intensify their budgetary demands on local taxpayers.

Clearly the speaker’s bill is intended to provide back-door aid to education, not to provide local property tax relief. State representatives and senators, please take note and kill it. Carle G. Gray Sullivan