The important figure

In your Oct. 5 editorial, “Home-grown carrots,” you state that, “Maine’s tax burden has been lowered $300 million in the last year.” According to the Maine Office of Fiscal and Program Review, tax collections in state government rose by $253 million from 1997 to 1998. This is the important figure, not a hypothetical reduction from a mythical budget estimate.

The important figure is that Maine people actually paid $253 million more in the last fiscal year than the previous one. Furthermore, during the King administration, 1994-1998, Maine tax collections went up 23.7 percent, while total personal income increased 20.7 percent. So much for Gov. King’s heralded tax reductions. John Chapman Hampden