Attempt to tax Social Security

I must congratulate Rep. Mike Saxl on his artful attempt to spin the Democrats position on the new tax on Social Security benefits recently passed by the Legislature and then vetoed by the governor. Unfortunately, the spinning does little more than leave the reader dizzy trying to follow the logic.

In an opinion column last month, Rep. Dick Campbell (BDN, June 25) made several points about the governing philosophy of modern Democrats (“Limiting taxes is bad. Promoting taxes is good.”) and used the strong Democrat support for the recently proposed Social Security tax as a foundation on which to build his case. Rep. Mike Saxl, in his rebuttal (BDN, July 4), charged Campbell with being inappropriately “partisan.”

The public record shows Rep. Campbell right and Rep. Saxl wrong.

There were four House and three Senate roll call votes on passage of the Social Security tax bill. Considering legislators present and voting, here are the roll call vote percentages in favor of the social security tax:

House Republicans: 27 percent, 25 percent, 25 percent, 23 percent

House Democrats: 96 percent, 90 percent 93 percent, 92 percent

Senate Republicans: 21 percent, 14 percent

Senate Democrats: 100 percent, 100 percent

Republican leaders in both the House and the Senate consistently voted against the Social Security tax. House and Senate Democrats Leaders — including Saxl — voted solidly in favor of the new tax. Democrat House Speaker Steve Rowe always voted yes on the tax. Democrat Senate President Mark Lawrence supported the tax on one roll call and missed the second Senate roll call.

A few other important facts emerge from the public record. There were three amendments — all offered by Republicans — which would have given public pensioners a tax break without taxing Social Security checks to pay for it. Two of the amendments were voted down overwhelmingly by Democrats. The third was never voted on by the full Legislature.

So, Democrats have a batting average of 95 percent (House), 100 percent (Senate), and 100 percent leaders in voting yes on the Social Security tax. If that doesn’t qualify as strong Democratic support, I would like Rep. Saxl to explain why not.

Rep. Saxl claimed, “Democrats and Republicans together joined to sustain the governor’s veto” of this tax bill. In truth, only the Senate voted to sustain the governor’s veto. The veto was not voted on in the House. What really defeated this tax, as Rep. Campbell pointed out, were the combined efforts of GOP Reps. Peter Cianchette, R-South Portland, John Buck, R-Yarmouth, Harold Clough, R-Scarborough, and the countless numbers of e-mails, phone calls and letters from concerned Maine citizens. This groundswell generated one call per minute to the governor’s office over a four-day period. Is Rep. Saxl suggesting the 95 to 100 percent Democratic bloc would have reversed its vote if the public outcry against the tax were not so strong?

Rep. Campbell also mentioned how Democrats willfully kept Maine out of conformity with federal tax laws allowing the self-employed to deduct 60 percent of the amount spent on certain health insurance policies. Rep. Saxl chided Rep. Campbell for wanting it “both ways.” He wrote, “[Campbell] wants Social Security to remain out of conformity … but he wants the self-employed to be in conformity.” That’s right, Mike. Republicans want retirees to keep their money, and we want farmers, electricians, hair dressers and all of the other small business men and women in our state to be given every opportunity to buy health insurance for themselves and their families.

The public record again shows that the governor submitted a bill for Veto Day (June 18) to give the self-employed the health insurance deduction. The Legislature could have passed it. Instead, Democratic leaders along with the Democrat Taxation Committee co-chairmen prevented that from happening. “Hopefully, we can pass it [next year],” Saxl wrote. If he and the Democrats were serious about supporting this measure, they would have passed it this year.

Interestingly, Rep. Saxl used a whole newspaper column attacking Rep. Campbell without addressing his central point: The Social Security tax is emblematic of today’s legislative Democrats’ proclivity to redistribute taxes rather than reduce them. If we cannot reduce Maine’s excessive tax burden in times when the state treasury is overflowing with surplus revenues, when will we?

Richard A. Bennett of Norway is the assistant Republican leader in the Maine Senate.