… AND A GROUP TO PAINT IT

If a single leader cannot devise a bold answer to Maine’s tax problems, perhaps an answer can be found in the courage of a group. House Speaker Michael Saxl has such a group that will begin meeting Monday, but like the many earlier attempts, its value will be found not in what it suggests but it what it shepherds into law.

The advisory group will step back from the many reports about Maine’s antiquated tax system – heavy on property, narrow on sales taxes – and examine such issues as revenue stability (of particular interest considering the boom-and-bust cycle Maine is experiencing), equity and progressivity, strategies for lowering taxes and efficiency in collecting and distributing taxes. These are all areas that have been looked at before; lawmakers who studied the Mills-McGowan tax reform, killed in the state Senate this spring, spent time on all of these topics. But the hope for the new group is that the rising nature of Maine’s tax crisis will encourage greater legislative support next session.

The group includes the usual distinguished list of academic and government officials, including Gov. Ken Curtis, and the usual range of political interests. By late fall, it is expected to issue a report that makes recommendations for changing the tax system to reflect a fairer, more bearable and more even collection of state revenue. What happens after that is up to the state’s political leaders.

Term limits will end Speaker Saxl’s tenure at the end of this year. He will have to rely on legislative colleagues to see any recommendations into law, a difficult proposition because reforms invariably mean shifting tax burdens – those losing the burden don’t mind; those gaining mind terribly. To stand any chance of getting out of committee with a favorable report, the speaker’s group must do what Gov. Curtis did in ’69 and present a broad picture of what the state tax system’s real needs are. State economist Lachance said something similar this spring, saying that advocates of tax change needed to identify what they want taxes to do. “What vision does the public have for Maine?” and “How can tax reform move Maine toward that vision?”

Most important, group members must make a case for what will happen if the reforms they decide on fail to become enacted. What would it look like a decade from now if the status quo, once again, prevails?