A Maine tax by any other name …

You know the old saying, “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.” What this adage usually refers to is taxes. You can call a tax a tax or a fee or an assessment or a savings offset payment. But if you are paying money to the government it is still a tax.

Maine people know this well. We carry the highest tax burden in the United States. That is a fact that cannot be hidden by the political spinmeisters. Unfortunately, the money is coming out of our pockets faster than ever.

Recently, the governor and the majority party leaders, in response to the five-part “Fleecing of Maine” series (see www.mehousegop.com), have tried to explain away some of Maine’s enormous tax increases. Using a variety of ingenious methods, they have managed to hide what now appears to be a much higher number and artificially shrink the increase in Maine’s tax burden to only $239 million. Ah, if only it were true!

Finding the truth about Maine’s taxes and fees is no easy task. It took many months of analyzing spreadsheets, fiscal reports and other data provided by the state’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal and Program Review (OFPR). All of this data on Maine’s tax burden is mandated by guidelines set forth by the federal Census Bureau. These are hard numbers – there is no wiggle room.

Rep. David Trahan and I have found that the OFPR has reported more than $711 million in new or increased taxes and fees since the Baldacci administration took office. That’s a big difference from the governor’s number – in fact, it is a $472 million difference.

Let’s look at how the administration pretends to reduce the amount of tax dollars taken from Maine citizens – on paper – hoping that the people don’t catch on to their duplicity.

They haven’t included Maine’s gas tax increases. This tax is indexed to increase automatically with inflation, but only with the endorsement of the governor. He endorsed it.

They haven’t included the tax on Maine’s hospitals, often called the “tax and match” scheme or the “sick tax.” Supposedly, the money taken from the hospitals would be reimbursed to them with federal dollars. But out of 37 hospitals that were taxed, 31 have received less than was taken from them. The smallest hospitals were hurt the most by this tax on health care, which has raised suspicions about the real purpose of this tax.

The Dirigo “savings offset payment,” also known as the Dirigo tax, is not included because supposedly Dirigo has saved the health care system of Maine the equivalent of the $43 million levied on Maine’s insurance companies. Yup, it’s a tax. Obviously, the insurance companies, the Maine Chamber of Commerce and the auto dealers don’t believe any money has been saved – they’ve all filed suit to “stay” the tax.

Then there’s the nonconformance with federal tax codes – tax breaks that people in other states get but that Mainers don’t. There are the “off budget” accounting shifts of the Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement (BETR) and the “circuit breaker” program. And there is the lost revenue from the misguided liquor business sale that allows the state to raise taxes the equivalent amount of the sale – about $125 million – and look like a wash.

Changes by this administration to state statutes affecting the way this office collects and reports this data is what is really in dispute. Gimmicks instituted by this administration and the majority party to that process, and when understood, reveal tax increases that could be as high as $1.1 billion.

All of this information is available at the OFPR, located right in the State House. It is open to the public. But one must travel through an elaborate maze of complicated statute changes and accounting confusion to extract the true figures. Even then, they may be camouflaged under layers of unrelated data. It’s all rather like how Winston Churchill described the Soviet Union – “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

As we continue to fund this ever-expanding state government we have less and less money for the things that our families and businesses need. Besides daily necessities, we have less money for our children’s education, less money to pay for health insurance, less money for retirement planning and less money to expand our businesses. Indeed, Augusta’s insatiable appetite for our tax dollars drives many young families and businesses from our beautiful state – or puts them on welfare.

The truth about Maine’s “revenue increases” should not be hidden or camouflaged in any way. Maine people deserve the plain truth about taxes and fees. Instead, we get fiscal gimmickry, budgetary maneuvers and accounting double talk.

You can call a duck an eagle if you want, but it is still a duck. You won’t be fooling anyone. Maine people aren’t being fooled, either – we know when we are being overtaxed. Simply telling us it isn’t so won’t change that reality.

Rep. Jon McKane, R-Newcastle, a first-term legis-lator, is an electrical contractor.