Republicans should try leading once again

Rep. Stephen Bowen in his commentary in the Bangor Daily News of March 13 starts by mentioning “the constant ranting by Maine Democrats” then proceeds to rant about Democrats for his entire op-ed.

He and other Republican legislators may find it easy and apparently enjoyable to bandy with their Democratic colleagues, but why don’t the Republicans change the subject and try to present creditable solutions to our present financial problems?

Perhaps they don’t understand the problem. Rep. Bowen states that “had it not been reversed by the Republican-led veto effort, Maine would have borrowed money to cover a budget deficit without voter approval for the first time ever.” First time! I believe everyone is aware that the Maine Constitution requires the Legislature to submit a balanced budget.

Obvious corollaries are that:

1. Under a balanced budget no

debt will be created.

2. The Legislature has no authority to create debt.

3. If a debt is created, the budget is not balanced.

The state of Maine now has approximately $5 billion of unbonded debt, unconstitutional debt, unlawful debt, dishonorable debt. When the Legislature appropriated money from the retirement fund, they created a debt which must be repaid to the fund.

Who will provide the money to repay the debt? The people of the state will be taxed to pay this unlawful debt. The Legislature didn’t steal from the employees; they stole it from you and me.

The past Legislature “balanced” the budget by refusing to pay money obligated to hospitals. They created a debt; the budget was not balanced.

Determined efforts by Republican legislators or by the attorney general, or the state treasurer or by the state auditor, or by the governor might have prevented this unconstitutional $5 billion unbonded debt. All of the above have sworn to support the Constitution of Maine. All of these have officials who have failed this duty.

More important, how many billions of dollars of unbonded (unconstitutional) debt will the citizens of Maine allow before they act responsibly and make a change in administration?

For nearly 20 years the No. 1 concern of Maine citizens has been an excessive property tax. For that entire time, the Legislature has made no progress in resolving the problem; or even in defining the problem.

If one was to give a few minutes’ thought to the problem, you might arrive at the conclusion that municipalities need a new source of revenue. This source should be identifiable as coming from the citizens of the town. The source should provide substantial revenue and therefore should be a broad-based source.

As we are already taxed to the max, it should be a present tax, not a new one. I know of only one tax that meets the above criteria: the personal property tax.

As “Augusta” has no thoughts on this matter, allow me to suggest that:

First: One hundred percent of the personal property tax be duplicated and disbursed to the town, plantation or township of residence of the taxpayer. The state would retain all corporate income tax and income tax from nonresidents.

Secondly, that 100 percent of all state reimbursements to towns be eliminated as they are unconstitutional interference in the reserved powers of local government as defined by

the 10th Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Personal income tax is roughly equivalent to state reimbursements to towns and adjustments could be made to personal taxes and excise taxes to bridge any gap. The level of the personal income tax might be set at the level of education expenditures or equal to the property tax levels.

A major benefit would be to get the Legislature and money-changers our of the impossible burden of distributing state money; and interfering in municipal affairs.

Millions of dollars could be saved by eliminating state staff who unconstitutionally control local administration.

As an enrolled Republican, I don’t expect much from the Democrats, but I am disappointed at the lack of leadership by the Republican Party. Don’t stay lost in the demands of special interests but present something creditable in the way of a balanced budget and property tax relief and you might lose the reputation of being Democrats under a different banner.

Paul Bridge is a former selectman

who lives in Parkman.