I read with particular interest Nancy Oden’s column “A few tips for hard times” (BDN, Jan. 26-27). Oden suggests solutions to many of Maine’s problems that run the gamut from very troubling to downright scary.

On taxes, Oden suggests taxing luxury items including boats and incomes over $500,000, with no suggestion on what to do with the revenue raised by these taxes. These taxes will only hurt the many luxury yacht builders based in Maine and drive away the moderately successful individuals that call Maine home.

Does Oden understand the economic benefit that successful businesses and people have on this state? What is her plan for this tax revenue once it is collected? With the state government having such an impeccable track record for fiscal responsibility, we will all be able to sleep at night knowing that this money is being spent wisely.

Oden also believes that anyone making over $102,000 a year has enough money already and won’t mind the state taking additional money out of their paychecks for a “social security” tax. Oden states that: “No one making this kind of money will even notice.” This stereotyping of certain wage earners shows Oden’s situational shortsightedness.

I’m glad we have people like her to assure me that my local doctor, lawyer and accountant will remain here in Maine to provide me with much needed services. Why should these much needed professionals go elsewhere? After all, these people have enough money already and won’t notice a difference. I bet they even whistle and smile on their commute to work knowing that under Oden’s plan they are getting taxed doubly.

On oil and wood heat, Oden suggests that the state purchase all the oil for Maine, then pass those savings on to the oil dealers, who will then pass them on to the customers. Let’s see, Maine is the wholesaler, the dealer is the retailer and the customer is the consumer. This is no different than the free enterprise system we have in place now, except for the fact that the state would now be in the wholesale oil business. The slight amount of savings that might be gained buying wholesale oil will be lost in the additional state employee wages needed to run such an undertaking, let alone the risk involved in trying to run a start-up wholesale oil business on such a level with no prior experience in the energy field.

She also suggests the state get into the wood stove business by buying wood stoves and selling them at cost to low-income people, but fails to address where the wood will come from to fuel these stoves. A lot of good these stoves will do for low-income people when they lack the necessary component to actually produce heat with them. Hey, these stoves would make a nice cast iron coffee table for the low-income family to gather around while they try to figure out where in the heck they can get some cheap wood.

On banks and interest rates, Oden suggests “leaning” on banks to provide low interest rates to lower-income people who are struggling to pay their mortgages. I haven’t heard the term “leaning” on a private business since I watched the Soprano’s last year. I think that was the term used in the Godfather also, but that was a long time ago, and my memory is bad from the constant cold as I sit around my state-issued wood stove trying to figure out where I might find a cord of wood.

Oden touts many other shortsighted solutions in her column, all of which suggest that state involvement is the answer to our “hard times.” I don’t know about you, but I would rather continue to struggle through these “hard times” knowing that certain needed professionals won’t be driven from this state by unfair taxes, and that I actually had a choice of where to buy my oil. When things get bad we learn from our mistakes, and hopefully we don’t make the same mistakes in the future based on our learned experiences. These mistakes will be made over and over again if the state is there to constantly “bail us out” with the funds raised through taxation; although a cast iron coffee table that looks like a wood stove would make a nice addition to my living room.

Patrick Downey is a professional land surveyor who lives in Ellsworth.