Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom Allen and Republican Sen. Susan Collins reinvigorated their fight over the middle class this week as they traded claims about recent votes in the Senate on whether to consider extending expiring federal tax provisions.

The two are vying for the U.S. Senate seat now occupied by Collins.

Allen’s campaign criticized Collins’ June 10 vote against considering the bill, saying it was anti-middle class and an example of her support for the economic policies of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, which favor the “super- wealthy” and “Big Oil and Gas” companies.

The bill, which was approved last month by the House, would have extended federal tax deductions for tuition, teacher expenses, and state and local sales taxes, according to Allen’s campaign. It also would have expanded the child tax credit and extended the research and development tax credit.

But according to Collins, it was because of other provisions in the bill that she voted against it. It also would have included a $1.6 billion tax break for trial attorneys and a $1.1 billion tax earmark for New York City.

Most important, the bill would have done nothing to provide certain taxpayers with an annual exemption for the Alternative Minimum Tax, which if unaddressed would force 85,000 Mainers to pay higher taxes, she said in a prepared statement.

Collins indicated she favors a similar bill introduced later in the week by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, that would extend expiring energy credits, create new tax credits for clean-burning wood and wood-pellet stoves, and address the AMT issue. Also, it does not include the provisions for trial attorneys and New York City, she said.

After getting assurances that Grassley’s bill would be available as an option, Collins voted Tuesday to proceed with considering the House bill, according to her campaign staff.

“Fixing the alternative minimum tax must be a priority,” Collins said in the statement. “Last week, I voted against the motion to proceed because the House bill did not include any provisions to fix the AMT.”

The senator also favors extending the research and development tax credit and the teacher’s tax deduction, “which I authored,” she said.

The Maine Democratic Party accused Collins of engaging in a “flip-flop” by voting to avoid the House bill last week and then voting to consider it this week.

“While we are happy that now she joins the rest of the Maine delegation to support this bill, she needs to tell Maine voters if she regrets all of those other votes against Maine’s middle class and small businesses,” Maine Democratic Party spokeswoman Rebecca Pollard said in a statement.

On Friday, Allen criticized Collins again about her tenure as chair of the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee from 2003 to 2006. Allen said that continuing revelations about the performance of governmental contractors in Iraq, in particular Halliburton and its subsidiary KBR, help demonstrate why Collins should have held hearings on those contractors when she chaired the committee.

Included among the more recent problems are American soldiers being supplied with discolored and bad-smelling water, contractors using shell companies in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying taxes, insufficient expense data and contractors accepting bribes, according to the Allen campaign.

Allen said Friday that the Senate committee, now chaired by independent Joe Lieberman, still isn’t doing what it should to look into waste, fraud and abuse by contractors in Iraq. Collins, who now is the ranking minority member, still could request Lieberman to hold such hearings, he said.

“It’s being addressed in the House [by U.S. Rep Henry Waxman, D-Calif.],” Allen said. “It’s not being addressed on the Senate side. Five years after the initial concerns, we’re still seeing horror stories in Iraq.”

But according to the Collins campaign, the senator has been diligent about looking into the issue of contractor performance in Iraq. The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, a position that Collins helped preserve and continues to support, has uncovered billions of dollars worth of fraud in Iraq, according to Kevin Kelley, Collins’ campaign spokesman.

Kelley said Friday that the Allen campaign’s claims about Collins’ record on contractor performance are misleading.

“Mainers know that no one has worked harder than Senator Collins to protect taxpayers from fraud, waste and abuse,” Kelley said in a statement. “In fact, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction has called Collins ‘the most consistent and effective supporter of our oversight in Iraq.'”

btrotter@bangordailynews.net

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