Senate Democratic leader Libby Mitchell’s June 27 column, “Benefit of beverage tax? Health coverage,” defending a $70 million tax increase to fund Dirigo Health demonstrates how out-of-touch career politicians truly are.

It appears that Sen. Mitchell hoped to accomplish two goals. First, she wanted to avoid the issue of increasing Mainers’ already oppressive tax burden to fund a failed government program. Second, she hoped to use her position as a legislative leader to attack Newell Augur for leading the effort to repeal the $70 million tax increase on beer, wine, soda and health insurance claims.

The tax increase on health insurance claims and beverages is meant to continue subsidizing Dirigo Health. To truly understand how irresponsible this is we need to revisit the promises made when Dirigo Health was proposed five years ago.

At the time, Maine people were promised that Dirigo Health would cover all of the 128,000 uninsured Mainers by 2009. We were also promised that Dirigo would never require a new tax or tax increase as a funding source because funding was supposed to come from federal reimbursements and the projected savings the government-run health care program was going to achieve.

Today, fewer than 13,000 Mainers are covered by Dirigo, and since Sept. 1, 2007, the program has been closed to new enrollees. Dirigo has cost Maine taxpayers more than $100 million since 2005, and on April 15, 2008 – Tax Day – the promise of no new tax or tax increase to fund Dirigo was broken with one more party-line vote in the state Senate to take another $70 million from Maine taxpayers.

I voted for Dirigo Health when I was in the Legislature based on the promises of our governor and the insights of trusted health care experts. However, those promises were not kept. Now it’s time to work together to improve health care for all Mainers, not continue taxing them to fund a failed program.

Dirigo Health has proven to be a failed money-pit that must be dismantled and replaced.

Mainers are some of the highest taxed people in the nation. The latest census shows that Maine’s overall tax burden has never been higher, with $1 out of every $7 of Maine workers’ wages directly funding government. This latest $70 million tax increase on health insurance claims and beverages just adds to that burden.

Sen. Mitchell and her Senate colleagues’ party-line vote to raise taxes by $70 million is not about health care; it’s about taking more money from Maine taxpayers to pump millions of dollars into a failed government program. The 1.8 percent tax increase on health insurance claims alone – essentially a health care sales tax – will cost the average Maine family an additional $210 each year.

Sen. Mitchell said the party-line vote to increase taxes to fund the failed Dirigo Health program is because she and her colleagues care about the people of Maine. I don’t think Mainers can afford a $70 million price tag for the “caring” of out-of-touch Augusta politicians.

With such a significant impact on the people of Maine, can we blame Augur and others for organizing a repeal of the $70 million tax increase on health insurance claims and beverages? Sen. Mitchell thinks we should.

The second goal of Sen. Mitchell’s column, to blast Augur for opposing the party-line vote to increase taxes by $70 million, is quite clear. She goes to great lengths to paint Augur as a puppet lobbyist accountable only to bloodsucking corporations.

Sen. Mitchell’s Augur-induced anger is a bit confusing, however, when you look closely at the facts. According to a Jan. 8 report filed with the Maine Ethics Commission, Sen. Mitchell’s personal political action committee, Mitchell Leadership Fund, received more than $20,000 in contributions from lobbyists and large national corporations – over two-thirds of the total contributions received during the entire reporting period. If we were to hold Sen. Mitchell to the same standards she holds Augur, then perhaps Sen. Mitchell should be held accountable for being a tool of corporate America as well.

Despite her best efforts, Sen. Mitchell’s explanation of the party-line vote to raise $70 million in taxes to fund the Dirigo Health program is indefensible. The people of Maine are already overtaxed. These new excessive taxes are forcing Maine’s weak economy deeper into poverty. For over-reaching politicians to take even more of your hard-earned wages throw it away on a failed program is wrong, and Augur should be commended for his efforts to right this injustice.

W. Tom Sawyer, Jr., a former state senator from Bangor, lives in Hulls Cove [residence corrected to Bangor on 7/11/2008].