I recently finished reading another report on the state of Maine’s economy. This was one of many that I have received, and I was not surprised that it said pretty much the same thing as the others. Maine is in trouble. It seems that all surveys and reports conclude that Maine’s tax burden is crashing. They all say that our tax burden is going to have to be reduced if Maine is to start getting the private investment it needs to have a healthy economy.

Any tax reform that Maine undertakes must reduce the tax burden. This does not mean reducing one tax and raising others to make it possible to spend more money. It will not work to simply move taxes around so there is less money coming from one tax and more from another.

An often-mentioned reform is to cap the amount of education spending that can come from the property tax, and broaden the sales tax and have the state take over more of the spending on education. This idea has many flaws. The result of this idea in other states has been state government taking over more control of schools (including school spending), accomplished by raising the sales tax and reducing the property tax. When this has been done local officials have felt free to spend more on local projects, resulting in higher state taxes, higher property taxes – and when an economic slowdown occurs, a much worse problem. Tax reform that makes it easier for increased spending will only make things worse.

However, I do feel that true property tax relief can be gained if done carefully. One way this could be done is through an income tax credit. A person would get a refund from the state for the amount of property taxes paid. This would work much the same way the current earned income tax credit works. If a person did not pay an income tax than they would get a refund directly from the state for their property tax. Local spending would still receive the attention it needs and local officials would still have their proposals scrutinized. Although this is just an idea and needs more thought, I think it has some merit and deserves consideration.

State government should look at what a small school district in central Maine did the last time we were facing similar problems of budget shortfalls and escalating property taxes. SAD 4 in Guilford faced the same problem that all of Maine faced in the early 1990s. Overspending in the 1980s resulted in new programs and increased budgets. State aid was increased greatly. Then came a downturn and the state aid dried up.

Most school districts met the problem by increasing property taxes. SAD 4, however, took a different approach. It identified programs that had outlived their usefulness and cut them. Spending was kept under control and property taxes were increased minimally or not at all in some cases. As a result, property taxes have remained manageable, in the 14 to 18-mil range. This is much lower than what other towns in the area are experiencing. And this has not been done at the expense of the students in that district. They are doing as well as students in neighboring districts that increased taxes during the downturn.

People of all political stripes must work together to solve this problem. Non-essential programs need to be identified and done away with, similar to Gov. King’s productivity task force recommendations. This report identified tens of millions in savings that could be realized without any impact on state services. A law passed last session does exactly this. This law will create an independent board that will identify programs that have outlived their usefulness. Maine state government needs to follow SAD 4’s example, and bring spending under control. Otherwise, we will continue the downward trend.

Paul T. Davis is a Republican state senator who lives in Sangerville.