There is no polite way to say this…Democrat income tax increases, passed last week in Maine, are madness. They are criminal.
FIVE FACTS say it all –for Maine and Blue States. Stay with me.
FACT ONE: What happened? To pay for crazy spending – what no one wants or can afford, Democrats cursed the high tax state with higher income taxes.
Their bill, LD229, did two profoundly stupid things. It raised individual income taxes on Mainers struggling to afford everything, from homes to heat, and raised corporate income taxes to ten percent.
Details matter. Despite high taxes, Democrats dub those over $61,600 “rich,” so they added two new tax brackets. Taxed at 7.15 percent, farmers, lobstermen, teachers, construction workers, and retail workers will now be taxed at 7.75 to 8.95 percent.
Making matters far worse, Democrats – who hate employers – raised corporate income taxes to 10 percent for firms over $3.5 million, the top 40 in Maine.
FACT TWO: Who will be affected? Everyone. Until Maine gets a Republican governor and legislature, we are in a tailspin. On individual income taxes, 58,000 Mainers make $60,000 to $74,999, 77,000 make $75,000 to $99,999, and 206,000 make over $100,000. That tallies to 341,000 “rich” Mainers, all due for higher taxes.
Maine’s entire labor force is just 687,000 citizens, still below pre-pandemic mandate numbers, as little incentive to start a business. So, for starters, 50 percent of the state faces higher taxes.
But how about the corporate tax increase? That hits companies over $3.5 million, r Maine’s top 40. How many are employed by those companies? Almost 100,000.
Who are the employers? In rank order, Mainehealth (employing roughly 22,500), Hannaford (9,500), Walmart (8,500), Bath Iron Works (6,500), Maine General Health (5,000), LL Bean (4,500), Eastern Maine Medical (4,000), Central Maine Health (3,000), TD Bank (2,500), Shaws (2,500), Unum (2,500), RTX (2,500), Jackson Labs (2,000), UPS Solutions (2,000), Mercy Hospital (2,000), Optum (2,000), Home Depot (1,500), Lowes (1,500), St Joseph’s Hospital (1,500), SD Warren (1,500), Target (1,500), RC Management (1,500), CMP (1,500), Attendant Services (1,500), Bangor Savings (1,500), St, Mary’s Medical (1,500).
Another 20 companies with 1000 employees round up the top 50. Together, these employers provide a third of all Maine employment. They are being slapped hard.
One more fact. While 99 percent of Maine employers are small businesses, many are “pass-throughs,” so taxes are paid as individuals. Count them “rich,” over $61,600.
Bottom line: These taxes will affect most Mainers. Those not paying directly or laid off will pay indirectly – more for everything.
FACT THREE: In a state with an acute “affordability crisis,” Democrats just made life way harder. This is a formula for hardship, forfeiture of homes, and more ahead.
There are obvious “second-order effects.” Businesses leave. Already, they are leaving Maine in record numbers, with taxpayers and kids, which adds to local misery, means fewer jobs, less income, less investment, and a downward spiral.
As a gubernatorial candidate, I talk with a dozen businesses a day. One in three says that if I do not turn this around, they are gone. One in ten answers with “Hi, thanks for calling, but I moved to Florida,” where taxes are low.
Key: As Democrats suck all the oxygen out of Maine, push the state into downward spiral, it gets harder to pull out, and predatory criminals move in, preying on youth and seniors, poor, homeless, pushing mass drug use (escapism) and capitalizing on our profoundly lost leadership.
Maine’s Democrat leaders, whatever their ideology, have created this nightmare. They are quadrupling down, uncaring, spending, and taxing wildly. Unsustainable.
FACT FOUR: Maine does not need more taxes – we need less spending. Maine has a tax crisis driven by one of the worst governments in the nation, spendthrift, ideologically obsessed “moon bats.” It would be comic – if it were not tragic.
Maine had a $6.8 billion budget seven years ago, but an anti-Trump governor submitted an $11.7 billion budget, filled with new programs for 8000 illegal aliens, subsidies for wind and solar, new taxes on pharmacies (prescription drugs), paint cans, cigarettes, hunting, and fishing – madness.
FACT FIVE: If a manual existed for how to take down a state, ruin it, drive individuals out and businesses under, destroy the education system (50 of 50), kill incentives for young people, welcome drug traffickers, illegals –Democrats are following it.
Bottom line: This double income tax hike by Democrats is anti-Maine, anti-American, and intolerable. We cannot stay on this path; it is a nightmare. I am running for Governor because I am done with madness. We will eliminate the income tax, cut property taxes, throw out drug traffickers, and rebuild the schools. If you are done with madness, join me – on the way back to sanity.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).
Read full article here