Bangor Daily News, Sept. 27
The first referendum question voters will see on their ballots in November will also be the most attractive. Question 1A asks whether voters want “the state to pay 55 percent of the cost of public education, which includes all special education costs, for the purpose of shifting costs from the property tax to state resources?” Music to the ears of over-burdened property taxpayers – who should be careful they aren’t hearing a Siren’s song.
The question is especially attractive because it is incomplete. Since the time versions of this question were introduced in the Legislature a couple of years ago, the understanding has been that lowered property taxes would be met with raised state sales taxes. Under certain circumstances, that could be a fair trade and a desirable way to pay for schools. But the question doesn’t say how, specifically, the shift in taxes – $245 million in the first year – would be made. This is not surprising, given the uncomfortable choices that quickly become apparent when the range of sales-tax options are examined.
Well before the November vote, supporters of 1A should describe how they would have the state fund their plan – and just saying the state should just cut fraud, waste and abuse won’t make it.
Should all food be taxed? That would bring in $112 million at 5 percent but would also be among the most regressive taxes around.
How about a tax on labor service fees? That would bring in $23 million.
Or funeral services, at $3.1 million? Amusements and recreation services could generate about $28 million in taxes but are among the most unstable around – do Maine schools really want to depend on the number of ski-lift tickets sold each winter?
These are the choices that lawmakers faced when first considering this funding shift and, not surprisingly, they could come to no agreement on which tax to impose. Choosing isn’t easy. …
The increase to 55 percent for schools cannot be paid for by cutting waste, and revenue growth won’t come close to covering the cost when other increasing state costs, such as health care, are taken into account.
Supporters of 1A should spell out for voters which new taxes they would choose to see imposed.
Poverty didn’t win
Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Sept. 29
The sharp jump in poverty announced by the government … should come as no surprise to anyone who has tracked the ailing economy …
What should be surprising, even alarming, is the reaction of the Bush administration, which seems to range from indifference to petulance. Just three weeks ago, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced proudly that the number of people receiving welfare benefits continued to fall last year. Does the administration really believe that when the number of people who need public assistance goes up, the number who actually receive it should go down? …
Cash welfare is only one example of this administration’s tin ear with respect to economic hardship. …
Americans have turned a skeptical eye on anti-poverty policy ever since President Ronald Reagan famously announced, “We declared a war on poverty, and poverty won.” Well, poverty did not win. The number of poor Americans, especially the elderly and the young, plummeted between 1960 and 1970, the years when Congress created food stamps, Medicaid and other food and housing programs. When the U.S. economy is strong, as it was during the 1990s, it reinforces a fine set of American virtues, including hard work and self-reliance. When the economy is weak, as it is today, it should remind us why Americans created programs to assist each other in the first place.
Executive excesses
The Santa Fe New Mexican, Sept. 29
Like a dissolute boxer past his prime, Ted Kennedy was swinging wild, but scoring none the less: During the last couple of weeks the Massachusetts senator has denounced President Bush’s Iraq-invasion campaign as a “fraud” and accused the administration of shuffling money to political leaders around the world, “bribing them to send in troops.” …
Kennedy’s manner was described as rare for the Senate, uncharacteristic for a senator who has built a career as the go-along-to-get-along member of his clan. …
Kennedy and another old lion, Bob Byrd of West Virginia, continued making eloquent pleas for calm amid America’s ongoing hysteria over the terrorist attacks on our territory. They went ignored as the finest fighting force in the world swept across the sand into Baghdad where it’s been mired for half a year. …
Thus the consternation in the Capitol, compounded by criticism from the high-profile Kennedy. …
Now that questions are being raised over the president’s conduct in foreign relations, sensible Republicans should join the growing Democratic clamor for reins on executive excesses.
No longer a superpower
Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, Sept. 26
Russia has not had superpower status for some time. But as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, it still has a heavy responsibility for world peace and stability. It is both a part of Europe and a friend of the United States. It is expected President Vladimir Putin will use that relationship to help mend a world fractured over the war in Iraq.
Much is expected of Russia, but there is still much about Russia that is ambiguous.
On one hand, Russia talks of the importance of international cooperation. But when talk turns to the situation in Chechnya, Russia considers it a purely domestic concern and rejects all offers at international mediation. …
The Soviet Union collapsed 12 years ago. Isn’t it about time Russia freed itself from superpower politics to be a normal European nation? That would make its diplomacy more persuasive.
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