There are many reasons why many people will face another increase in property taxes this year.
Gov. Paul LePage’s budget is $50 million higher this year than last year. Someone is going to be paying higher taxes.
Enacted in 1972, Municipal Revenue Sharing was designed to return 5 percent of sales and income tax revenues back to municipalities where the revenues are generated, and to reimburse towns for providing services mandated by the state. The state currently honors only 40 percent of its $158 million commitment. LePage would make that zero.
LePage proposes to mitigate municipal losses by allowing taxation of non-profits that have more than a half-million dollars in assets. Many rural communities do not have any non-profits in that category. The only choice is to raise property taxes.
Under the LePage administration, the state’s mandated 55 percent share of education costs has dropped to 43 percent. In addition, rural communities are reimbursed at a lower rate than urban communities.
Recent income tax cuts by the LePage administration have benefited the rich. Rural counties have lower average incomes.
LePage will increase sales taxes (again) to 6.5 percent. Without revenue sharing, all of that money will be leaving rural economies.
LePage’s proposed budget will hurt rural communities’ struggling economies. Towns cannot meet their budgets without increasing taxes.
LePage’s budget decreases taxes for the wealthy and increases taxes on the middle class.
People should not be fooled. It is not a tax cut; it is a tax shift.
Somebody has to pay.
Jan Collins, Wilton
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