Legislature Passes Bill to Conform with Federal Tax Cuts

The liberal-leaning Maine Center for Economic Policy said the bill is imperfect, but the final compromise legislation got rid of some of the “worst policies” proposed in Gov. LePage’s original $124.9 million tax conformity bill, which included several more cut tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.

“In the face of tremendous pressure to simply revise the state tax code to reflect the lopsided rewrite of federal tax law, Maine’s legislators opted to chart their own course. They rejected the worst policies handed down by Congress and proposed by the governor,” wrote MECEP Executive Director Garrett Martin. “And while the bill still contains some unnecessary and ineffective tax breaks for profitable businesses, the inclusion of an expanded Property Tax Fairness Credit will make a real difference for some of the low- and moderate-income Mainers left behind by the Trump tax cut.”

According to an analysis by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, 83 percent of the benefits of the Trump tax cuts will go to the top 1 percent of taxpayers, while 53 percent of Americans will pay more in taxes once the individual tax cuts expire in 2027.

Click here to read the full story, published September 6 in The Free Press.