“Mainers are one step away from modestly more progressive tax relief that maintains critical public investments by shifting the tax burden to nonresidents,” Coyne writes. “With a successful ‘no’ vote this June, 87.4 percent of Mainers will receive an average net tax savings of $149.90 in 2011. This is direct help for families struggling to survive in this troubling economic climate, and it is money that will stay in the local and state economies and buoy Maine small businesses.”
In 2009, the Maine Legislature passed and Governor John Baldacci signed into law LD 1495, An Act to Implement Tax Relief and Tax Reform, originally scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2010. Opponents gathered signatures to force a vote on a “people’s veto” this June to repeal the law.
“L.D. 1495 changes Maine’s tax system primarily in three areas: the income tax, the sales tax and the Maine Residents Property Tax and Rent Refund Program,” the report notes. “In its entirety, the tax reform law is virtually revenue neutral and benefits Maine people at all income levels. If the ‘people’s veto’ succeeds, Maine’s tax code—substantially unchanged for four decades and widely criticized as outdated and unstable—will not change.”
As Maine’s leading non-profit research and policy development organization, MECEP stressed that it will continue to work for an even more progressive taxation system that reduces the burden on Maine’s working families.
“The tax reform law, while not perfect, will open the door to more far reaching reforms that will make Maine’s tax system fairer, assure greater state revenue stability and encourage greater economic growth that benefits more Maine people,” the report concludes.
“Tax Reform Delivers Benefits to Maine Households” is available online at MECEP’s website.
