LePage refuses to say whether he’ll continue to fully fund public education

Property taxes are incredibly regressive, meaning they fall more heavily on the poor than on the rich. State funding, on the other hand, comes from a more progressive set of funding sources, including the income tax which can apply higher rates to the wealthy.

But during LePage’s two terms, local property taxes went up in Maine. This was in part owed to the fact that the former governor underfunded Maine’s share of the school budget by $1.3 billion over eight years, according to the Maine Center for Economic Policy.

Click here to read the full story, first published October 28, 2022 in Beacon.