Lawmakers want your money, and they never stop wanting your money. At any given opportunity, they will dream up new ways of identifying it, taking it from you, and then using it. When they can’t get it, they just take it from you anyway by spending money they don’t have and covering it with debt. […]
Late last week the Maine Legislature, for a change, did something that I am very happy about. They took action to reform Maine’s broken initiative and referendum process. That process is — as I have argued for years — hopelessly broken. Even those who routinely vote yes on certain referendum questions will admit that they […]
Since the passage of Question 2 on last November’s ballot, the debate over it has centered around the question of taxes. Does Maine want to have, depending on how you count it, the highest or second highest income tax rate in the country? Is that what Maine people voted for, or were they just trying […]
Monday, I had the pleasure — and I say that with a fairly substantial amount of sarcasm — of being at the public hearing that was being held on five bills that seek, in a variety of ways, to deal with the 3 percent tax surcharge passed by referendum this fall. The Joint Committee on […]
