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Showing posts with the label sales tax

We Can Spend Your Money Because We Know What's Good For You

Tweet This !  http://goo.gl/yAnl4c Maine House speaker pushes job training legislation The 'Put ME to Work' bill would create new funding to help connect students with jobs in high-demand industries. article in Portland Press Herald by Steve Mistler AUGUSTA — House Speaker Mark Eves is backing a bill designed to invest $5 million over the next five years in job training programs that create public-private partnerships to develop a trained workforce in high-demand fields such as logging, health care and machining. In the latest plan being put forth by the board of the Maine Development Corporation, (The Maine legislature) there is a significant change in language. The qualifier for the sector of the economy targeted for subsidization has changed from the sector of the economy providing " above average income" to the sector of the economy which is "highly compensated" In a  2007  tax policy publication put out by the Maine Development Foundation (C...

The Lepage Plan- Filled with Inconsistencies

Tweet This http://goo.gl/dp9zpP In recent weeks we have been hearing that LePage wants to eliminate the income tax. My initial response was I'll believe it when I see it . During his tenure, LePage has agressively advanced corporate welfare, which our legislature and administration justify via the means of an income tax on labor. The state of Maine, being in fact today the corporation of Maine, and run in the interests of profit would not be able to justify the massive tax payer give-a-ways to capitalists without claimimg such a policy is profitable because it produces a high end labor tax base which brings in the revenue. So when LePage floats the concept that he wants to eliminate the income tax, I say that even if that were actually Lepage's intent it is highly improbable that it can ever happen without first deconstructing the corporate state and its ever expanding corporate welfare system. To start with expanding the instances in which sales tax will be collected is e...

"Improved" Seed Capital Tax Credit Ramps Up Benefits For Maine's "Targeted Sector"

Tweet This !! http://goo.gl/BLmk7E Sales Tax Increase for Main Street but An Exemption for The Targeted Sector As Previously reported , the entire retail sector is excluded from the services and redistributive benefits of The Maine Department of Economic and Community Development so why is Mr Douglas Ray, the legislative liaison for the DECD issuing a press release about a sales tax exemption for one of Maine's special interest industries- the aviation industry ? Looks like it isn't the entire retail industry after all- merely Main Street that is excluded. The extension of a sales-tax-free-ride for a favored special interest in the legislature's "targeted sector", comes after recently announcing a new tax hike on the general Maine economy. Championing the sales tax relief for the Aviation Industry is Governor Paul LePage who says "This exemption is absolutely critical to sustaining and building upon the success the industry has already exper...