Recently in Taxes Category

The 2009 Maine Piglet Book hit with a bang last Thursday. The Bangor Daily News story ran above the fold and the KJ and Portland Press Herald stories were featured along with the Morning Sentinal piece, while the books release was also featured on several local TV news broadcasts, including My Fox Maine and WGME-Portland (below) and WABI-Bangor (CBS).





Opponents of the Yes on 4 (TABOR) campaign have tried to discredit the book, and defend government spending. They say the $102,000 for 3 dog paintings in a Kennebunk rest stop are "privately funded" - but what they are not saying is that "privately funded" to them means toll money gathered from commuters.

The spokesperson for the opponents of the piglet book is Crystal Canney, who is also the communications director for the anti-TABOR group "Citizens for Maine's Future", who do not want government spending limited. Interestingly enough, it's easy to see why Canney is so opposed to controlling government spending. Canney has been paid, and paid well, by tax dollars in the past few years while working for the Baldacci administration, as you can see from this data found on MaineOpenGov.org:


Yes on 4 (TABOR) supporters point to the Piglet Book as a great example of why TABOR is needed in Maine more than ever - to reign in wasteful government spending. 

With new news that the State is facing an additional $50 million in revenue shortfall, there is a story today in the Portland Press Herald that details the opening of a new turnpike "administrative building" with a price tag of $11.9 million dollars.

Somewhat ironically, these stories are listed back to back in the online portland press herald.

The executive director of the Maine Turnpike Authority - Paul Violette "said he is also aware that many Mainers are probably questioning the need for a new multimillion-dollar administration building. 'I can understand why some folks would say, 'Geez,' but when you run the numbers, it made better sense not to lease.'"

For further insight into how the Maine Turnpike spends its money - look for all their employees salaries, and all the MTA vendor payments, to be posted soon on MaineOpenGov.org.

In the meantime - here is a preview:

Paul Violette - The Executive Director of MTA earned $129,674 in 2008. This is excluding overtime and benefits.

This is not the first time the company has employed Wright Ryan Construction of Portland to do major projects - they spent $6,820,081 with them in 2008.

Look for more MTA data coming soon to MaineOpenGov.org
 

The recent "tax reform" passed by the Maine state legislature, and signed by the governor made quite a splash. Even the Wall Street journal weighed in.

But there are those who disagree that this tax reform is a useful solution to Maine's oppressive tax burden. The Republican Party in Maine is running a people's veto against the reform (wonder where they got that idea).

And yesterday, Scott Moody, chief economist at The Maine Heritage Policy Center, released a research paper stating that the tax reform "It is a patchwork of increases, decreases, add-ins, and phase-outs that resembles a 'Frankenstein Monster".

More news today surrounding the LD 1353 bill that would hide public employees salary information.

This mornings editorial in the Kennebec Journal on LD 1353 points out that this bill to censor government employees salary information might be the result of a "you scratch our back we'll scratch yours" relationship between the Democrats in the Maine State Legislature and the public employees unions.

For an additional audio report on this story, listen to MPBN's report.

The Maine Heritage Policy Center has won the 2009 Sunshine Award, given by the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition, for it's creation of the MaineOpenGov.org website.

The Maine Open Government Blog was highlighted in the article by Tarren Bragdon, CEO of the Maine Heritage Policy Center: "the site will soon feature blogs -- both anonymous and bylined, said Bragdon."

An article about this award was also published in the Ellsworth American.