It’s tempting to blame everything wrong with state government on stupidity. But according to scientists I’m probably making up, only 42.5 percent of governmental screw-ups are caused by dopiness. The rest is due to something more complex.
Namely, complexity.
It turns out that a lot of what appears to be simple about running Maine’s bureaucracy isn’t. That’s a lesson Republican Gov. Paul LePage doesn’t seem capable of learning, mostly because LePage is a major contributor to that 42.5 percent mentioned above. In spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, he continues to pursue unworkable solutions to complicated problems.
To solve the drug crisis, LePage advocates increased law enforcement, along with a healthy dose of racial profiling, even though arresting addicts doesn’t cure them, and most dope dealers are white.
To reduce energy prices, the governor wants to import Canadian hydropower, which would cost about the same as what we’re paying now – if there was any way to get it here without spending millions on new transmission lines.
To cut welfare, he favors throwing people off programs like food stamps, claiming that will force them to get jobs – even though he’s so far failed to produce any statistics indicating his approach does anything except make them hungrier.
Health care? LePage was against the Obamacare repeal. Then he was for it. Now he’s calling for a state-run insurance program, which he used to be against.
Education? If the state would just eliminate a bunch of school superintendents, students could learn a whole lot more.
Taxes? With all he won’t be spending on welfare, health care, schools and solving problems, Maine can get along fine without an income tax.
Given LePage’s impressive record of ignoring reality, it comes as no surprise that the governor recently announced his plan to deal with the state’s decaying transportation infrastructure:
Flying cars.
Also, those jet-pack thingies.
I may have made that up. Unfortunately, my fantasies make more sense than LePage’s real idea:
Get rid of the Maine Turnpike Authority and most of its tolls.
The governor wants to merge the MTA with the state Department of Transportation (motto: Unable To Get Out Of Our Own Way) and eliminate all toll plazas with the exception of the one in Kittery.
Except there isn’t one in Kittery. The pike’s southernmost tolling station is in York. But why quibble about that minor geographic disparity.
“The only toll we should have is for the visitors coming in and out of the state in the summer months,” he told a town-hall meeting in Gorham last month.
In 2016, the York tollbooth collected $57 million from those entering and leaving Maine. The rest of the pike brought in $77 million, which means that single southern barrier was responsible for 42.5 percent of all revenue.
Now where have we heard that number before?
Oh yeah, it’s the percentage of state problems caused by stupidity. What a remarkable coincidence.
Under LePage’s carefully thought-out plan, Maine’s road system would sacrifice $77 million in revenue, while assuming responsibility for $385 million in bonds the turnpike authority has issued. The DOT budget, already as much as $80 million short of what’s needed to maintain the rest of the state’s highways, would suddenly be on the hook for the $43 million a year the pike spends just keeping itself in usable shape, as well as over $18 million annually in bond payments. That means the $57 million in tolls would fall about $4 million short of covering the added cost, even before the tax credits LePage is promising for commuters who have to pay tolls to reach their jobs in New Hampshire.
The problems with this idea aren’t entirely financial. There’s also the fact that the MTA is one of Maine’s best run public agencies, because it concentrates on its core mission – operating a single highway of a little over 100 miles – and mostly steers clear of political entanglements.
On the other side of the car, DOT is a morass of conflicting agendas driven by ideology, geography and idiocy (42.5 percent). It would be hard pressed to operate a technologically complex toll highway that’s vital to the state’s economy.
LePage’s ill-considered idea should take the next exit to Stupidville.
Rate my opinion as E-ZPass or fail by emailing aldiamon@herniahill.net.
Some times I wish papers would use editorials from more centrist authors. I’m tired of getting the point of view from one side.
I’d like to know where the 42.5% came from. Where I stand the stupidity in legislature is a lot higher percentage. Laws and budgets are created purely by ideological stands by the 2 parties and not for the good of the community. Google “deadlock” and you’ll see what I mean.
Your views in this article are anti-LePage not pro-Maine.
Abolish the 2 parties!
Does he still like the idea of privitization of the toll roads? I remember there was talk of making the East West corridor a toll road to make it pay for itself.. and then it was tossed around that private companies would fund the building of it and would charge for its use. This isn’t a new idea. There are many states doing this. In fact one of the biggest companies is a foreign one whose parent company is Ferrovial, a company based in Spain. The company doing the buying here in the USA is called Cintra. They have a major deal with Texas and Indianna.. and the parent company has one w/ Virginia. Very interesting… There are many major toll highways no longer run by the states that they go through. That means that what the truckers and the commuters are charged are not controlled by the state, but by these companies. They are taxed by private industry and there is no control over what is done on the roads.. when they are repaired, how the bridges are kept up, etc. So if we eliminate the MTA, what is LePage thinking of doing to replace it. You know he has something up his sleeve. He’s never one to spout an idea w/out having a backdoor deal already to go… Think about the fast one he tried to pull on us all w/ Anthem BC/BS and the ACA.. trying to make it so they were the only ones allowed to offer insurance to us here in this state… until he was found out. He’s got something planned and a handshake deal w/ someone on the turnpike…
Give Governor Lepage credit for at least seeking a solution to our financial mess. Under the “not so smart” administrations of baldy, jock, and wind king we dug ourselves into a pit of debt because we spent money we didn’t have on things we didn’t need. Now we have windmills that are blight on our community while old wind king profits hamsomly, this while being one of the least useful pols in DC our state has ever sponsored. We have a welfare and education hog at the trough that consumes about 83 percent of every dollar we have but that’s ok because it appeases the teachers union and ensures the welfare vote from northern Mass will remain intact. Can the schools be fixed, can welfare be cut, absolutely. Remember, 83 percent of all monies spent don’t support the DOT, the prisons, infracture or business development. Don’t be surprised, these are the facts, often ignored by the circus act in Augusta. Eliminating income tax will increase business in Maine and give a break to our tapped out folks working for a living. Working is the key word there. Consolidating schools under regional administrations cuts fat not muscle. Charter schools encourage competion and they marginalize undue union influence. Taxpaying parents should be able to chose school options, and use their money to do it, it’s a sound idea. Governor Lepage isn’t the darling of southern Maine (mass north) but he does speak for many Mainers and he has been an instrument of change against a tide of opposition.
WHY does anyone believe that?! “Eliminating income tax will increase business in Maine and give a break to our tapped out folks working for a living.”
“AUGUSTA — Mainers with the highest incomes would save thousands of dollars a year under the latest income tax cut proposed by Gov. Paul LePage, while those earning a little above the state’s new minimum wage of $9 an hour would see less than $10 a year in savings.
The savings would be especially dramatic for those earning more than $200,000 a year and facing a new 3 percent surcharge approved by voters in November.” http://www.pressherald.com/2017/01/15/lepage-plan-for-a-flat-tax-packs-biggest-benefits-for-highest-earners/
Marie,
The more money you put back into the hands of workers, the more they spend. Same equation applies to businesses. Spending endless money on welfare and social support scams, only encourages more of the same. Look around our community, the businesses that used to support our neighbors are leaving us. If a manufacturers or tech firm wants to relocate, income tax makes it a nonstarter. Want to keep our kids at home, eliminate income tax and they might get a job that will pay them a decent wage. New Hampshire isn’t on another planet, its right next door. Maine has an unusually high tax rate. Excise tax, income and sales just for starters. The formula goes like this, you take care of business and investors and they hire folks in Maine. Look at BIW, they build world class warships, second to none. However they lose market share to southern contractors that don’t tax their people as much as we do. The largest employer in our area us Franklin Memoeial. They make their money off the state on welfare medical. This isn’t a value added model, they rob Peter to pay Paul. Yes Marie, eliminating income taxes is a very good idea for Maine and Mainers.
Marie… do you know anyone that spent their working/business years in Maine then ASAP claimed Florida or somewhere else to avoid the Maine income tax… I do and some of them do it as soon as possible…
“States with no income tax: Better or worse?”
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/state-with-no-income-tax-better-or-worse-1.aspx
“It’s a way to disguise taxes to people,” says Curtis Skinner, a labor economist at Columbia University. States still need to balance their budgets, and critics like Skinner say the substitute for income taxes tends to be a system that puts an unfair amount of pressure on the poor.”
The “Terrible 10” list (see this table on the link…)
The most regressive state tax systems in the US. Taxes as a percentage of income on the poorest to the wealthiest.
Rank State Poorest 20% Middle 60% Top 1%
1 Washington* 16.9 10.5 2.8
2 Florida* 13.2 8.3 2.3
3 South Dakota* 11.6 8.2 2.1
4 Illinois 13.8 11.1 4.9
5 Texas* 12.6 8.8 3.2
6 Tennessee** 11.2 8.6 2.8
7 Arizona 12.9 9.7 4.7
8 Pennsylvania 12.0 9.8 4.4
9 Indiana 12.3 10.7 5.4
10 Alabama 10.2 9.4 3.8
*Does not levy a personal income tax.
**Income tax only for interest and dividend income.
Source: Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy
Want to pay higher property taxes, higher sales taxes, higher gas taxes?
Go ahead and back LePage on eliminating state income tax.
Most businesses do not choose where to locate based on whether or not there is an income tax.
However, I think one really misses the point on what tax cuts do. If you cut taxes on the wealthy and businesses, this does not mean money gets put back in the Maine or even US economy. Increasingly tax cuts on the wealthy (national, rather than state to be sure) have lead to capital investments overseas. People take their tax savings, create jobs, and stimulate the economy….in Vietnam, or somewhere overseas. Globalization means cutting taxes does not have the same effect it did when money stayed in the US.
Moreover, if taxes on the wealthy get too low, there is a glut of potential investment dollars leading to bubbles. , These bubbles create a short term illusion of wealth, but end up doing considerable destruction. Given high levels of debt, and the increased gap between the poor and wealthy (and by poor I mean working class), tax increases for the wealthy (not necessarily for businesses though) make sense. That’s especially true on the national level, but at the state level cutting income tax would only benefit the wealthy, and would not assure their savings get put into Maine’s economy. I suspect the money would flow to other states and other countries.
Marie,
News flash, the poor don’t pay income tax, hotel tax, excise tax or dividends on earned income from investment. The point is to stop supporting the non workers at the expense of the working folks doing the heavy lifting. I’m sick of supporting welfare nation, it’s gotten old and I’m not alone in this.
Breaking news, Peter: Sales and gas tax is paid by everyone.
And all we ever hear about (and rightly so!) is that increases in property taxes have driven people from their homes or greatly impacted those on low or fixed incomes.
As the article indicated, “How does a state pay its bills without an income tax? The answer is all around you: the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the gasoline you put in your car. These goods are taxed by many state governments.”
Please read the article. Thank you!
They will never understand Peter !! The fact if we did away with the thousands of dollar tax returns people get for living off our paychecks would leave more for education and roads to be done properly.
Peter
Your not alone on this. I’m sick of the hard working middle class footin’ the bill for everyone. The left wants to classify the needy with the slackers, frauds, and the non-citizens. These people have better goods and services than I can afford. They call illegal and legal the same. They consider a fraud and abuser of welfare the same as disabled or elderly. People should get government benefits…but only those who NEED it. We have rules and they should be followed, not expanded to be all inclusive. I don’t think the liberals take the time to consider the cost of blindly taking care of everyone. Welfare should be for LAW abiding LEGAL citizens.
The wealthy have successfully launched a propaganda campaign to convince workers that the enemy is the poor (as they put it in the movie “The Big Short,” ‘they’ll just blame immigrants and the poor….”). It’s really a pretty good con – I suspect the super wealthy laugh heartily when they see the working class blame the poor and support tax breaks for the rich. There’s one born every minute. Worse at the national level than the state level, but still…
Scott you don’t live I in the real world apparently.
The one that is laughing is the dude in the PJ’s playing on line games all day .. Because he can.
They do drugs and smoke cigarettes all day long…because they can.
Sorry but I know many…
They NETWORK how-to cheat the Maine welfare system.. They pass along the strategy to the other cheaters.
They take housing away from people with real needs.
They take money away from the truly needy.
They waste it.
And we allow it thanks yup the likes of you.
Marie, sales tax and gas tax gets paid by everyone is the beauty of eliminating income tax. Everyone pays what they can afford. It doesn’t discriminate. From Yachts to row boats to huge gas guzzlers to sippers all are taxed accordingly.
Those who know of “slackers” that are fraudulently getting welfare benefits should report them to the authorities. I would. Why wouldn’t you?
Scott,
Mainers are a pragmatic lot, we aren’t easily swayed by spin from politicians. I see the welfare chorus in Augusta warming up for another concert about the “poor misunderstood victimized drug addicts “. I know BS when I see it and there us a steady stream coming out on this issue. It starts in porklandia and drifts north. Felonious activity is not evidence of ones victim status. On the contrary, it’s an inditable offense. Most folks in Augusta bubble can’t seem to get this fact past their liberal agenda blinders. Laughing has a valid point about wasting money on cheaters and scammers that are able bodied at the cost of those that have real needs. Drive through Lewiston and check out the lines out the door at the welfare office. Not an American in sight, surprised it doesent offer a free halah lunch everyday. My bad, that’s probably at the high school. We at all paying for this free ride as well as the slackers in our own communities and it has to stop. These way to stop it is to reduce the flow of tax money to the spending machine. An estimated 83 percent of all maines money goes to welfare and education. Ask yourself, What’s wrong with this picture. Enjoy the snow day if you are home and drive safe if you are at work. It’s slick out there.
Marie,,Once again you are mistaken in your assumptions.
Not only have I reported these creeps more than once but they were all evicted,,,FINALLY.
But what a process to get the trash out. After months and months of scaring the elderly neighbors and then guess what….One of the loafers that kinda had moved in ALSO had a bogus disability status so…………..they couldn’t throw him out because of his “status”.. He got to stay after the original weasel finally was evicted. Started the process all over again and finally,,,out he went also. The rules suk and these dudes and ladies know how to play them.
Sorry you are in denial about this terrible problem but if you looked around with a “responsible” eye,,you would see them. And then you would have your chance to do a public service. But you have to be patient cause it all takes way too long.
They have us where they want us thanks to the enablers with no stones.
Yes, 2cents everybody does pay the same gas and sales tax, BUT the difference is in the size of the pocket that it comes out of. Please review the example below.
Taxes as a percentage of income on the poorest to the wealthiest.
Poorest 20% Middle 60% Top 1%
Florida 13.2% 8.3% 2.3%
I’ve called about welfare fraud and the response I got was mind blowing. They told me it would cost more to investigate than it was worth !!!!! Yet I know people that do work that were just looking for health care for there children and they were denied. They made literally $20 a week more than allowed under the guidelines. So go ahead and report some Marie E let us know how that works for you. Theres a business in Farmington whos owner gets full boat benefits for him and his family figure that one out !!!!!
Jesse,
Welfare fraud is a crime but the liberals in Augusta, that waste our money , make it difficult to get the scammers off the dole. The result is that the truly deserving have to compete with those gaming the system for the limited funding. The holy grail of the welfare scammers is a disability. Turns into a tax free lifetime free ride. This is why you see the lawyers that specialize in appealing the claim denials, and the PIs that specialize in catching the scammers on camera. My hats off to Governor Lepage and the head of the Dhhs for at least trying to straighten this mess out. I believe President Trump will be addressing these issues over the next 8 years. The future is looking better.
“Following the money, the focus should be on provider fraud, not demonizing individual recipients of benefits.
“We shouldn’t ignore eligibility fraud,” Attorney General Janet Mills said last year. “We shouldn’t ignore recipient fraud; we shouldn’t ignore any allegations that somebody is getting state or federal benefits who isn’t really eligible for them, but the big fish are the corporations, the major pharmaceutical companies and the providers that have been ripping off the state Medicaid program for years to the tune of millions of dollars.”
http://bangordailynews.com/2015/05/29/opinion/editorials/welfare-fraud-by-providers-is-bigger-problem-than-individual-welfare-cheats/
@ Jesse – You can’t always judge by appearances, and by not knowing all the facts. I am very much against welfare fraud myself. Yet I am a business owner in Farmington, and I get full disability. Disability allows the disabled person to make a modest $14,000 per year and still keep the benefits. I am not healthy enough to work full time, and I make about $10,000 per year. I may own a business, but I am not wealthy, nor fraudulent, by any stretch of the imagination.
Marie,
Everyone isn’t a victim. The new mantra of the libs is victims first, American taxpayers last If you are serious about reducing prescription costs, have your doc provide cost analysis. Welfare medical just pays, no one questions costs when they get it for free. I see the welfare set at ERs in Maine. The whole family in tow wearing sweats and acting out, all this so their kid can get treated for a cold. It’s a social event for the folks paid for by the taxpayers. Docs and hospitals p,as a big part in the spiraling cost. This because they profit from the process. Remember public health service hospitals? That was welfare medical in the day. We should be returning to that model. It reduced cost by being a single point if service for the needy and it controlled cost because you got what they gave you. Beggers should not be choosey right. Go down to Maine Med some weekend and watch the show in ER, it’s welfare land on parade, a real eye opener Marie and the taxpayers are picking up the tab. Good news, President Trump is in office and the show is coming to a close. Taxpayers might actually catch a break. Stay safe out there.
Everybody knows that ER care for “anything not an emergency” is the most expensive medical care. Peter, you make a great case for single-payer national health insurance.
Another thanks to CHUCK Davis for this info. source.
“Under a single-payer system, all residents of the U.S. would be covered for all medically necessary services, including doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs.
The program would be funded by the savings obtained from replacing today’s inefficient, profit-oriented, multiple insurance payers with a single streamlined, nonprofit, public payer, and by modest new taxes based on ability to pay. Premiums would disappear; 95 percent of all households would save money.” http://www.pnhp.org/facts/what-is-single-payer
Marie,
Modest new taxes is anything but. My credit to your source “chuck”. If I make a case for anything, it’s lower taxes and less welfare. Er services were forced on hospitals for, get get this one right, Emergency Care . Which does not include the common cold. The remainder of your wish list is essentially a health care plan none of us could ever afford. Medically necessary, is somewhat inclusive and hence tthe extravogent cost associated with welfare care charged to the taxpayer.
Full boat medical under a single payer system is not sustainable and it never was. Do you really think 19 year old males need pregnancy care or child birth services? Not likely, even in the gender blurred Augusta we have now. Furthermore, multiple insurers willing to participate are a pipe dream at best. How many are left standing in Maine or California? Gone gone gone, because there is no money in it. You see Marie, the rules of business still apply even in the Maine lib think bubble, despite the socialist rantings of Vermont Bernie and the delusional Dems we have warming chairs in the state house. The objective here is simple, Maine needs to get back on an even “common sense” keel. It will take regular working Mainers to say no to tax increases and welfare benifits expansions. It’s called, grass roots progress. Have a good evening and be safe out there.
The point is that overall the poor who get welfare are not the ones getting most of the government money, nor do they benefit (indeed, getting free stuff probably does more harm to many of them than good). Most of the money, favors and benefits go to the wealthy. They get tax breaks, they often get massively high salaries, especially when you get to the very top. Everyone sees people on welfare who are lazy, and yeah, that’s not good. I’m all for trying to change that. I’d make welfare payments go through a community organizer who would assure that people did something for the community – based on capabilities, etc. – in order to get benefits. I’d tie it in with work training. That might actually help people, but it would also be more expensive – giving it away is the cheapest approach in the short term. As for health care, every advanced industrialized country in the world guarantees care, and has no medical cost induced bankruptcies. Well, every country but one.
But for every person you see abusing the system, there are many single parents working hard who need assistance just to get through the winter. I know many young people who have gotten aid while working to educate and better themselves, finally landing good work after a difficult stretch. It’s really easy – and it fulfills ones emotional desire to feel superior – to diss the poor and call them names. Reality is messier. But the system is structured to benefit the elite – to benefit big business over small business, the super wealthy over the middle class, and to get people to blame “poor people and immigrants.”
This “liberal vs. conservative” BS is part of the con. The liberals blame the conservatives, the right comes up with demeaning labels (e.g., ‘libtards, etc.) so people can get their emotional highs thinking they are superior and the other side is ignorant, naive or evil. Bread and circuses…but most of the bread goes to those who don’t really need it.
By all means, Peter, let’s get this one right, not just partly right: “The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) is a federal law that requires anyone coming to an emergency department to be stabilized and treated, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay, but since its enactment in 1986 has remained an unfunded mandate.
Referred to as the “anti-dumping” law, it was designed to prevent hospitals from transferring uninsured or Medicaid patients to public hospitals without, at a minimum, providing a medical screening examination to ensure they were stable for transfer. As a result, local and state governments began to abdicate responsibility for charity care, shifting this public responsibility to all hospitals. EMTALA became the de facto national health care policy for the uninsured. Congress in 2000 made EMTALA enforcement a priority, with penalties more than $1.17 million, nearly as much as in the first 10 years (about $1.8 million) of the statute combined (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General [OIG]).” https://www.acep.org/news-media-top-banner/emtala/
Scott,
If all your friends jump off a building, are you jumping or questioning the logic of the act. Welfare is a drain on our limited resources. I goes up every year as does education costs. How should we spend our limited funding is the question. It’s not empathy or what some other socialist country is tolerating, rather it is what real Ameicans think is us right for “our” country. Many of us work for a living, much like our forefathers have done for hundreds of years. We aren’t ready to hand over the country to welfare nation. Call it what you want, liberal, progressives, or Dems. We aren’t going to tax ourselves to death to take care of the slackers. It ain’t happening pal, and you are in for fight on this. President Trump wasn’t elected by mistake and it’s time to clean up what’s wrong with America. It happening, hold onto your safe space handles and Welcome to a a brave new world. Have a good night and be safe out there.
@walk in their shoes first Im not sure who you are and it doesnt matter. I know the business I’m referring to and the guy is far from disabled his wifes a stay at home mom and they have a nanny !! They have a number of camps and properties in the business name so they dont have any assets. He pays himself a low wage so to get benefits that is plain and simple FRAUD !!!!!
Jesse, if YOU know all this, then there must be others who also know.
Form a “task force” to get this matter exposed. Write letters to your representatives. If the reps. don’t respond, complain publicly about THEM!
Jesse – I apologize for getting you upset. It’s still possible that the guy whom you know could be legitimately disabled and collecting benefits, though. People always tell me that I look great, but they can’t feel the grinding suffering that I feel, and they don’t realize that I can work only 5-10 hours a week. I would get back to work and get off disability in a heartbeat, if only I could. It may be the same way with the guy that you know. And if he makes his money from real estate, that is considered to be passive income, and it does not count as earned income. Disability benefits are associated only with inability to earn income by working a regular job. Bill Gates is worth $86 billion with his Microsoft stock, but if he were to be declared to be medically unable to work, he would still qualify for disability benefits. It could be that you’re right, and maybe the guy that you know is gaming the system, but maybe there’s also more to the story that you don’t know. I just know what other people think about me, and they really don’t know me well enough.
Seems odd that the anti-welfare supporters aren’t up in arms about the vastly greater amount of welfare provided to corporations (tax exemptions) and the wealthy (tax deductions). But then, these corporate/plutocrat welfare programs don’t fit in with sound-bite politics and in-built prejudices.
Peter, I honestly think you don’t understand poverty in America, what welfare is really all about, and why it is needed. You seem to think that somehow workers are supporting a whole bunch of moochers, and you know one or two, or have seen them, so that verifies to you this is the problem. I’m sure you believe it, just like you seem to think other countries are socialist (they are not – even conservatives support universal health care and decent social welfare systems in all the rest of the advanced industrialized world), or that somehow you represent what real Americans want. I’m just as real an American as you are, and I see it very different. So let’s not use that silly rhetoric of “real Americans,” that’s false bravado. It was no mistake Trump was elected? I assume you also admit it was no mistake Obama was elected twice. And Trump’s approval ratings are the worst of any new President, with his administration mired in scandal. In fact, his election has revitalized Democratic energy and may end up being the best thing to happen to the Democratic party in years once this plays itself out. Real Americans are divided on these issues, and that’s a good thing. Disagreement is required in democracy. Better to recognize that those who think differently than you are just as real and usually as hard working as you, just as intelligent, and just as honest. They have a different point of view. And that’s good – if we all agreed, that would be scary! But it’s dangerous if one group decides they are the only “real American” group and start demonizing the others. That leads to nasty places.
Scott, really, how much should the government get? Can they set a number and say ” that is enough “.
By reading what you write here I think it is you that doesn’t understand poverty in America.