“For years governments have been promising more than they can deliver, and delivering more than they can afford.” -Paul Martin

Lane/Tommy: Did you know that Maine still ranks Number 1 in its tax burden by percentage of income? Didn’t we approve a piece of legislation called LD 1 that supposedly gave us tax relief? We’ll bet that you didn’t know that under Governor Baldacci’s administration Maine has undergone an increase in local and state taxes from 12.9 percent to 13.5 percent (as a percentage of income). What is interesting is that the national average is 10.6 percent and our next door neighbor, New Hampshire, is 7.3 percent.

Tommy: Legislators say they get the message that people want tax relief, which apparently is more than the Windham Town Council does. So what did they learn? The simple answer is nothing, nil and nada. Will they once again say that tax relief takes time? LD 1 was the plan that supposedly would give us tax relief and yet at election time they stated that LD 1 needed repairs because it didn’t work.

Will we once again be hoodwinked into believing their lies and deceptions? I can see that the legislators will again play upon the citizens fears to get what they want above and beyond what they really need. In the past the promise of tax relief was met with threats that our houses would burn down, crime will become rampart, your children will have to walk to a school without heat and on and on. I wonder what new threats we will be subjected to as budget discussions begin in towns and in Augusta.

Lane: It is high time for an audit of all departments of the state of Maine as a starting point to see where Maine really stands on a fiscal basis. I find it absolutely amazing that heads of various state agencies stick their heads in the sand when asked to be audited. I have a feeling that if a complete audit was done, the people would demand a house-cleaning in Augusta.

We have seen so much mismanagement and hundreds of millions of missing dollars and yet not one person has been held accountable. Why? It’s because friends are appointing friends. We also need a budget process that we can all understand, not something so confusing.

Lane/Tommy: More and more people that we talk with are becoming increasingly disillusioned about the promise of tax relief whether at the state or local level. What goes hand-in-hand with that is they also believe that the ability of their elected officials to achieve tax relief is a farce. The majority of proposed legislation to create tax relief calls for increased taxes. Duh?

Lane: With regard to the Windham Town Council, their recent approval to spend the surplus in the Tax Assessor’s budget for new furniture was nothing less than a slap in the face of the Windham taxpayer. It is more than obvious that new management is needed otherwise our local government spending will continue to spiral out of control under the disguise of catastrophe unless the increase is approved by voters. Will Chicken Little once again run around Windham crying foul?

Tommy: What gets my goat is that our authority to vote on major expenditures in Windham appears to be in jeopardy as statements by local officials state that we might be able to vote on multi-million dollar projects as we have done in the past. How does a new Windham town government sound to you?

Lane/Tommy: Do you remember the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf? He cried wolf so many times that finally no one listened. Will our government continue to cry wolf?

Lane and Tommy, of Windham, have returned successfully from Hollywood after receiving an Oscar for their documentary titled “How Al Gore and Other Politicians Travel Excessively Causing Global Warming.”