AUGUSTA — Finding a way to lower Maine’s income tax – and pay for it – will be a priority of the Legislature’s Taxation Committee in this session, says the Senate committee chairman, David Trahan, R-Waldoboro.

Trahan and the committee’s House chairman, Gary Knight, R-Livermore Falls, met with officials in Gov.-elect Paul LePage’s administration Monday to discuss goals for the coming year.

Knight said it was important to make sure the Governor’s Office and lawmakers are on the same page when it comes to tax changes.

“We all want to see a reduction in taxes to encourage job growth in the state,” Knight said.

With a new Republican-led Legislature and Republican governor, the committee will consider a variety of ideas, Trahan said. In June, he and the Maine Republican Party led a repeal effort against a Democratic plan that reduced the income tax but broadened the sales tax.

“I feel an obligation, because I did work so hard to repeal tax reform, to come forward with a proposal,” Trahan said.

He has already submitted a bill that incorporates some of the ideas in a 2006 Brookings Institution report that made recommendations about government reform.

His bill proposes to create the Maine Government Efficiency Commission, which would look for structural savings in state government. Any money saved would go into a fund to reduce the income tax, he said.

The report also recommends raising the income level at which the highest tax rate applies. Trahan is proposing that the top rate kick in at $48,000 a year for a couple, rather than $36,550, the current level.

He wants to reduce the top rate from 8.5 percent to 8 percent over two years, and reduce it further after that.

“My goal is to get it to 6.5 percent in four years,” he said.

The state already has an income-tax relief fund, Trahan said. But when surplus funds are distributed, that fund is the last to receive money. He wants to move it up the priority list.

Trahan’s bill also would require a regular review of sales tax exemptions, to ensure that they are benefiting the state.

Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, said Democrats will keep an eye out for fairness. He said past Republican proposals to reduce the income tax would have hurt the middle class or taken a long time to produce benefits for taxpayers.

Part of the Democratic plan that was repealed would have increased the meals-and-lodging tax and the tax on rental cars, to spread more of the burden to tourists.

“Democrats will continue to be interested in finding new ways we can share the burden more equitably with those visitors from out of state,” Berry said.

The 13-member Taxation Committee likely will get to work next week, facing a big workload, Trahan said.

The committee includes Sen. Richard Woodbury of Yarmouth, an independent and economist who has studied Maine’s tax system and served on previous legislative tax committees.

Sen. David Hastings, R-Fryeburg, said he doesn’t expect the committee to see any bills proposing major tax increases or shifts.

“The tax reform that was so resoundingly voted out in June was really just a shift from the income tax to the sales tax – and the public saw through that,” he said, as 61 percent of voters supported repeal.

Trahan said other bills will include an effort to get rid of the tax on meals served in retirement facilities, which was part of the Democratic bill.

And, he wants to change the approach taken by Maine Revenue Services officials, saying it has been “disruptive to the business community.”

“They’ve acted too independent,” he said. “They’ve been very aggressive in their interpretation of tax law.”

MaineToday Media State House Writer Susan Cover can be contacted at 620-7015 or at: scover@mainetoday.com