To the editor:

Hundreds of people flooded the State House this week to protest Gov. Paul LePage’s proposed supplemental budget, which protects his tax cuts for the rich by sacrificing the safety and well-being of many Maine citizens, as well as thousands of health care jobs that would be slashed should this budget go through.

The solution to the governor’s new budget gap is not to cut child care, Head Start, Drugs for the Elderly, or health coverage for 65,000 Mainers, but to call off the future tax changes enacted as part of the last biennial budget and to restore fairness to Maine’s tax code.

Starting in January 2013, the new Republican tax changes give an average annual income tax reduction of:

— $2,810 to the wealthiest 1 percent ( more than $ 360,000 annual gross income)

— $123 to the middle 20 percent

— $7 to the bottom 20 percent (including min. wage earners)

Also starting in 2013, they give an average windfall of $43,500 to those inheriting estates worth more than $1 million.

Even without these changes, Maine Revenue Services notes that the lowest overall rate for total state and local taxes is currently paid by the wealthiest 1 percent, while the highest overall rate is paid by the poorest 20 percent.

Keeping our tax code as it is — or better yet, making it fairer to the middle class and working poor — will save more than enough to close new budget gaps, and will also head off future state cuts and local tax increases.

The choice is not a hard one. All Mainers deserve both a decent shot at prosperity, and a basic guarantee of human dignity.

Rep. Seth Berry

Bowdoinham

Rep. Berry, D- Bowdoinham, serves as the House Democratic leader member on the Joint Standing Committee on Taxation.