To the editor:

A recent letter to the editor by Raymond T. West, (“Out of Whack,” Jan. 4) gets the facts backwards, attacking the work done by my state representative, Seth Berry, to defend jobs and the middle class, and blaming the governor’s new budget gap on those losing benefits, not those receiving even more.

Gov. Paul LePage’s entire new budget “savings” adds up to less than the total new tax breaks given to the wealthy last June. In fact, paying the long-term costs of these tax breaks will take more than twice the amount of the painful cuts proposed in the governor’s latest budget.

Beginning in 2013, Maine Revenue Services predicts an average new tax reduction of $2,810 to the wealthiest 1 percent, $123 to the middle 20 percent, and just $7 to the bottom 20 percent, such as minimum wage earners and seniors on fixed incomes.

In addition, the handful of Mainers lucky enough to inherit estates worth more than $1 million will receive an average new windfall of $43,500. This is three times what a full-time minimum wage earner makes in an entire year.

Throwing Maine’s tax code out of balance and paying for it by throwing more than 65,000 Maine citizens off of health care, thousands of seniors off of medications, and thousands of young children out of Head Start and child care is no way to build stronger communities and a stronger economy.

Maine can do better than Gov. LePage.

Gracia Woodward

Bowdoinham