To the editor:

In Maine, the state treasurer is constitutionally prohibited from “engaging in any business of trade, commerce, brokerage …”

Yet as we have learned from reporting published in The Times Record, Maine State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin appears to have recently requested variances for his business in Phippsburg, perhaps causing pressure to be felt by local officials.

Now we find that Poliquin’s Georgetown property was listed in 2009 by a Maine Forest Service task force as one of nine “ problematic enrollments” in the state with regard to compliance with the tree growth tax law.

It is too soon to make a judgment on either issue, though we will be eager to learn of outcomes of the investigations.

All we know for certain is that in Georgetown, townspeople work very hard to pare every budget. The town operates with very few employees and townspeople understand how difficult it is for many to pay their tax bills.

In Georgetown, they consider their excellent school to be the heart of the town and struggle to both keep cost increases low and yet maintain the school’s quality. They have had to cut back these last few years.

We respect the law but think unkindly of those who would use it unfairly to evade their share of the responsibility.

As we understand it, if Treasurer Poliquin’s property had been taxed as other shorefront property in Georgetown, he would have had to pay an additional $30,000 to $40,000 in the last seven years to help us support our school, our roads and our infrastructure.

Thus, while we citizens are struggling to make ends meet as a consequence of the machinations of the financial services sector, must we of the Georgetown community now engage in a de facto subsidization of a “one-percenter?”

We hope that the investigations go forward and that all the facts become known.

Wilfred E. Richard,
Georgetown

letters@timesrecord.com