Spending leads to tax hikes

Standish taxpayers beware! The foxes are in the chicken coop again.

If you have not already read the Sept. 28 Lakes Region Weekly get a copy of the paper and read the nonsense the town is indicating. When the taxpayers used good judgment, voting down the $1.4 million of bonds the town had already included the cost in last year’s tax bills. When the bonds were voted down the town did not recalculate the $10.36 mil rate to about a $9 mil rate after the $1.4 million dollar bond issue was rejected. The town states when the valuation goes down taxes go up, it is not valuation that raises taxes, it is excessive spending.

The town claims the new budget is lower than last year. Remove the 1.4 million dollars of bonds from last year’s budget and you will find this year’s budget is several hundreds of thousands more. The $11.60 new increased mil rate is about 12 percent higher than the last year mil rate and caused from excessive spending. I cannot deny the fact schools are helping it along. If the town keeps approving subdivisions, we can expect more school taxes because they bring more children to the schools. While I do believe the school system could do much better, there is plenty of blame for tax increases but facts are facts and schools are not entirely to blame. My new tax bill lowers the value by about 3.8 percent but the increase in taxes is close to 8 percent. If the taxpayers do not show up to vote it is more than likely, we could be taxed out of our homes and if not us future children.

There are about 7,000 registered voters in the town of Standish. Do you really want 50 or 60 people that attend the town meetings to spend your money the way they want? Do you believe a majority of 4,000 of the 7,000 voters might make better decisions than 50 or 60? It is probable the 50 or 60 have a majority of the vote from town employees at the town meetings.

The current Council wisdom is going to fix this excessive spending by eliminating or amending the Budget Committee with a Charter change. This will be voted for or against in November on Election Day.

Voting is the only way taxpayers can control their standard of living.

William Orr

Standish

Vote for Stephenson

I didn’t vote for Rep. Mike McClellan in 2010 when he was elected to represent the people of Maine House District 103 (Raymond, Frye Island, parts of Standish and parts of Poland).

While I would have preferred his opponent, I figured that with the economy heading into a tailspin at the time, I could at least depend on Rep. McClellan to do the thing that most conservatives can be counted on to do: cut taxes. Boy, was I disappointed.

First, Rep. McClellan voted against LD 695, a bill that would have helped working families in these tough times by increasing the state-earned income tax credit.

McClellan also supported LD 849, a cost-shift masquerading as a tax cut. In reality, all it did was redirect state surpluses to unfunded income tax cuts, which will shift underfunded local municipal and school costs unto local taxpayers. So taxpayers will foot the bill for an income tax “cut.” Take a look at your mil rate and tax bills.

He also supported LD 1043 which, to be fair, was indeed a tax cut – but only for Maine’s wealthiest folks. These lucky few benefited from an average tax cut of almost $3,000, while the middle class of taxpayers in Maine – i.e. those who really could use some tax relief – will get an average cut of about a hundred bucks. Thanks, I guess I’ll use that $120 windfall to pay the additional property taxes that will be brought about by his support of LD 849.

In the two years since his election, Rep. McClellan seems to have championed things that don’t seem to benefit our district. Instead, his legislation has seemed to favor the wealthy few, as well as big businesses, often from out-of-state. Things he’s gotten behind don’t seem to help out the small businesses that are our lifeblood or the working families in our area that are struggling to make ends meet. It might be time for a change.

In November, I’d ask you to consider his opponent, Leslie “Jim” Stephenson. Learn more about his common-sense ideas for Maine’s middle class, its working families, and its small businesses at www.LJimStephenson.weebly.com, or check him out on Facebook.

Kevin Fay

Raymond