I’ve been a loyal reader of the Portland newspaper for over 30 years and for the first time saw you publish a statistic essential to every Mainer (admittedly, I may have missed it in the past). It was in the Sunday “Our View” column. It said that “tourists kicked $16.4 billion into Maine’s economy, lowering taxes for every Maine household by $2,467.” The statistic that I’d never seen before was the per-household tax reduction.

You see, I moved to Maine from Florida, where I paid no state income tax because they’re experts at extracting tax dollars from tourists. It comes from very high rental car taxes, airport taxes, hotel taxes, theme park/resort taxes, state park/beach fees (which are much lower for residents), etc. They also give a substantial discount for year-round residents on their property taxes.

Get creative: Raise the gas tax from May through October and lower it by the same amount from November through April. Over a year, the Maine resident spends the same total, but summer tourists spend extra for use of our roads.

Every time I hear proposals like this in Maine, the Maine tourism industry screams that it will deter people from vacationing in Maine. Spoiler alert: Nobody checks on the hotel tax rate before booking a vacation in Maine. So, let’s get smart and start extracting a bit more from every tourist and pass the savings on to the residents.

Andy Wright
Falmouth