By early April, the Legislature is usually starting to go at a frenzied pace as legislators start to feel spring in the air. Typically, there should only be two months left to the first session of the legislature and major policy discussions should have been introduced months ago.

Not in this legislature. After passing a $295 million bond package, the legislature is now going to start discussing the budget again. As I stated last week, I don’t understand how you can vote for bonding debt before you know what your budget is; but it’s over and now it’s time to move on to the budget and other policy issues.

Going into the budget debate, there seems to be more and more evidence surfacing that proves that Maine is in a state of fiscal crisis. The Department of Human Services announced last week that it has a $21.5 million shortfall for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2007. This comes on top of a shortfall in the corporate income tax line of $75 million; and for those of you that love national statistics, Maine and Maryland are the only two states in America to experience an actual decline in their corporate income tax line in 2007.

There is very little support for the Governor’s cigarette tax increase proposal, and the projected savings in the Governor’s original school consolidation plan have evaporated. This deadly combination of debt is leaving the Legislature with more than a $100 million dollar budget gap to fill; and the two options available to legislators are to reduce wasteful spending or raise taxes on the backs of Maine’s working families.

From my perspective I believe that the Democrats are going to try and force Republicans to go along with some kind of tax increase to balance the budget. Is there anyone out there that believes the Democrats are actually going to cut spending to achieve the savings required? With three months to go in the fiscal year I guarantee that no matter what they do, they will need to raise revenues. The cynic in me says that Majority Democrats have known this to be the case right along, but kept delaying a solution so they could paint Republicans in a corner to go along with a tax increase. There had to be a reason to not pass a majority budget and this is why.

The Democrat strategy is simple: they are looking for political cover as they attempt to raise taxes again, after promising to provide tax relief to Maine’s citizens during the 2006 campaigns. I say it a lot, but the truth is if they could point to one or two Republicans that go along then they could claim a bipartisan budget, with tax increases included, and the Democrats win. Republicans must hold firm and say no to any additional revenue, whether it is a tax increase or new fees. The people of Maine are looking for some fiscal sanity and it is up to the Republicans to provide that by reducing wasteful spending in state government.

The biennial budget that begins on July 1 is also in shambles. There is a tax increase proposed by the Governor and the shortfalls I addressed earlier will need to be considered. Remember that message that supposedly every legislator heard about tax relief in January? There are only two months left in this session and I have not seen or heard a proposal that has any tax relief for the citizens of Maine. How clearly did the message get sent? Tax relief must begin with spending reductions. It has been clearly demonstrated that will not happen in a bipartisan manner. Republicans can stand out by standing firm and continuing to resist overtures of new taxes. It is happening all over this state. Many municipal budgets are remaining flat because the towns have heard the message. Too bad it has fallen on deaf ears in the dome.

To make matters worse, Majority Democrats continue to insult Maine’s taxpayers by supporting legislation to pad their own wallets. It was bad enough that Rep. Burns (D-Berwick) thought legislators should have taxpayers pick up the cost of his housing and recreation cost (LD 226). Now we have Rep. Tuttle (D-Sanford) propose another huge pay increase with LD 1814. The sad part is that he was able to get Democrat leadership, including the Speaker of the House, to go along and cosponsor his bill for pay increases.

Do they really understand what Maine taxpayers are going through? As we struggle to pay property taxes and health insurance they want a raise. How many of you can say you deserve a raise, but because of the economic climate in this state the business you work for can’t afford to give it to you?

Joseph Bruno, of Raymond, is immediate past chairman of the Maine Republican Party. He resigned the volunteer position last week citing time constraints.