Posted on 07/05/2004 9:34:34 AM PDT by NewHampshireDuo
My take on the governor's drop in popularity? I was surprised by his fall, but why he's fallen is easy to explain.
In the 16 years I've been involved in Maine politics, Democrats have been successful in moving forward their public policies using stock tricks.
Baldacci governs as a Maine Democrat - which is what he is and always has been. If expanding the size and reach of Maine government is your idea of good government - his policies, Democratic policies, are a success. Over the last 15 years, the size of the two-year state budget has tripled, while Maine's population has remained at about 1.2 million.
The governor and Democratic legislators are correctly blamed for doing zip about tax reform this last legislative session. They left a void that voters filled in June by passing Question 1, an alleged property tax relief measure.
This newspaper's editorial page editor, John W. Porter, wrote last week that, " ... the pressure was on the governor and his fellow Democrats to come up with a plan to alleviate the property tax burden.
"They didn't need anything too dramatic: help for low and moderate income folks to pay their property taxes, maybe create a modest rebate program for most of the others and of course find a way to pay for it that avoided broad-based tax hikes."
I disagree. Maine needs dramatic change. Our young people - future producers and job creators - are leaving Maine for greener pastures, in large part because Maine's tax system kills incentive for such people to stay in or move to Maine.
Baldacci and other Democrats didn't drop the tax reform ball by chance. The tax reform Maine needs - people keeping more of their money without first recycling it through a state program - is out of the realm of Democratic thinking. After exhausting their well-worn bag of tricks, the governor and Democrats had nothing to offer.
Here's one Democratic trick: Promising tax relief is as good as delivering tax relief. Democrats have been good at talking "tax reform." But their remedies are half-measures, illusions - the very things Porter says the governor could have gotten away with last session.
How many Democratic programs were supposed to give "real and immediate" tax relief to Maine taxpayers "who need it most?" The Homestead Exemption? The Circuit Breaker program? The kickoff or expansion of these programs always gives Democrats political points. But how effective are these programs? That brings us to another Democrat trick: Rely on spin, short memories and a friendly news media.
NO RELIEF AT ALL
The Democrats' tax relief programs target only a few taxpayers who must submit applications within a narrow timeframe to (perhaps) qualify for tax relief. Let's look at the success of the Circuit Breaker - which makes payments to people whose property tax bill exceeds a percentage of their income - in delivering relief. In 1995, the Legislature budgeted $18.8 million for the Circuit Breaker program, but 24 percent of it - some $4.5 million - went unclaimed. The following year, lawmakers set aside $22 million for the Circuit Breaker and 33 percent - $7 million - went unused. The two-year total is about $12 million in "tax relief" that went unclaimed, that provided relief for no one.
Democrats until now have avoided enacting the tax reform Maine needs to prosper by relying on two maxims (tricks).
All tax increases are for noble reasons, and
All tax decreases are dangerous or not worthwhile
A Democratic majority broke the promise to sunset a two-year, $270 million "temporary tax package." The promise was made in 1991, broken in 1993. By 1999, using inflation-adjusted dollars, that broken promise had sucked $1 billion more out of Maine taxpayers than agreed to.
In the mid-1990s, the 117th Legislature passed an income tax cap - real tax relief. Gov. Angus King signed it into law. That tax cap was to start in the 118th Legislature, giving Maine taxpayers $130 million. Instead, King and Democrats took back the tax relief many of them supported one year before.
The broken "temporary tax package" promise and the repealed income tax cap illustrate another Democrat trick: It's not a tax increase if we don't say it's a tax increase. Baldacci still uses that trick.
ONE-SIDED TALKS
Since 1997 one-party rule (Democrats) has dictated the size and shape of our state budgets. Democratic spin touting budget negotiations as "the result of months of negotiations between the governor and Republicans and Democrats" are true depending on what the meaning of "negotiations" is.
Baldacci and fellow Democrats negotiate by telling Republicans, "Here's our state budget. Feel free to support it." This is perhaps why Republicans in April (mercifully) stopped giving Democrats political cover and refused to go along with one more bad, no-tax-relief budget.
Finally, consider Baldacci's alleged balancing of state budgets with no tax increase - which is what he promised he would do. Starting with his February 2003 budget speech, the governor said, "I believe raising taxes at this time is the wrong way to go. It sends the wrong message to our citizens and our businesses, who, quite frankly, can't afford more taxes."
Less than one week later, a column by the editor of the Rockland Courier-Gazette, Michael McGuire, listed many ways in which the governor's budget proposal did raise taxes. For instance, because Maine's income and estate tax structure don't conform with the federal government's, it allows Augusta to collect an additional $67 million that would normally stay in the pockets of taxpayers.
"There will be questions raised about Baldacci's stature, about his vision, and about his ability to be governor," Bowdoin College professor and pollster Chris Potholm said way back in January 2001. He's right. People are raising those questions. The governor told one reporter that he's not worried about popularity polls because it's the governor's job to make the tough calls.
But how can the governor and his fellow Democrats make the tough calls when they can't even recognize, let alone tackle, Maine's No. 1 issue - tax reform - in an effective manner.
Spin, short memories, a friendly media and all the other Democratic tricks are no longer enough to numb Mainers who pay for the Democrats' grandiose schemes at the expense of job creation, employee benefits, wage/salary increases, savings and investment - the very things Maine needs to rebound.
Scott K. Fish of Dixmont is owner/editor of the Web site As Maine Goes (www.asmainegoes.com) and director of special projects for the Maine Public Policy Institute.
Maybe As Maine Goes and Scott K. Fish are worthy of further examination. Seems like he gets it.
that's not the only trick the governor uses to push through the demoncrap agenda:
[from the Maine Christian Civic League
http://www.cclmaine.org/ ]
"
Ignoring the people: Governor expands homosexual rights
6000 contracts each year will now promote the notion that all “sexual orientations” are equal. Doesn’t matter whether you’re living in sin, fornicating, practicing adultery or trangendered – you now have special rights. The very policy that was twice rejected by hundreds of thousands of Maine citizens over the past six years in two – count them, two -- statewide elections has now been enacted by fiat by Governor John Baldacci. All businesses contracting with state government will now have to demonstrate that they honor homosexuality in their hiring and firing practices in order to continue contracting with your government. Not one public hearing. No legislator involvement.
Not a bill. No signatures. No referendum. No debate.
Governor Baldacci signed an executive order. Oh sure, he has the power to do it. The question is whether it was the right thing to do, especially given the fact that Mainers have twice rejected “gay” rights. Those votes mean nothing to this governor. If they did he would have consulted with the citizens of Maine who have worked so hard to resist this profoundly destructive direction for our state and nation. He never called me. And he never called anybody with whom I have regular conversations. If he wanted to be Governor to all the people of Maine he would have extended that courtesy. Do the people matter at all? Baldacci signed his executive order quietly last week. I only saw one news story about it. His phone number is 287-3531. Maybe you’d like to call him. 287-3531.
You just had to let her out of the state, first it was stephen king now her.
The only good thing to come out of Maine in the past 100 years was Hiram Maxim.
WARN them to stay away from California, unless of course they are illegals, then we have created paradise for them.
Baldacci used to be a state Senator. Has has not always been a Governor.
Democrats until now have avoided enacting the tax reform Maine needs to prosper by relying on two maxims (tricks).
They don't want a decrease in taxes so Maine can continue supporting the Somali's that Baldacci moved into Lewiston!
His mama runs the worse italian joint in maine.
Why is it maine politicians are somehow connected with the food industry.
Yup; and you and I know WHY Baldacci is herding all of these Somalis, etc., into Maine.
Just watch 'em in November, and see how many of 'em VOTE!
(And how MANY times they vote...)
Why is it, do we suppose, that der Guv by another executive fiat prohibited State Officials (including Polling Officials, we may assume) from even ASKING about a voter's Citizenship status?
Unless Maine Polling places and Post offices (who handle - and occasionally "lose" or "delay" - absentee ballots) - especially in Lewiston and Portland - are CLOSELY monitored by honest FEDERAL Officials (oxymoron?), the 'Rats WILL STEAL this election in Maine... if the Yuppies, Publicly schooled Mall Zombies, Indoctrinated College Students and career Welfare Recipients here don't deliver it for 'em "honestly".
You can dilly well bet on it!
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