This is unbelievable! Thanks for bringing this to my attention!!
Gov Baldacci NOT for all of Maine! Just his pet programs, taxation without representation and Special Interest Groups! Time for him to GO!!
Posted on 03/04/2005 4:53:19 AM PST by SheLion
BANGOR - A gun and ammunition tax that would create a fund to increase security at the state's courthouses has been proposed by several members of the Legislature's Judiciary Committee. The 7 percent tax would be in addition to the 5 percent state sales tax that consumers already pay when they buy guns and ammunition from licensed dealers in the state.
George Smith, executive director of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine, said on Monday that while the organization supports improved security at courthouses, it would oppose the bill.
"Making law abiding citizens who are gun owners pay the entire cost of something that serves all the people is the wrong approach," he said. "I can't see any justification in this particular funding source. Why not knives and other items?"
The bill, LD 1012, which was printed late last week, has been referred to the Taxation Committee. A date for a public hearing has not been set.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Deborah L. Pelletier-Simpson, D-Auburn, said on Monday that she is very concerned about court safety and believes the bill will help focus attention on the need for full-time screening in the state's busiest courthouses.
"We need to do something before we have a person shot in our courts," she said. "We are not protecting our judges or our citizens who go there."
Pelletier-Simpson said that she chose to tax firearms rather than other potential weapons such as knives, because as a victim of domestic violence she believes guns are deadlier.
"I am more concerned about court security than creating a new tax," she said on Monday. "If people want to come up with another way to pay for it, I'm open to other ideas, but we have to make our courts safe."
The bill, if passed, would create the Courthouse Security Fund that would be used to pay security officers to operate screening equipment similar to that used at airports and in federal buildings.
Exactly how much money a gun and ammunition tax would raise has not been determined, but earlier this year, Ted Glessner, state court administrator, said that it would cost $3 million to use the equipment properly year round.
Glessner also has said that about 85 more court security officers are needed to operate the X-ray machines and metal detectors.
The judiciary would not take a stand on the bill, he said on Monday.
For almost a year, the 28 metal detectors and 10 X-ray machines have sat idle in courthouses around the state because there has been no money to pay security officers to operate them. The equipment was purchased in 2003 with $540,000 in bond issue money.
Legislators last year approved $100,000 for random screenings in locations around the state that now are under way.
In her State of the Judiciary Address to the Legislature last month, Leigh I. Saufley, chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, however, again expressed concern about "the inability of the judicial branch to make our courthouses safe."
Entry screening is conducted an average of 10 days each year for each of the state's 41 courthouses, she said.
The chief justice also told the Legislature that during that limited time screeners had confiscated more than 1,400 knives or related weapons and five firearms.
"Imagine what has come through those doors during the more than 200 days when entry screening was not in place," she said last month.
Thanks,
Jake
And how many injuries/deaths occured with all those unseen wepons ???
'If it saves just one life' , or was that 'for the children', or who cares, as long as 'wer'e doing something' /DNC talk points
SheLion, you will be proved correct, that a couple years from now, they will need to raise money to fund courthouse security, because no one will remember that it has already been done, and 'if it saves one life' ...
Maybe the Governor and the lawmakers are getting 'death threats' because of how shabby they are running Maine Government. Maybe they have another agenda for doing this.
Wouldn't surprise me if someone went off the deep end and went into the State House and started firing away! People are getting sick and tired of it, and it's a pity that the people have to take such drastic measures into their own hands to wake the lawmakers up.
I'm not trying to encourage this by any means, but we see what is happening across the United States daily. Nothing is impossible. Our lawmakers need to get back in step with their constituents!
Theres the problem. I believe that the elites have already exceeded their 'magic' number that is needed to 'safely' rule [not govern ] at will.
I believe they have felt comfortable with this number for a couple decades, and as all levels of government have ratcheted up their 'police' power, at the same time the information age has exploded, many realise that the window of opportunity is wide open, but that it could slam shut in a hurry.
IOW, I look for the oppression to become exponentially worse in the near future, ending in rebellion or submission...cant do both...
Ping for BANG LIST
Fed taxes, state taxes, liscensing fees, permits, fees for tags for every individual species, park entrance fees, fines for any infractions of myriads of laws, game checking requirements and those are jsut the 'hunting' things I see.
Does 'shall not be infringed' ring a bell ??? I'll give you a hint, and it aint got squat to do with hunting...
I think that since NOTHING happens when they don't have the extra security, they DON"T NEED the extra security. This gun tax is really stupid.
Yep. And then when our wonderful lawmakers don't realize the taxes they figured they would get from guns, who else are they going to go after? Everyone better take a number, because it will be called up soon.
This is unbelievable! Thanks for bringing this to my attention!!
Gov Baldacci NOT for all of Maine! Just his pet programs, taxation without representation and Special Interest Groups! Time for him to GO!!
Baldacci reaffirms no tax hike stance
Governor clarifies Tuesday remarks
A. J. HIGGINS, OF THE NEWS STAFF
Last updated: Thursday, March 18, 2004
AUGUSTA - After indicating additional taxes could be considered to offset a $128 million Medicaid shortfall, Gov. John E. Baldacci clarified his position Wednesday and vowed to veto any supplemental budget containing new tax increases.In the aftermath of Monday's angry public hearing that drew more than 1,000 people opposed to Medicaid cuts in the current $160 million supplemental budget proposal, Baldacci told reporters Tuesday he would be "willing to listen" to arguments for tax increases. But the governor prefaced his remarks by stating he would engage in tax talks only if more money were needed to balance the budget after the state had reduced its administrative costs for delivering Medicaid services.
When three Maine newspapers carried front-page headlines Wednesday declaring the governor would not rule out tax increases to balance the budget, Baldacci called in the State House press corps to clarify his position.
"I need to be very clear here that in terms of resolving this supplemental budget that it does not require and will not require tax increases to balance it," Baldacci said. "I was not as clear in my discussions with [reporters] yesterday as I should have been."
Later in the day during a call-in radio show, the governor threatened to veto any supplemental budget that contained a tax increase even as some lawmakers proposed to offset his Medicaid cuts by raising the sales tax or taxes on other items such as cigarettes or liquor sales.
Republicans in the Senate and House were astonished that the governor would threaten to veto a supplemental budget which they maintain already contains nearly $12 million in new fees, surcharges or taxes. The increased revenues are derived in part from a doubling of the hospital tax, an expansion of that tax to private nonmedical institutions, and increasing telephone fees by raising Enhanced-911 charges.
"It's ridiculous that [Baldacci] is even saying that he's not raising taxes, and the fact that the media is repeating it is also wrong," said House GOP leader Rep. Joe Bruno of Raymond. "He's already raised them. We need leadership on this budget and we can't negotiate when we don't know what the message is. It's just crazy."
The governor deferred questions about general definitions of taxes, fees and surcharges to his finance director, Rebecca Wyke. She said the administration has never considered health-related taxes that draw down matching federal funds to be in the same category as sales or income tax increases. Both are opposed by the administration.
Baldacci said Wednesday the additional E-911 money would be dedicated to criminal background checks and other public safety expenses, but he acknowledged the money would be distributed to the General Fund, where it can be spent as the Legislature sees fit, rather than dedicated to specific accounts.
The governor's "clarification" on his tax remarks was important because Baldacci made his opposition to imposing new taxes a key plank of his election campaign in 2002 and also took great effort to close a $1.2 billion budget shortfall last year without including additional taxes.
The most recent supplemental budget proposal is designed to address a shortfall in the $2.6 billion state budget cycle that begins July 1. As presented, it would eliminate Medicaid funding for adults enrolled in brain-injury rehabilitation programs, dental care and 13 other services the state now covers to save a little more than $9 million.
Baldacci said he met with staff Wednesday morning and concluded that his targeted Medicaid cuts could be mitigated by finding cost-saving reductions at the provider level and by working with the Legislature to identify additional funding sources. But he also stated he would "draw a line in the sand" at the $9 million mark and insisted health care providers would have to re-examine the costs they expected the state to cover."We have to change the way these programs are administered," Baldacci said. "We do not have control of these programs, and in some areas, they're controlled by the providers. ... We need to be more cost-conscious, getting our spending under control while still providing the services," the governor said.
Emphasizing it would have little or no impact on the supplemental budget request, Baldacci said he would be willing to defer implementation of the Medicaid portion of the Dirigo Health Plan that would expand program eligibility to 31,000 additional Mainers effective July 1. Both the governor and Trish Riley, his chief health policy adviser, said the administration would entertain GOP requests to delay the program expansion - but not the Dirigo program - as long as they were held within the context of overall budget negotiations.
"All we asked in the last supplemental budget that was passed by majority vote was if we could at least talk about the Dirigo expansion," Bruno said, "and we were told it was completely off the table. And that God should punish us for even bringing it up. [The governor] has got to figure out what he's willing to do and what he's willing to talk about."
The northeast states are gones. Anything and includiing PA needs to be cut off and be made another country, or give them to canada. It's gone.
The west coast, and I mean the west coast with a 200 mile strip off that coast is a goner too. If only we could pick the obviously lost places off.
If they can't take the Second Amendment away then tax guns,sure. These cultural marxists will do anything they can to make us into Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia. As Charlton Heston said, "From My Cold Dead Hands".
The site looks terrific, Jake! Keep up the great work! I love it!
I sure don't know. Our Constitution and Amendments have been just fine for hundreds of years. Now all of a sudden, when someone disagrees with them, they want to change everything. I'm personally tired of it.
Groups want to amend the Constitution, ban aspects of it, do away with Amendments, ban the Bill of Rights, the 10 Commandments, the Pledge of Allegiance, Religion and the list goes on.
American's have lived with all of the above for years, and I have my theory of what has happened, but I don't want to post it in here.
Just too many outside groups wanting to tell the rest of us how to live.
User fees are supposed to be levied on the end user.
Park fees go to maintain the parks. Gas taxes are dedicated to improvement of highways. And so the theory goes. Unless you are hunting in Wisconsin, I don't see a lot of hunters clogging up the Maine court system. So our moronic legislature has once again missed the mark.
The user fees to finance improved court security should be levied on the appropriate end users: THE ATTORNEYS USING THE BLOODY COURTS EVERY DAY!
I totally agree! Augusta think we are total sheeple out here. They will soon learn that Maine doesn't house a lot of idiots anymore.
The solution to the problem is not "lopping off" the North East. We are under socialist occupation and need to be liberated. Please send troops!
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