Give Checkbook Back to Taxpayers
September 20, 2009
Author: Tarren Bragdon
PORTLAND — Question 4 (TABOR II) is about one thing: You decide.
Who has the final word on excessive increases in government spending?
Who signs off on future tax increases?
You. The taxpayer. It is simple and direct.
You decide.
No longer will politicians treat you like their personal ATM to spend however much of your money they want.
That's exactly what they have been doing with huge increases in government spending of your tax dollars at all levels of government.
Between 2000 and 2008, state and local government spending has skyrocketed. Politicians have gone on a spending binge, while the people paying the bills – Maine families and businesses – are losing jobs and watching their incomes plummet.
In eight years, state spending spiked 46 percent. Inflation grew by about half that, at just 25 percent.
ONLY WAY TO STOP SPENDING BINGE
That's right. State government spending increased nearly twice as fast as inflation. No wonder politicians don't want you, the taxpayer, to have the final word on big increases in government spending.
Who in Maine went on a spending binge and increased their family budget 46 percent over these same eight years?
That's what state government did, and they forced you to pay for it. Unless Question 4 passes, they won't stop. It suits politicians and bureaucrats just fine when they decide how much of your money to spend.
Question 4 is a game changer. Question 4 lets you decide.
No wonder they are so frenzied.
Big-government spenders are worried that average Mainers will be more responsible with their tax dollars than state government has been.
When you decide, politicians at the local level have just as much to worry about.
When it comes to your property taxes, local politicians just can't get enough. Over these same eight years, local government spending increased just as fast (or even faster) than our paychecks.
To fund these spending hikes, local politicians increased property taxes an astounding 58 percent. No wonder local governments don't like Question 4. Right now, they can spend whatever they like and raise our property taxes to pay for it.
Question 4 means you decide. If local politicians want to increase property taxes more than about 4 percent a year, they will have to ask your permission.
They don't like that.
Opposition to Question 4 is almost solely funded by those who live mostly off your property tax dollars, like the Maine Municipal Association. MMA is spending your property tax dollars to prevent you from having a say in how much your property taxes should increase.
The Maine Education Association is funding its own efforts to defeat tax relief with public school teachers' forced union dues.
Even before the recession hit, there was proof that while the rest of the nation was working hard to grow the economy, Maine was growing government.
Over nine years, Maine's economy was in such a state of economic crisis that the number of private-sector jobs dropped by 13,000.
In state and local government, "let the good times roll" was the attitude. State and local governments during this same period went on a hiring spree – adding 3,400 government jobs.
STATE'S CURRENT PATH UNSUSTAINABLE
That's right. For every four jobs lost in the private sector, government added another bureaucrat.
Is this sustainable?
Will continuing these trends make Maine a stronger, more vibrant state in the future?
We have an important decision to make this November. We can continue down the path of big government, flat private-sector wages, an aging population and a shrinking number of kids.
Or we can change course to encourage young families and bright entrepreneurs to stay here or move here and grow our economy and our opportunities for success.
We have a choice. Question 4 gives you that choice.
You decide.
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