« Baldacci Breaks a Promise | Main | Hillary Digs In »
April 22, 2008
A Ray of Hope for Maine Taxpayers?
Awesome. Nice to see people actually getting fed up with this state's taxation.
He was host at a meeting last Friday with several business owners and company representatives upset at the new taxes. Under the state constitution, voters have the right to force a referendum vote on any measure passed by a simple majority. It would take a little more than 55,000 valid signatures of registered voters collected within 90 days of adjournment of the Legislature to prevent the taxes from taking effect until voters decide their fate at a referendum vote next November.I was out of state when this tax increase was proposed, passed and signed by the governor. (Who, by the way, said he wouldn't support any new tax increases) There was little to no time for citizen input before the taxes were passed, so I think quite a few Mainers might be open to the idea of a referendum as a way of making our feelings known. I'd sign the petition, and vote for a veto. Time to let the Democrats in the legislature and our promise-breaking governor know that we are not going to sit idly by and watch our money be wasted on a rapidly-failing policy experiment."I think there is a lot of interest" in a people’s veto, said Tony Payne, executive director of the Alliance for Maine’s Future. "The cost to live in Maine has gone up. The Legislature and the governor promised no new taxes, no new fees, no gimmicks. Every one of those were employed. We have new taxes, new fees, and we have accounting gimmicks that would shame the most creative of accountants."
He said his group would discuss this week whether to join any people’s veto effort that may emerge.
Posted by slublog at April 22, 2008 09:15 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.slublog.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/3712
Comments
It is time that our elected politicians are held accountable for their false promises and lies. We truly do not deserve what we vote in!!
Posted by: Paul Leeman at May 5, 2008 07:19 AM