Ogunquit News
Democrats speak out on TABOR
By C. Ayn Douglass
Democratic candidates on the ballot for county, state and federal races in November, including Peter Bowman, Jean Hay-Bright, Dawn Hill and Maurice Ouellette, were in town last week to talk about such issues as taxes and TABOR.
Photo by C. Ayn Douglass
OGUNQUIT - Approximately 30 residents attended a forum on Thursday evening, Sept. 28, at the Dunaway Center to hear the position of four Democratic candidates on local and national issues.
The candidates include York County Sheriff Maurice Ouellette; Peter Bowman, running for the state senate in District 1; Jean Hay-Bright opposing Republican Olympia Snowe for the U.S. Senate, and Dawn Hill, who is running against incumbent Brad Moulton for Maine House District 149.
None of the candidates support the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) initiative for reducing taxes, but all of them in their outreach efforts to talk with voters acknowledge taxes is the number one issue in the voters' minds.
"I've been to 2000 homes and over and over again what comes up is taxes. Ninety-five percent of my conversations are about taxes," Hill said. "People I'm talking to are saying they'll vote for it just to send a message. I don't believe it's the right structure, so I wouldn't vote for it," she said.
Ouellette agreed.
"Public safety and TABOR don't mix. TABOR's passing would bring the State Police to their knees," he said. "We can't predict the number of crimes in a year and we need flexibility in our budgets for this."
Hay-Bright said she will be voting against it because it's undemocratic.
"TABOR wants to bring everything down to the local level and people will get tired of running to the ballot box," she said, adding, "We need to make the tax burden more fair."
Bowman described TABOR as "thoughtless tax reform, like performing surgery with a blunt instrument." Bowman believes most people don't understand the shortcomings the TABOR policies entail, for example, it's hard to repeal or change and it creates control by the minority, according to Bowman.
None of the candidates were able to offer any advice, opinion or plan to relieve the tax burden placed on Ogunquit property owners regarding the burden the town bears for educating its children.
"Are you aware of our problem?" asked Budget Chairman Frank Broomfield. "We have an education problem with about 38 kids in school at $106,000 per child."
Both Bowman and Hill said they knew about the cost of educating a child in Ogunquit, urging the town to continue to work with Wells to find a solution.
