First, some disclosure. Your editor once served on the town of York Budget Committee with Windol Weaver, who is the subject of our feature story in this issue. We agreed often, and on many things. We also disagreed, and did so more than once. But in the present state budget crisis we agree on one thing: there is going to be pain felt, and it is unavoidable.
In both the feature story on page 8 and the related story on page 6 dealing with a massive cut in state aid to our local school budget, the issue of state revenue shortfalls is central. Taxpayers need to understand the ramifications here, because they are serious and are likely to have a profound impact on our future.
The state of Maine, through a combination of years of overspending, mismanagement, questionable revenue planning, a lack of business incentives and the effects of a national economic downturn, finds itself a whopping $220 million short to meet its current budget needs. In order to address this program, there are two options: cut programs or raise revenues (that means taxes). Since promises have been made by persons high and low in our state government that taxes will not be raised, programs will now be proposed for cutbacks.
This past Wednesday, March 4, the first of those cutbacks hit home when Superintendent of Schools Dr. Henry Scipione announced that the state Department of Education was proposing a cut of nearly $1 million in the state education subsidy scheduled for York, part of an overall cut of $35 million affecting York and other communities. This amount had already been included in the funding projections for our local budget, and its removal from the budget will be, in a word, "painful."
It would be nice to pretend that there is an easy way to avoid this pain. But there isn't, and we should not pretend there is. A backlash against the state that seeks to avoid the matter will simply force the imposition of the only other remedy, which will be more taxes. These taxes may be disguised as user fees, or some other some other deflective term, or they may simply bludgeon us between the eyes with an increase to the state sales tax. Rep. Weaver is committed to fight any such new taxes, and he is right to do so.
There is no more blood left to squeeze out of this rock. Our people, our businesses, particularly those in the south, are being taxed into a death spiral in this state. By every objective comparison in the matter of tax burden upon its citizens, our state is a national embarrassment. New businesses do not come here, and they cannot be blamed for choosing not to. Existing businesses look for ways to leave here, and it is the right decision. Donor towns, like York, are treated as endless wells of funding by those in other portions of the state, but those wells have run dry.
There are solutions, and a resourceful people like ours ought to be able to reach them. As we have written on many occasions, finding ways to encourage business would be a good place to start. In any case, the fiscal road our state has been on has reached a dead end. Painful as it may be, it is time to admit it and begin moving on in a new direction.
