A friend is urging me to do something about my six year old car, which he says looks pretty shabby. "If you're not going to fix the dent in the door, at least clear off your bumper," he chided one day last week, referring specifically to a fading green bumper sticker that says "No on One." I applied it over the summer of 2005 intending to show support for those opposing that fall's "People's Veto" challenging the state's just-passed law protecting gays and lesbians from unfair treatment based on prejudice.
There's probably a good reason for leaving that bumper sticker where it is, although I can't recall what it is. Right now, though, I've got more important things to think about, like taxes. Recently I learned about a group that is trying to keep ours down.
According to its website, Fed up with Taxes is a coalition of Maine citizens, businesses and organizations tired of paying high taxes. The fledgling organization has organized their own "People's Veto" (Question One on this year's ballot) seeking to repeal a recently approved law increasing taxes on beer and wine and adding new assessments on flavored water, sports drinks, colas, diet colas, juice drinks and health insurance claims. Fed up with Taxes doesn't care for L.D. 2247, nor do they like that it was passed by the legislature at the last minute.
Most Mainers prefer low taxes to high ones, but more important is how governments actually spend our money. Thoughtful citizens shouldn't object to the amount of federal taxes they pay as much as they should to having our money misspent. For example, financing an expensive and poorly executed war initiated by a group of unrepentant, willful dissemblers should inspire anger, not to mention a demand for accountability. Earmarking $700 billion to bail out some greedy speculators on Wall Street should stimulate similar ire.
Maine's taxes are higher than those in some states, but what do they buy us? We have a well-trained police force and a strong educational system. Alabamans and Mississippians pay lower taxes than we do, but their states don't have highways requiring immediate attention a dozen or more times every winter. Those state governments needn't maintain expensive plowing equipment, nor repair salt-damaged roads ravaged by the effects of constant freezing and re-freezing each year. North Dakota's state taxes are lower than ours, but there are precious few forests there and the nearest ocean is more than a thousand miles away. Taxes levied in any given place generally reflect the quality of life there. Florida has no income tax, but anyone who's lived through a brutal eight month summer there knows why.
The stated purpose of Maine's new beverage tax is to help fund Dirigo Health, the program designed to provide badly needed affordable health coverage for people who are self-employed, or who own small businesses. Michael F. Jacobsen, the executive director of the non-partisan Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), suggests that "if we raised taxes on soda by a penny or two a can {Nationally}, it could raise billions of dollars that could be used to promote public health." He further opines that "larger increases on alcoholic beverages, which are long overdue at both the federal level and in most states, would have the added benefit of reducing underage drinking. Existing taxes on beer, wine, and liquor don't even begin to cover the health care, public safety, and law enforcement costs of problem drinking." Dr. Lisa Letourneau, who has served on the Maine Medical Association's Public Health Committee, said in the May 22nd edition of the Portland Press Herald that it makes sense to fund health care with taxes on items like beer and soda that contribute to poor health. She added, "The proponents of this 'People's Veto' were very careful not to talk about what the {tax} money will go to do."
Lots of us quaff beer, sip wine, or enjoy a soft drink from time to time. However, it's difficult to see how the inconvenience of paying an extra three cents per 12 ounce bottle of beer, six cents per bottle of wine, or seven cents per 20 ounce bottle of soda is more important than helping make affordable health care available to more of our fellow Mainers. If the beverage tax is enacted it's likely that there'd be a little less soda, beer, and wine consumed in our state. That's bad news for purveyors of such products (many of whom not coincidentally are active members of Fed up with Taxes), but it's difficult to see how lowering consumption of the above-mentioned libations would have any lasting effect on society that is anything but positive.
According to the Fed up with Taxes website, a "Yes" vote on question one is a vote to repeal L.D. 2247.
And I just remembered why I'm going to leave that old green sticker on my bumper for at least another few weeks.
September 27, 2008 (Published in Journal-Tribune on September 30, 2008)
Andy Young teaches English at Kennebunk High School. He didn't consume any soda, beer, or wine while preparing this essay.
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