Excellent article. This should be posted wider statewide. That said, I might recommend adding a discussion about taxing non-resident owners at a higher property tax rate than full time residents(I.e. the Taylor Swift tax). Perhaps with a value floor that would naturally exempt older 3-season camps. This would have to be allowed at the state level but would be up to each municipality whether and how to enforce. There appears to be broad appeal across the state for something like this.
Great information about the challenge of raising money to fund government.
But if we think about taxation and policy, from a results prospective, is there a role model that seems to be achieving enviable results?
I write this from my hotel in Tallin, Estonia, population 1.4 million, about the same as Maine. They have been ruled by their neighbors, except for twenty years following the Russian Revolution, and then again in 1991 when the Soviet Union ended. So it’s a country that had little or no say in their public policy for most of their 1,000 year history.
Their post-Soviet public policy nurtured the dynamic, creative founders of Skype, who sold it to E-Bay in 2005 for $2.6 billion.
Think about that. In just 24 years Estonia’s new public policy resulted in a team of their citizens, creating and selling a multi-billion dollar business.
Wow, what would Maine looked like if we had nurtured creative folks like Estonia did! What did we do differently over those 24 years? Can’t we make a drastic change? If we keep doing what we have been doing, we will keep getting what we’ve been getting.
I don’t know the list of the policies, but someone does. It makes me curious to know what Estonia is doing.
The techies seem to be doing very well, but how are the Estonian people doing? Wikipedia describes it as a “developed country with a high-income, advanced economy, and Europe membership. Estonia is among the least corrupt countries in the world. It ranks very high in international rankings for: education, human development, press freedom, online public services, and the prevalence of technology companies.”
In 2000 Estonia became the first country in the world to pass legislation that established the legal framework to guarantee access to the web as a basic human right!
In addition, Estonia is further north than any city in Maine or in the United States.
If we started with making Maine the number one least corrupt state in the US, that would be an important start. Maine isn’t in the top five most corrupt states, so that is a good start. Maine also isn’t in the five least corrupt states, so we have an opportunity to enhance our trustworthiness and credibility.
Washingtonian here. There have been a handful of attempts over the years to pass an income tax but they have thus far been ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court. Recently a “millionaire’s tax” was approved by the Democratic-controlled Legislature, but it remains to be seen whether it will withstand court scrutiny.
In opposing the millionaire’s tax, Republicans warned that the Democrats would eventually extend it to pretty much everyone. In theory that’s possible, but in practice Washingtonians are so anti-income tax that it would be political suicide.
What’s curious about that opposition is that our state’s current taxation system is both highly regressive and susceptible to wild swings in revenue. That can result in more difficult budget decisions during recessions, when sales tax revenue can drop off much more sharply than in states with an income tax.
Washington is a useful case study because it is a no-income tax state that is medium sized, somewhat urban and offers a range of services typical of Democrats in other West Coast states such as Oregon and Washington.
From a fiscal standpoint this is a tenuous situation, but it doesn’t look to be politically fixable beyond the millionaire’s tax. My guess is that the current, Democratic-leaning court will approve it, but might that lead to a voter backlash against these elected justices? Welcome to Washington. . . .
Excellent article. This should be posted wider statewide. That said, I might recommend adding a discussion about taxing non-resident owners at a higher property tax rate than full time residents(I.e. the Taylor Swift tax). Perhaps with a value floor that would naturally exempt older 3-season camps. This would have to be allowed at the state level but would be up to each municipality whether and how to enforce. There appears to be broad appeal across the state for something like this.
Great information about the challenge of raising money to fund government.
But if we think about taxation and policy, from a results prospective, is there a role model that seems to be achieving enviable results?
I write this from my hotel in Tallin, Estonia, population 1.4 million, about the same as Maine. They have been ruled by their neighbors, except for twenty years following the Russian Revolution, and then again in 1991 when the Soviet Union ended. So it’s a country that had little or no say in their public policy for most of their 1,000 year history.
Their post-Soviet public policy nurtured the dynamic, creative founders of Skype, who sold it to E-Bay in 2005 for $2.6 billion.
Think about that. In just 24 years Estonia’s new public policy resulted in a team of their citizens, creating and selling a multi-billion dollar business.
Wow, what would Maine looked like if we had nurtured creative folks like Estonia did! What did we do differently over those 24 years? Can’t we make a drastic change? If we keep doing what we have been doing, we will keep getting what we’ve been getting.
I don’t know the list of the policies, but someone does. It makes me curious to know what Estonia is doing.
The techies seem to be doing very well, but how are the Estonian people doing? Wikipedia describes it as a “developed country with a high-income, advanced economy, and Europe membership. Estonia is among the least corrupt countries in the world. It ranks very high in international rankings for: education, human development, press freedom, online public services, and the prevalence of technology companies.”
In 2000 Estonia became the first country in the world to pass legislation that established the legal framework to guarantee access to the web as a basic human right!
In addition, Estonia is further north than any city in Maine or in the United States.
If we started with making Maine the number one least corrupt state in the US, that would be an important start. Maine isn’t in the top five most corrupt states, so that is a good start. Maine also isn’t in the five least corrupt states, so we have an opportunity to enhance our trustworthiness and credibility.
Washingtonian here. There have been a handful of attempts over the years to pass an income tax but they have thus far been ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court. Recently a “millionaire’s tax” was approved by the Democratic-controlled Legislature, but it remains to be seen whether it will withstand court scrutiny.
In opposing the millionaire’s tax, Republicans warned that the Democrats would eventually extend it to pretty much everyone. In theory that’s possible, but in practice Washingtonians are so anti-income tax that it would be political suicide.
What’s curious about that opposition is that our state’s current taxation system is both highly regressive and susceptible to wild swings in revenue. That can result in more difficult budget decisions during recessions, when sales tax revenue can drop off much more sharply than in states with an income tax.
Washington is a useful case study because it is a no-income tax state that is medium sized, somewhat urban and offers a range of services typical of Democrats in other West Coast states such as Oregon and Washington.
From a fiscal standpoint this is a tenuous situation, but it doesn’t look to be politically fixable beyond the millionaire’s tax. My guess is that the current, Democratic-leaning court will approve it, but might that lead to a voter backlash against these elected justices? Welcome to Washington. . . .