In a video posted to Youtube on Saturday, Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook) said all income tax cuts are essentially tax cuts for the wealthy.
He’s wrong.
Jackson touts property tax “relief,” which often means giving more tax dollars to towns with no guarantee of lower mill rates, but he declares any reduction in income taxes to be a giveaway to the wealthy.
In fact, the tax policy Jackson says he supports over income tax cuts — property tax relief payments — is more regressive than the Maine Policy Institute’s proposal to eliminate income taxes for anyone making less than $50,000 per year.
In other words, Jackson’s preferred tax policy will benefit wealthy property owners — in the event municipalities actually pass along the benefits — far more than the MPI income tax reform plan.
Exempting the first $50,000 of income earned for a single filer, as MPI has suggested, would provide relief directly to middle class Mainers.
Given soaring tax revenues and a Rainy Day fund near its statutory maximum, now is the perfect time for legislators to pursue this commonsense reform.
(Disclosure: The Maine Wire is a project of the Maine Policy Institute.)
