Morning Sentinel: Will Cutting Taxes Make Maine Stronger?
media mentionWe can envision this future by looking at neighboring New Hampshire, which has neither general sales nor income tax, but relies heavily on the regressive property tax. There, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the poorest fifth pay 8.3 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes, while the wealthiest fifth pay 2.6 percent — one-third as much.
In Maine, because of its progressive income tax, the tax burden is distributed more evenly, with the poorest paying 9.4 percent and the richest 7.5 percent. That’s better than the national average, but — if the sales tax shift occurs — we’ll be at or above the typical tax burden on the poor, twice as high as for the wealthiest.