Maine
Maine Center for Economic Policy: Proposed Medicaid Cuts Put Maine Families’ Incomes At Risk
February 22, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
Proposed Medicaid cuts could affect over 400,000 Mainers, especially children, older adults, and families with low income, reducing access to essential health care and economic stability. Read more.
Maine: Who Pays? 7th Edition
January 9, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
Maine Download PDF All figures and charts show 2024 tax law in Maine, presented at 2023 income levels. Senior taxpayers are excluded for reasons detailed in the methodology. Our analysis includes nearly all (99.8 percent) state and local tax revenue collected in Maine. State and local tax shares of family income Top 20% Income Group […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy: Impacts of Proposed Income Tax Rate Reduction
March 30, 2023 • By ITEP Staff
House and Senate Republicans are demanding income tax cuts be part of the budget, and Democrats in the legislature were right to make sure they didn’t have the tools to threaten a state shutdown to get them. As the legislature prepares to pass a current services budget to avoid a stalemate in June that could […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy: New Tax Relief Plan Will Disproportionately Benefit Wealthy Seniors
August 30, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
This year, lawmakers included a tax change in the state’s budget that will significantly expand tax benefits for pension recipients in Maine. Beginning in 2023, pension recipients will be allowed to exempt up to $25,000 in pension income from state income taxes, and that amount will increase to $35,000 for tax years 2025 and after. […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy: Tax Policy Options: Maine Needs Progressive Revenue Solutions to Build a Stronger, Fairer Future
January 27, 2021 • By ITEP Staff
Generally, the sales tax is regressive. The poorest one-fifth of families pay a share of their income in Maine sales taxes that is nearly nine times larger than the top 1 percent. Poorer households pay larger shares of their income in sales taxes than wealthy households in part because wealthier households save a larger percent […]
Maine Reaches Tax Fairness Milestone
September 26, 2019 • By Guest Blogger
Lawmakers in Maine this year took bold steps toward making the state’s tax system fairer. Their actions demonstrate that political will can dramatically alter state tax policy landscape to improve economic well-being for low-income families while also ensuring the wealthy pay a fairer share.
MECEP: NEW REPORT: Maine reaches new milestone on the road to tax fairness
September 4, 2019 • By ITEP Staff
Starting in 2020 and for the first time in decades, the Mainers who earn the least will no longer pay a larger share of their income to state and local taxes than those who earn the most, according to a policy brief published today by the Maine Center for Economic Policy.
Many States Move Toward Higher Taxes on the Rich; Lower Taxes on Poor People
July 18, 2019 • By Meg Wiehe
Several states this year proposed or enacted tax policies that would require high-income households and/or businesses to pay more in taxes. After years of policymaking that slashed taxes for wealthy households and deprived states of revenue to adequately fund public services, this is a necessary and welcome reversal.
Maine Center for Economic Policy: To Fund Shared Prosperity, We Must End LePage-Era Tax Cuts for the Wealthiest
February 6, 2019 • By ITEP Staff
For years under Gov. Paul LePage, budget-busting tax cuts robbed our state of the revenue we need to build a stronger, fairer economy. Tax cuts delivered windfalls to the wealthiest households in our state, making it harder for our schools and communities to make ends meet. Read more
Maine Center for Economic Policy: The Prosperity Budget
January 15, 2019 • By ITEP Staff
Where State of Working Maine 2018 investigated the nature of work in the modern economy and made recommendations to reaffirm our values of fairness and respect in the workplace, the Prosperity Budget examines the opportunity to leverage state budget and tax policy to build a stronger economy where every Mainer has an equal opportunity to […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy: Maine Still Has Work to Do in Building a Balanced and Adequate Tax Code
October 17, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
Building an inclusive economy requires tax policy that meets two conditions. The first is that those with the most are asked to pay more, or at the very least pay as great a share of their income in taxes as everyone else. The second is that enough shared resources are raised through the tax code to invest adequately in foundations of a strong economy including good schools, access to health care, and safe and modern infrastructure.
Maine: Who Pays? 6th Edition
October 17, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
MAINE Read as PDF MAINE STATE AND LOCAL TAXES Taxes as Share of Family Income Top 20% Income Group Lowest 20% Second 20% Middle 20% Fourth 20% Next 15% Next 4% Top 1% Income Range Less than $19,700 $19,700 to $35,800 $35,800 to $56,100 $56,100 to $91,000 $91,000 to $185,500 $185,500 to $434,500 over $434,500 […]
Tax Cuts 2.0 – Maine
September 26, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
The $2 trillion 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) includes several provisions set to expire at the end of 2025. Now, GOP leaders have introduced a bill informally called “Tax Cuts 2.0” or “Tax Reform 2.0,” which would make the temporary provisions permanent. And they falsely claim that making these provisions permanent will benefit […]
The Free Press: Think Tank Releases Blueprint to Fully Fund Education, Medicaid & Lower Property Taxes
September 20, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
Tax cuts passed by the Maine Legislature and Gov. Paul LePage over the past eight years will cost the state $864 million in revenue in the next biennium, according to an analysis by the Maine Center for Economic Policy and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. At the same time the state continues to ignore its legal obligations to fully fund education, Medicaid expansion and revenue sharing.
Press Herald: Will Maine Referendum On Home Care Result In ‘Marriage Penalty’ Tax?
August 17, 2018 • By Aidan Davis
Aidan Davis, senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, wrote a letter to the Secretary of State’s Office on June 15 stating that the income threshold would be double for married couples filing jointly. “We found the language of the initiative to be clear in describing that individual (not household) […]
Building on Momentum from Recent Years, 2018 Delivers Strengthened Tax Credits for Workers and Families
July 10, 2018 • By Aidan Davis
Despite some challenging tax policy debates, a number of which hinged on states’ responses to federal conformity, 2018 brought some positive developments for workers and their families. This post updates a mid-session trends piece on this very subject. Here’s what we have been following:
Maine Center for Economic Policy: Comparing the Democratic and GOP tax bills
April 17, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
Because of the federal tax overhaul spearheaded by President Trump and Congressional Republicans, the Maine Legislature is considering two competing proposals to change its own tax code. Lawmakers face a stark choice: Will Maine double down on the lopsided tax policy set at the federal level, which favors those at the top at the expense […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy Policy Brief: The LePage Tax Bill
March 9, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
On March 1, Gov. Paul LePage’s Administration presented a tax bill to the Legislature designed to mirror at the state level some of the reforms enacted by passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act at the federal level. The proposal is framed as simple conformity with federal law but goes much further than routine […]
How the Final GOP-Trump Tax Bill Would Affect Maine Residents’ Federal Taxes
December 16, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The final tax bill that Republicans in Congress are poised to approve would provide most of its benefits to high-income households and foreign investors while raising taxes on many low- and middle-income Americans. The bill would go into effect in 2018 but the provisions directly affecting families and individuals would all expire after 2025, with […]
How the House and Senate Tax Bills Would Affect Maine Residents’ Federal Taxes
December 6, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The House passed its “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” November 16th and the Senate passed its version December 2nd. Both bills would raise taxes on many low- and middle-income families in every state and provide the wealthiest Americans and foreign investors substantial tax cuts, while adding more than $1.4 trillion to the deficit over ten years. The graph below shows that both bills are skewed to the richest 1 percent of Maine residents.
How the Revised Senate Tax Bill Would Affect Maine Residents’ Federal Taxes
November 13, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The Senate tax bill released last week would raise taxes on some families while bestowing immense benefits on wealthy Americans and foreign investors. In Maine, 37 percent of the federal tax cuts would go to the richest 5 percent of residents, and 11 percent of households would face a tax increase, once the bill is fully implemented.
How the House Tax Proposal Would Affect Maine Residents’ Federal Taxes
November 6, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was introduced on November 2 in the House of Representatives, includes some provisions that raise taxes and some that cut taxes, so the net effect for any particular family’s federal tax bill depends on their situation. Some of the provisions that benefit the middle class — like lower tax rates, an increased standard deduction, and a $300 tax credit for each adult in a household — are designed to expire or become less generous over time. Some of the provisions that benefit the wealthy, such as the reduction and eventual repeal of the estate…
GOP-Trump Tax Framework Would Provide Richest One Percent in Maine with 38.8 Percent of the State’s Tax Cuts
October 4, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The “tax reform framework” released by the Trump administration and congressional Republican leaders on September 27 would not benefit everyone in Maine equally. The richest one percent of Maine residents would receive 38.8 percent of the tax cuts within the state under the framework in 2018. These households are projected to have an income of at least $473,000 next year. The framework would provide them an average tax cut of $30,390 in 2018, which would increase their income by an average of 2.5 percent.
Maine Center for Economic Policy: Maine Millionaires Primary Recipients of Proposed Trump Tax Breaks
August 17, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
New analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows Maine’s millionaires would get an average tax cut of $135,220 under President Trump’s proposed tax plan. Maine millionaires represent only 0.3 percent of all Maine households, yet would receive more than a quarter of all tax breaks.
In Maine 28.6 Percent of Trump’s Proposed Tax Cuts Go to People Making More than $1 Million
August 17, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
A tiny fraction of the Maine population (0.3 percent) earns more than $1 million annually. But this elite group would receive 28.6 percent of the tax cuts that go to Maine residents under the tax proposals from the Trump administration. A much larger group, 47.5 percent of the state, earns less than $45,000, but would receive just 8.1 percent of the tax cuts.
