I am sure you have been hearing this story a lot but only today as I called in to refill my seizure control medicine prescription and a refill on my 11 year old’s allergy medicine which helps control her asthma did I find out that my family no longer has MaineCare.

My pharmacists said she has had to tell at least 20 different people today that they too didn’t have coverage anymore. She added, “good luck getting through to them, I heard they had over 300 calls yesterday.”

Without giving notice – beside political posturing did LePage give us fair notice? He just set tens of thousands of Maine residents adrift without a life vest, not a oar or even pointing which direct to go for survival.

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In this time of budget crises we are hearing increasing calls to tax the rich. Working people paying the cost of our wars with both their lives and their taxes are outraged that corporations like General Electric, with huge profits, pay nothing toward the many government services which allow them to make so much money.

When a real estate investor buys land for $1,000 an acre and sells it five years later for $30,000 an acre, he has not created that wealth. That wealth was created by the community: the workers, business people, and governments that developed the city surrounding the investor’s land. The community creates the services, and the demand,that increases the value of this land. The investor may have done nothing but sign a promissory note to pay for that land, yet we have accepted a system where all of the increased value goes to the person who signed the note. We then tax that income, at the most, at approximately one third. We leave two thirds of this huge increase in private hands while the rest of us work and scrape to pay for the services that will multiply his next investment.
It doesn’t have to be this way.

President Kennedy used to quote Luke 12:48, “From those to whom much is given, much is required,” and he lived that simple concept of justice. Just 50 years ago, under President Kennedy, we recognized this principle and taxed the wealthy at a 70 percent tax rate. From those to whom much is given, much is required. Today, we tax the wealthy at approximately 35 percent, or one-half of the previous rate, and wonder why we face budget shortfalls at every level of government.

Donald Trump’s salary is reportedly $42,000,000 per year, primarily from real estate investments. Yet we—the community—create the conditions that increase the value of his investments every year. Increasing his tax contribution from 35 percent ($13,000,000) to 70 percent ($26,000,000) per year would not only make a significant
contribution to our budget problems, it would be fair. We resist implementing this simple and obvious solution to our budget crises only because we have been trained to believe that $42,000,000 he makes each year is entirely his money. It is not.

No one becomes wealthy without a lot of help from a lot of people, and Trump is no exception. It is time to demand that Trump and other wealthy individuals and large corporations pay their fair share of the costs it takes to fund our country and our states. Tax justice is a simple step we can take to address the financial crises we are facing
and stop the ever-increasing concentration of power and money in our country.
—————————–
Leeper is a Madison attorney actively supporting the protests against
Governor Walker’s attack on public employees and collective
bargaining. Leeper has served as a District Attorney in Wisconsin and
has taught human rights, peace and conflict, negotiations, and rule of
law courses in Ukraine, Spain, Zimbabwe, and the United States.
David D. Leeper
Attorney, Mediator, and Conflict Consultant
866 Terry Place, Madison, WI 53711
608-238-7177 daveleeper@gmail.com Fax 608-238-3312

By Perry B. Newman a South Portland resident and president of Atlantica Group, an international business consulting firm based in Portland, with clients in North America, Israel and Europe. He is also chairman of the Maine District Export Council.

By now the world knows that Maine Gov. Paul LePage ordered the removal of a mural from the walls of the Maine Department of Labor in Augusta. The mural depicted Mainers across the generations in the struggle for workers’ rights.

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There seems to be an epidemic of illogical thinking among Maine’s top government officials.

It ranges from taxing the purchase of garden vegetable seeds (versus no sales tax on “food” in general, including soda pop and candy) to thinking that with BPA, the “worst case is some women may have little beards” (versus the clear scientific consensus that the endocrine hormone disruption by BPA can severely affect fetuses, etc, etc, etc.).  Perhaps Gov. Paul La Page is not familiar with Dr. Louis Guillette’s research on hormone disrupting chemicals, causing small penises in alligators in Florida!

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Tomorrow Mainers will elect a new governor. Because of what’s at stake, it is critical that you vote.

Paul LePage is an ultra-conservative, tea party zealot. Not only is he committed to barring any attempt for marriage equality in our state but he also wants to repeal existing protections for LGBT Mainers.

We are very fortunate to have two pro-marriage candidates for governor from which to choose: Democrat Libby Mitchell and Independent Eliot Cutler.

A majority of Mainers will vote for these two pro-marriage candidates tomorrow and yet, sadly, we may be saddled with an anti-equality governor for four years. An average of recent polling puts LePage at 39.3%, Cutler at 26.5% and Mitchell at 23.3%.

It has been our strategy from the beginning of this campaign to defeat Paul LePage, and to support the pro-marriage candidate who is within striking distance of that goal.

Tomorrow, please vote for the pro-marriage candidate who you believe has the best chance of beating LePage. Not voting is not an option.

Vote tomorrow like your rights depend on it – because in all honesty, they do.

Betsy Smith, Executive Director

The Maine Small Business Coalition (MSBC) is proud to endorse Libby Mitchell for governor. She has a strong plan to help businesses on Main Street. Mitchell’s plans for tax credits, infrastructure upgrades, and her commitment to universal healthcare are the types of ideas that Maine small businesses need to help grow and create jobs.

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This past Monday I ran into Governor Baldacci at Amato’s and I had a nice conversation with him. I have copied my follow up note to him below and I hope it helps to reinforce the importance of visual media production in Maine.

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On Tuesday February 23rd 2010 Moosehead Cedar Log Homes suffered a fire at our manufacturing facility in Greenville Maine.

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Opportunity Maine released our Green Jobs, Green Savings report at a press conference on Wednesday to provide a broad range of examples and context for how different states have pursued comprehensive economic and workforce development strategies in the energy efficiency and renewable energy sector.

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Where do we begin as every day people living in extraordinary times?
For those of us who found hope and solace in the election of President
Obama and a senate majority, we are suddenly standing on our own,
recalling history and Martin Luther King Jr. Yes, we were naïve to
think that change would come easily, if at all; though I prefer to
call us idealistic, optimistic and hopeful.

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