Firefighters, city officials say Mills’ budget shortchanges municipalities

With the cut to revenue sharing, Mills may end up continuing the legacy of her predecessor, Governor LePage, who shifted state tax reliance away from the income tax and onto sales and property taxes. The income tax is the only one of the three that is progressive, affecting the wealthy to a greater degree than poor and middle-class Mainers.

“In 2011, 2015, and 2017, income tax breaks cut into state revenues and municipal revenue sharing, along with education funding, paid the price of those tax cuts,” testified Sarah Austin, a policy analyst with the Maine Center for Economic Policy. “While this budget does not propose any new tax cuts, it continues all the tax breaks already written into our tax code, thus perpetuating their legacy of underfunded communities.”

Click here to read the full story, published March 20, 2019, in Beacon.