RepRichCebra's Blog

Republican response to the governor’s weekly address

 

For weekend of May 3-4, 2008

 

 

Greetings, this is Rich Cebra, state representative from Naples. Governor Baldacci devoted his remarks this week to the terrible flooding in Aroostook County. We and all Mainers join him in wishing a speedy recovery for all those who have been affected by this disaster.

 

 

I’d like to talk about another disaster that has struck our state. But unlike an act of nature, this one can be stopped by the people of Maine before it can do serious damage. I’m talking about the huge tax increase that the Democrats jammed through the Legislature to bail out the failing program known as Dirigo Health.

 

 

The bill that carried this tax increase was sponsored by Representative Hannah Pingree, and a drive to repeal it is now under way. If it can collect the necessary signatures by mid-July, the taxes would be put on hold and the repeal initiative will be on the November ballot.

 

 

By now you have probably heard about this tax increase that will hit the people of Maine for more than $50 million dollars a year. What makes it especially outrageous is that it comes at a time when Mainers are being squeezed hard at every pressure point – at the gas pump, at the grocery store, in the health insurance market, and perhaps worst of all, when the truck shows up to pump heating oil into your tank.

 

 

The people have had it with the Democratic regime in Augusta that seems blind and deaf to the severe financial hardship now afflicting Maine families. That explains why a grass roots uprising against this tax hike is spreading like wildfire across the state.

 

 

The whole story behind this tax increase is one that covers the Democrat-controlled Legislature in shame and disgrace. In the last few days of the session – in mid-April – Democratic leaders unveiled their plan to double the tax on beer and wine and impose a huge new tax on soft drinks and the syrup used to make them. That tax will hit every kid who goes to a fast food restaurant for a soda after a soccer game.

 

 

As bad as those taxes are, the most shocking part of the Dirigo tax package is a 1.8 percent tax on paid medical claims. In other words, it’s a tax on doctors’ bills. Maine already has the second highest health insurance premiums in the country. This new tax will push the cost of coverage to new extremes. Over the next three years, the tax on medical bills will total more than $110 million – money that will come from employers and Maine’s working families. That should make Maine’s dismal business climate even worse and further dampen job creation – just what we need.

 

 

The 270,000 people on Medicaid – the so-called Maine Care – don’t have to worry. Their free medical care is covered 100 percent by the taxpayers.

 

 

And there’s more. The Dirigo rescue scheme also includes a $3.6 million dollar “loan” from the General Fund. That will cost the taxpayers $180,000 in lost interest earnings. And naturally it will have to be paid back.

 

 

While all this is terrible news for the workers of Maine, it’s great news for the elites at the top of the Dirigo heap. The Director of Dirigo Health knocked down a cool $152,000 last year in salary and benefits. The Deputy Director was not far behind, with a compensation package last year of $140,000. Say what you will about the majority party in Augusta – when it comes to taking care of their own, they dole out the big bucks. Of course, that’s easy to do when you’re spending other people’s money.

 

 

The Democrats knew this tax increase would not be popular with the people, so they tried to hide it. They snuck it through the Legislature under the cover of darkness on April 15 – which ironically enough is the dreaded Tax Day. They obviously had been working on it in secret for days, because it emerged as a full blown bill, with all the new tax revenues already calculated.

 

 

And mind you, they did all this with total disregard for the legislative process. There was no public hearing – no public input of any kind. So desperate were the Democrats to keep Dirigo alive that they engineered a brazen, in-your-face tax scheme that they ran through the House and Senate on party-line votes.

 

 

What makes this monstrosity even more appalling is that the day before, on April 14, the House voted along party lines to kill an insurance reform bill that could have saved Maine employers and families hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance costs.Was this some radical plan to reform our broken health insurance system? Not exactly. It merely would have done what the vast majority of states are already doing.

 

 

And what of Dirigo? When the Legislature passed it in 2003, we were assured it would be self-funding. It was supposed to provide affordable coverage to Maine’s 130,000 people without insurance by 2009. Five years later, it covers just over one-tenth of that number and obviously needs vast cash infusions from taxpayers to survive.

 

 

A columnist for the Portland Press Herald summed it up nicely: “So we are left with an additional $50 million dollars in taxes to pump up a program that currently covers a mere 13,681 people, only 5,000 of whom were without previous insurance. We could pay these 5,000 a subsidy to buy other insurance and save millions in Dirigo overhead costs.”

 

 

Let’s hope that the drive to repeal this repugnant tax increase sends a message to the majority party – we’re not going to take it anymore!