If someone is making a million dollars a year here, they can afford to pay a little more to fund our schools and essential services.
Ten years ago, my family of four earned just shy of $60,000. Today, our combined income is well over double the average income for a Maine family. I share this with some hesitation, but I’m doing it because I want to make an important point: above a certain level, income can and should be taxed more.
The difference between struggling to make ends meet and having financial security is life-changing. A decade ago, I worried about how we would afford to fix our car if it broke down. Today, we can save for emergencies, pay off student loans and support local businesses.
And yet, even with this increase in income, my family wouldn’t come close to being affected by the two tax proposals currently before the Maine Legislature — a tax on income above $1 million that would fund public education (LD 1089) and a tax on capital gains above $500,000 (LD 1047) — which ask only the wealthiest Mainers to contribute a little more.
To be affected by these bills, we’d need to quintuple our income. Honestly, I don’t even know what we’d do with that much money. Buy a boat? Buy two boats? If someone is making a million dollars a year in Maine, they can afford to pay a little more in taxes to fund our public schools and essential services.
Meanwhile, in Lewiston, where my kids attend public school, last year’s school budget failed twice before finally passing on the third try. When I spoke to neighbors, many told me the same thing: their property taxes kept going up while their fixed incomes stayed the same. They wanted to support our kids, but they also needed to keep their homes from falling apart.
This is the false choice we’ve been forcing Mainers to make for over a decade: well-funded schools or dignity in old age. MaineCare or child care. Affordable permanent housing or emergency housing. We pit grandparents against grandchildren, and we all lose.
Maine cannot continue to ask middle- and lower-income families to carry the load while the wealthiest keep getting tax breaks. If our first response to a budget shortfall is “How do we cut services for kids?” instead of “Maybe the millionaire down the street can afford to pay a little more instead of buying another yacht,” then we are doing our budget wrong.
It’s time to do better. It’s time to ask the wealthy to pay their fair share. Maine lawmakers should pass these two pieces of legislation without hesitation.
