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State News Release |
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| Democrats Planning Draconian Budget Cuts. |
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MAINE GREEN INDEPENDENT PARTY Contact: Republicans Pushing for Deeper Cuts Greens Demanding Alternatives Augusta, ME -- The Maine Green Independent Party notes that the Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature are both proposing budget cuts in Medicaid for Maine's most vulnerable citizens, while both corporate-funded parties refuse to discuss raising revenues through fair taxation of wealthy citizens and multinational corporations. "This is one of the reasons why the Maine Green Independent Party is running so many candidates for the Legislature this year," said Ms. Heather Garrold, co-chair of the Maine Green Independent Party and a nurse mid-wife, referring to the twenty-three Green legislative candidates that were recently certified to run in the November elections. "This backs our contention that, with the other two parties, the most vulnerable citizens of the state can only face more years of desperation and hopelessness, and the rest of us will feel it next." Ms. Garrold was referring to the news, as published in the Portland Press Herald on Saturday, April 10, that the two parties are moving to further shred what remains of the state's social safety net. The article of April 10 reported that Democrats on the Legislature's Appropriations Committee have 'moderated' Governor John Baldacci's proposal to cut Medicaid by $80 million down to $60 million. Republicans reportedly argued that the proposed cuts to Medicaid do not go far enough. Furthermore, the budget in committee would impose taxes on low-income Mainers via a tax on boarding homes and raise revenues, in part, by raising a tax on hospitals. "We should not consider taxing low-income folks who live in boarding houses, while refusing to talk about raising taxes on second homes owned by the super-wealthy, like the Bush family. We should not increase the taxes on hospitals before raising taxes on out-of-state health insurance carriers. Instead, we should consider raising the sales tax back to six percent and increasing the tax on meals-and-lodgings and big-ticket luxury items like yachts," said Representative John Eder (Green- Portland). Illustrative of the broad popular support for the Maine Green Independent Party's position on these budgetary proposals concerning Medicaid is the fact that Baldacci's own proposed cuts for Medicaid drew more than 1,000 people to the Augusta Civic Center on March 15 because of the furor created by the Governor's proposed cuts. Meanwhile, the Governor will continue to seek to find some way to fund an expansion of the middle-school laptop program, according to the same article. "Neither the Democratic nor Republican budget plans call for true tax equity amongst wealthy corporations and individuals, who don't share nearly the same tax burden as the low and middle income classes," said Ben Meiklejohn, a state party Co-Chair and elected member of the Portland School Committee. "The Legislature should be looking at a more fairly disbursed tax burden among the various income brackets, to achieve more revenue, instead of slashing Medicaid and other vital social services." MORE INFORMATION |
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