Tax policy gone horribly wrong

By Willy Ritch on May 29, 2008 4:17 PM

I was with Chellie this morning in South Portland for a candidate's debate put on by the Greater Portland Area Chamber of Commerce. Chellie got a question about tax policy. She talked about how unfair (and unwise) the Bush tax cuts have been, and the need to repeal them immediately. She also talked a little bit about her own experience, and I wanted to share what she said with you:

I do believe if you do well in this country you have a responsibility and an obligation to pay your fair share and that we have to have a sufficient amount of regulation -- particularly over what's going on on Wall Street and the credit markets today -- to make sure that we can count on fiscal and economic health.

I have called for a repeal of the Bush tax cuts. As Warren Buffet, who certainly is a great economic leader in our country, has said -- he shouldn't be paying a lower rate for taxes than the receptionist who works at the front desk in his office. I do think we all have a certain sense that there should be a reasonable amount of leveling in the tax playing field and I do come at this as a small business owner.

For many years I ran my own business on North Haven and I currently have a second business -- the inn and restaurant in the community. I know what it is to pay the taxes, to cover the health care costs of my own employees, to pay workers comp. I don't look at this just as an abstract notion, and I've always thought that all of us who are business owners have a responsibility to pay our fair share...

A lot of us look at people who are wealthy and say, "Well isn't that nice, they give to charity." But you know, I look at this a little differently. When I go to town meeting the first Saturday in March, I want to know that everybody paid their fair share. I want everybody in my town to be able to vote on what goes to the schools, what goes to the potholes, what goes to all the things we care about equally. I actually think that's the reason we have government, the reason we have a fair tax system.

I don't want to see the wealthiest in this country continue to get more wealthy and then say, "But it's ok; I can ease my conscience by giving it back to charity." That's a lot of what's happened in this country. We've got plenty of charitable giving. But I actually want to see us all pay into the same pool and decide together whether it goes for health care or education or improving the infrastructure of states like ours or giving back to the economy in a time when we're really struggling.

That's where the basis of my tax policy comes from. I think we've gone horribly wrong in the last eight years. The deficit is proving that to us, and I would vote to change those things.