With all the recent talk about affordability, Mainers deserve to know who has offered lasting solutions—and who has made living here more expensive.
This is Representative Russ White of Ellsworth with the Weekly Republican Address.
The soaring cost of living is making it increasingly difficult for seniors and retirees to remain in Maine—and for young people to stay, work, and raise their families here.
As household budgets have tightened, state government has continued to grow.
Under eight years of one-party Democratic control, Maine’s General Fund budget has increased from $7.2 billion to $12 billion. That is an increase of about 66 percent.
Mainers have every right to ask:
Have our biggest problems improved by 66 percent—or have they continued to get worse?
Has your household budget grown by 66 percent?
Despite record revenues, state government has repeatedly spent beyond available resources and then turned to higher taxes and fees to close the gap.
Recent measures have increased costs involving tobacco products, adult-use cannabis, streaming services, and paint. Changes affecting pension-income deductions have also increased taxes for some retirees.
These costs fall especially hard on working families and lower-income Mainers already struggling with housing, electricity, food, and property taxes. One national analysis ranked Maine’s overall state and local tax burden fifth-highest in the country as a percentage of personal income.
Legislative Republicans have repeatedly offered alternatives designed to let Maine people keep more of what they earn.
We proposed lowering electricity bills by reforming costly solar subsidies and contracts that shift expenses onto ratepayers.
We proposed using surplus revenues for permanent tax relief instead of temporary election-year checks that may cover one bill but do nothing to lower costs next month or next year.
We also supported allowing Maine taxpayers to benefit from new federal deductions for qualified tips and overtime pay.
These provisions could have provided continuing relief to waitstaff, hospitality employees, health-care workers, first responders, tradespeople, and others who depend on tips or work additional hours.
Republicans have also worked to protect Mainers from rapidly rising property taxes.
For approximately two decades, Maine law included municipal property-tax levy limits tied to income growth and property development. The bipartisan law allowed communities to exceed those limits with local approval, but it provided an important safeguard against unchecked increases.
That protection was repealed.
During the last legislative session, Republicans supported LD 542 to restore municipal property-tax levy limits. Legislative Democrats rejected it.
Democrats also ended the senior property-tax stabilization program after only one year. Although other property-tax relief programs were expanded, Republican efforts to restore stabilization failed.
These are meaningful differences in policy.
The Democrat approach expands government, creates new obligations, and relies on taxpayers to cover the cost.
The Republican approach controls spending; lowers long-term expenses by rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse; protects the truly needy; and leaves more money with the people who earned it.
Permanent tax relief would mean more money in household budgets and circulating through Maine’s economy.
It would help local businesses invest, expand, and create jobs—producing economic activity and revenue without continually reaching deeper into taxpayers’ wallets.
Affordability cannot be measured by election-year promises or a one-time government check.
It must be measured by what remains in your bank account after paying for electricity, heat, food, housing, and property taxes.
For legislative Republicans, affordability is more than a slogan. It means controlling government spending, reducing unnecessary costs, and allowing Maine people to keep more of their hard-earned money.
This has been Representative Russ White with the Weekly Republican Address.
Thank you for listening.
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