To the Editor:
Have you ever driven on School Street in Damariscotta? Well I have and I do it on a daily basis.
I can tell you, it’s some scary running the gauntlet of ruts and pot holes, especially when there’s on-coming traffic. I’d say you’d be a lot safer loading the family car on your trailer this coming Saturday night and driving it over to Wiscasset Speedway for the Demolition Derby than you are driving that down hill curve just before you reach Huston Dodge’s place on the left.
You could probably buckle-up and win that Derby with less wear and tear on your automobile than trying to navigate that particular stretch of road between the Bristol Road and Bus. Rt. 1. Speaking of buckle-up, “It’s the Law,” isn’t it?
If Augusta is so worried about legislating on our behavior to keep us safe, why don’t they do their job and maintain the roads?
Anyway, did you every wonder where our Maine State gas tax goes? It certainly doesn’t go to maintaining the roads. We know that. So, where does the money go? They will tell us, that School Street is not a state road, it’s a county road, or it’s someone else’s responsibility. Well I buy gas to drive on all the roads and the State collects tax on all my gas, so that argument doesn’t hold water.
Maine has the honor of being one of seven states that currently have a variable rate gas tax. Our failed Legislature in Augusta passed “enabling legislation,, which means it does not need to approve each subsequent change in the variable rate. The tax rate is based on inflation. That means it goes up automatically on or about Feb. 15 each year and will go up each year for eternity unless we take back the Legislature in November and change this misguided law.
The majority controlled legislature in Augusta not only raised and indexed our annual “motor fuels excise” (I think that means gas tax) to the annual Consumer Price Index (CPI), it also increased the State’s car registration fee to raise additional revenue for “transportation investment.” Now, just an aside, I need to ask a question, would a reasonable person interpret the words “transportation investment” to include roads? Apparently the majority-controlled legislature doesn’t.
Maine State Tax Rate on motor fuel is 29.5 percent of each dollar you pay for gas; that is the seventh highest in the Country, and it’s on auto-pilot.
Congratulations, majority controlled Maine State Legislature, you talk about Maine taking the leadership role, why are you proud of leadership in taxing the people?
The majority party has shown no leadership in jobs, no leadership in attracting new businesses through business friendly regulation and finally no leadership in stopping the export of our most precious possession, our children. Why must our children leave Maine to find work and take with them the next generation of Mainers to be born in some other state?
I honestly do not understand how any reasonable person could logically think that keeping the majority party in power is a good thing for the State of Maine.
Jim Carlton
Damariscotta
