Dear Editor:

The myth about tax cuts that business friendly politicians use to dupe the taxpaying public is that tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy somehow benefits everyone. Over the decades we have swallowed this myth hook, line and sinker. In the end, it is the wage earners who suffer from regressive tax policy while others reap the benefits.

Gov. Paul LePage’s regressive tax proposal is so bold in shifting tax burdens to the wage earners and homeowners that even some of his staunchest confederates find it hard to swallow. But Rep. Stephanie Hawke (R-Boothbay) is undeterred in keeping regressive tax policies on the table. She is co-sponsoring LD 1146, which gives business owners such as herself another undeserved free ride on taxpayers' backs.

LD 1146 is regressive in that it lowers the tax rate on capital gains on the sale of business property to a mere 3 percent. This is less than half the rate of what wage earners pay on their income.

There are two arguments that business friendly politicians put forward to convince us to pay their share of the tax bill. First they will say that it incentivizes businesses. Most people go into business to be their own boss and to make the most of their opportunity to build a valuable and profitable business. If someone is looking for a tax incentive to go into business; that’s not business, it’s taxpayer subsidized capitalism.

The other argument you will hear is that their tax savings will stimulate the economy via “trickle down economics.” To accept this assumption as true is to beg the question: why not just raise the standard deduction so everyone benefits more fairly from a tax reduction stimulus?

The answer of course is that the business friendly politicians want to stimulate their business clients’ economies, not ours. That is why these proposals are so regressive and do nothing for the average wage earner except to leave them to pay the taxes that others avoid using these special interest loopholes.

Let’s tell Rep. Hawke that she should pay her fair share of taxes like the rest of us.

Fred W. Nehring

Boothbay