AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Gov. Paul LePage kicked off a round of hearings on his final two-year budget by taking the rare step of defending his ideas in person and taking questions from legislators.
It’s the latest step the Republican governor has taken in the past month that could ease the long-tense relationship between him and the Legislature. LePage’s appearance before lawmakers on Monday came a day before he was set to give the traditional state of the state address in person. Last year, he sent a letter instead.
Democratic Rep. Gay Grant, a member of the legislature’s joint committee on appropriations, asked LePage if the governor and legislators could go forward on a “clean slate.”
LePage said if civility returns, he has no problem with allowing officials from his administration to answer legislators’ questions.
“I will guarantee you will be not lacking of information,” he said.
In his $6.8 billion budget proposal, LePage calls for eventually lowering the top individual income tax rate from 10.15 percent to a 5.75 percent flat tax and reducing the top corporate income tax rate from 8.93 percent to 8.33 percent. He wants to help pay for the cuts by making the sales tax apply to more goods and services, such as concert and ski lift tickets.
LePage on Monday also discussed other ideas he has to spur economic growth in Maine and to attract young people to the rapidly aging state, including proposals he’s unsuccessfully pushed, such as no-interest student loans and a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for Maine businesses that help employees pay off their student loans.
“We’d be first in the nation, we’d be an outlier in a good direction,” he said, envisioning a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal proclaiming: “Come to Maine, get your student loans paid off.”
The governor wants to create a statewide teacher contract and encourage school regionalization, and says such ideas have support in dwindling and struggling rural communities.
Hearings on LePage’s budget proposal will continue over the next few months in the Legislature, where Republicans maintain 18-17 control of the Senate and Democrats have control the House.
Republicans have already supported parts of LePage’s proposal, though they also have criticized his previous efforts to expand the sales tax. Democrats say they’ll fight for middle class tax cuts, property tax relief and sending state income tax revenue to municipalities as required by law.
“Tax relief for the most wealthy Mainers shouldn’t come at the expense of low-income and elderly Mainers, who could be forced out of their homes if their property taxes continue to rise,” said Democratic Senate Minority Leader Troy Jackson.
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