* An earlier version of this email said that budget hearings start NEXT WEEK. They actually start THIS WEEK!

As many of you know, public hearings for Governor LePage's biennial budget start THIS WEEK. Please see below for dates and times of public hearings. If you would like to attend the public hearing or if you would like to help organize folks in your community to turn out to the public hearings, please contact MDP's Field Organizer Jonathan Hillier at jhillier@mainedems.org.

Wednesday, March 13: 1:00pm, Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee Room on the 2nd floor of the State Hou se. This hearing on cuts to revenue sharing which represent a missive tax shit onto towns and property tax payers. Maine People's Alliance, along with other allies, will hold a training at 11am in Legislative Council Chambers on the 2nd floor of the State House for those who wish to need help with testimony.
Monday, March 18 at 10am, Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee Room on the 2nd floor of the State House. This hearing will focus on education cuts.
OFF SITE HEARINGS: March 25 in Brewer (more info TBA)
OFF SITE HEARING: April 8 in Wells (more info TBA)

In this email you will find talking points that will be helpful for the upcoming hearing on the property tax shift.

TALKING POINTS: LePage Tax Shift

TOP LINE MESSAGE: Proposed cuts to municipalities and programs like circuit breaker and homestead exemption are just going to shift costs to towns and property tax payers.

SUPPORTING THEMES AND FACTS:

This budget proposal is taking the easy way out by passing the buck to municipalities rather than addressing the state’s budget problems head on.
Governor LePage and the Republicans say that they don’t want to increase taxes on Maine people yet LePage has proposed a budget that will hike up property taxes and take more money out of the pockets of working Mainers in order t o pay for unfunded tax cuts that largely benefit Maine’s wealthiest.
This budget is an example of misguided priorities. The Republicans would rather undermine government and its ability to meet the needs of Maine people than ask everyone to pay their fair share.

EXAMPLES OF IMPACTS:

These cuts leave two options to local towns: 1) increase property taxes 2) cut important funding to schools, road repairs or other municipal programs.
Year after year municipalities struggle to put a budget together. We’ve already cut our local budget to the bone and it’s costing all of us. We continually face the threat of having to close a school or leave unsafe bridges and roads unprepared. Cutting even more funding to towns and municipalities will only make matters worse.
As a working Mainer who struggles to make ends meet, I can’t afford to see my property taxes increase. Balancing the b udget on the backs of working people is unacceptable.

OTHER IMPORTANT NOTES: The best talking points tell a personal story. Please look over these talking points and think of local and personal examples of how cuts to municipalities and increased property taxes will impact you and your family. For example, perhaps your local school board is struggling to keep your local school over because of continued loss of funds from the state or perhaps your town is already increasing property taxes to keep schools open and roads repaired.

Maine Legislature

House Democratic Office

www.housedemocrats.maine.gov

ADVANCE COPY – Democratic Radio Address Text

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE ON MARCH 9

March 8, 2013

Contact: Ann Kim: 287-1430, cell 233-1838

REP. MCCABE: GOVERNOR MUST RESPECT THE WILL OF VOTERS, RELEASE BONDS TO STIMULATE ECONOMY

Go od morning. I’m Assistant House Majority Leader Jeff McCabe of Skowhegan. Thank you for tuning in.

Maine’s economy needs a jump start. Fifty-thousands of our friends and neighbors remain out of work.

We have a sure-fire way to give our economy a shot in the arm and create jobs. Maine voters have approved bonds that would pump nearly $300 million dollars of investment into our state economy.

The problem is that Governor Paul LePage is holding these bonds hostage. He is refusing to release these bonds until he gets his way on his liquor contract proposal. This is no way to perform the work that Maine people elected us to do.

The governor has arbitrarily and artificially linked the release of voter-approved bonds to his convoluted plan for the state’s wholesale liquor business and the final debt payment to our hospitals.

It’s a debt that Democrats take seriously – so much so that we improved the payment system to ensure further debt does not occur.

Maine has been paying the hospitals steadily and increasingly. Maine has already paid more than $3.7 billion to hospitals over the past decade.

These bonds the governor is holding hostage are in no way related to the governor’s liquor plan. But he insists on pretending that they are.

These are bipartisan bond packages that the Legislature passed by a two-thirds vote before sending them out to the voters. Some of these bonds by a Republican-controlled Legislature.

Maine voters approved the bonds at the polls in 2010 and 2012. The governor must stop disrespecting the will of Maine people.

Instead, he has essentially handed the Legislature and Maine voters a ransom note. It’s one that reads, “I have your bonds. If you ever expect to see their benefit, you better give me what I want.”

These bonds should already be boosting our economy and creating jobs in areas like transportation, higher education construction and clean water improvements.

These bonds are worth much more than their $105 million face value. For some of these projects, we could be taking advantage of a 5:1 federal match. There’s also the priceless value of getting our economy moving.

I’d like to tell you about the kinds of projects the governor has stalled:

· community health and dental clinics that keep our people healthy – and more productive in the workplace;

· improved roads and bridges to facilitate commerce;

· the seaports and airports needed for travel and to ship and receive goods;

· conservation that protects our natural resources – a vital part of our heritage that draws visitors to our state;

· historic preservation that can help our downtowns thrive;

· and investments in higher education to help Maine compete for the jobs of tomorrow.

Communities around our state are waiting for these investments. They include rural towns where the local economies are in particular need of a boost.

Maine voters – whether they went to the polls in Calais or Kittery – did not know our chief executive would disregard their voices in this way. How could they have possibly anticipated such a thing?

We need to move on these projects. Spring and construction season are almost here. We can’t afford to lose this opportunity to put Mainers to work and spur our economy.

We can’t let our resources continue to crumble. Our state has the most highway miles in New England, but they’re funded at the lowest level per mile. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave our roads a grade of “D.”

Our unemployment rates in the construction trades are among the highest in New England. How many more unemployment checks have to be issued before the governor releases these voter-approved bonds?

He could do it anytime he wants. It would only take a stroke of his pen.

This is Assistant House Majority Jeff McCabe. Thank you for listening.