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10/9/08
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9 comments
Study: burden of new tax too heavy
Professor estimates cost at $40 million
The doctors and others who oppose Question 1 — the ballot initiative that would repeal a new beverage tax on soda, beer and wine designed to help pay for and expand DirigoChoice — say the tax would cost Mainers mere pennies per drink. But those who want the initiative, or People’s Veto, to pass insist that the excise tax’s actual costs would be much higher — and now they have a study by a University of Maine economist they say proves it. “It’s bad enough to impose a new tax at a time like this, but it’s even worse than it looks,” Maine House Republican leader Josh Tardy said Wednesday. According to the study done by Todd Gabe, associate professor of economics at UMaine, the financial burden on Mainers if the initiative fails would be worse than what the Legislature estimated. Fed Up With Taxes, the political action committee behind Question 1, paid the university almost $21,700 to help fund the study. Gabe estimated that Mainers would pay $40 million in additional taxes on beverages per year and therefore spend less on drinks. According to the study, this would lead to an estimated statewide reduction in “sales revenue” of $26 million per year, and the loss of 395 full- and part-time jobs. Many who support Question 1 find this troubling, including Kristine Ossenfort of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce. “I think what’s of significant concern to us is the possible loss of jobs,” Ossenfort said Wednesday. Others against the tax also take exception to its scope, saying that it wouldn’t affect just wine, beer and soda, but almost every beverage that’s not pure juice, pure water or milk. “It’s a massive tax. It’s going to hit every refrigerator in the state of Maine,” Newell Augur, the spokesman of Fed Up With Taxes, said earlier this week. According to an analysis from the Maine Legislature’s Insurance and Financial Services Committee, the new tax should raise about $17 million in the 2009 fiscal year. The tax would replace the unpredictable, controversial Savings Offset Payment as a funding source for Dirigo-Choice, the health insurance programs that have a roughly $50 million annual operating budget and serve 18,000 people and small businesses in Maine. Edie Smith, the spokes-woman for the No On 1 coalition, said she thinks that the new economic impact study overestimated the amounts of soda and other drinks consumed by Mainers. Mainers drink 28.4 million gallons of beer and 3.8 million gallons of wine each year, according to the excise taxes collected. Gabe estimated that each Mainer also consumes 52 gallons of soda, sports drinks and other taxable beverages per year. “We think they inflate the consumption rates,” Smith said. She argued that the tax should be upheld because the programs it would support are too valuable to cut. She said that DirigoChoice has a 1,500-person waiting list and that the beverage tax would allow them to join the program. It also would pay for a project to lower the cost premiums of the individual health insurance market, which would help 40,000 people who now are paying for their insurance. “You have to look at the whole package,” she said. “How’s it going to affect me as a person? It comes down to those pennies.” acurtis@bangordailynews.net 990-8133
Comments
I have heard for the last dozen years or so that soda causes cancer, especially the diet soda. We all know wine and beer kills, but less often the drinker and more often an innocent person by drunk driving or by assult and murder. I think if Dr.'s and other persons who consume these posions that cause so many health problems to themselves and innocent people should pay a higher tax, just like the smokers. Anyone who has been robbed or assulted, been in an auto accident caused by a drinker driver should ask themselves, will I be safer and healthier if there are less drunks around causing accidents and thefts and assults. Will there be less cancer the answer is yes. I'm totally disgusted that doctors would defend these posions against more tax and can only assume they must drink a lot of it. Take from you in tough times to make it easier for someone else? "Dirigo Choice has a 1,500-person waiting list and that the beverage tax would allow them to join the program." This is insane! Notice how the State spun the words on the ballot on this issue as well. They are all crooks! When are we going to wake up and remove them? We have thrown enough money down the Dirigo Black Hole. We should start a people's veto vote to remove DirigoChoiice for good as well. The Beverage Tax is going to lose by a land slide (if it dosen't I want to know who's counting the beans). It's sad the voters in Maine have to correct what these idiot Reps. in Augusta have done. Why are they there again? Doctors oppose the Question #1 tax repeal??
Why is that?
The new website, www.Maineopengov.org, shows that Dirigo Health paid the Maine Medical Association more than $1,000,000.00 in 2007 for Consulting. A MILLION DOLLARS to this organization that is now opposed to a People's Veto that threatens the plans to waste even more millions in new taxes on the dud called Dirigo Health???
While I'm not saying there was a cozy relationship here... If it LOOKS like a duck, WALKS like a duck and QUACKS like a duck.
Well, you know. Ummm, Lorrie, the Dr's are opposed to the REPEAL of the tax.. Which means they are in favor of the tax... Ummm, Lorrie, the Dr's are opposed to the REPEAL of the tax.. Which means they are in favor of the tax... I am all for everyone having health coverage... as a matter of fact I think that anyone that every man, woman and child should be 100 percent covered medically just for being a US citizen. HOWEVER.. I do not support more taxes in a time of recession or depression. Come on people this is just the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Or should I say the middle man goes away so all we are left with is Rich and Poor. There are many things worse for you then soda and wine and beer... why not take some of that money we spend on feeding people from other countries and reinvest it in keeping our own country healthy!! What we really need to do is get rid of the insurance companies in Maine altogether and stop letting them run Dirigo. These private insurance companies are so expensive to run, and they use Dirigo as a private kitty to fund advertising programs for their other products in states that have more insurance companies. We need to move everybody to a Mainecare-like system, which has only a 2-3% administrative cost as opposed to 30-50% for private insurers. This only gets worse as competition rises, because advertising and marketing costs rise exponentially with the number of insurers in the market. In other states insurers are often able to offer lower prices because they aren't required to maintain the level of quality (not to mention ethics) that they do here. That is why we have one of the best healthcare systems in the country, despite our status as one of the lowest-GDP states. All of the other low-GDP states, especially the most conservative ones in the South, are near the bottom in healthcare quality. The unfortunate result, however, is that we pay exorbitant prices for this level of care, and most of the money flows out of the state. I love the free market most of the time, but it's been proven time and again that fprivate insurers aren't capable of providing for the best interests of the people they insure. Proud American! To help you better understand the financial crisis in which our country finds itself, I have attempted to put it in terms common people, like you and me, can easily understand. If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you will have $49.00 today. If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you will have $33.00 today. If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you will have $0.00 today. But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling refund, you will have received $214.00. Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg. A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. That means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon! Makes you proud to be an American! Well Chris 1943 I guess I misunderstood since I haven't viewed question 1 in it's written format and assumed that they were against raising the tax. thanks for telling me... twice. I'm against any tax increase and the Maine Gov.will not put it towards health care. I think maybe medical care needs to be reduced by a lot and HMO flushed down the toilet because it's become a milking machine. Come on 8-10 visits to get a wart removed, my old 98 yr.old grandma can do it in about 10 seconds and 5 cents (for the band-aid and the antibacterial ointment) |
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