May 30, 2008 - 1:07am
Health Coverage for Maine launches campaign
By Jessica AlaimoA new coalition called Health Coverage for Maine launched their effort to oppose the people’s veto of the new taxes on beer, wine and soda.
The veto effort is orchestrated by Fed Up with Taxes, a coalition of business groups. They need to collect 55,000 signatures to repeal the law passed by the Legislature.
The Legislature approved the new taxes to fund Dirigo, the state’s health insurance program.
For Health Coverage for Maine, the issue is about health care. Leaders fear that undoing the legislation will cause people to lose their health insurance.
“Maine is a national leader in access to quality health care,” said Dr. Lani Graham, a former Maine Chief Health Officer and a National Library of Medicine physician, at a press conference Thursday. “For years, other states have looked to us as a model for expanding access as care becomes harder and harder to afford across the nation. This petition drive would undo years of progress in making Maine one of the best states in the country for health care access and quality. We must not move backwards.”
There’s also a public health component to their opposition. Alcohol and soda contributes to health problems, and they see the tax increases as a deterrent to those projects.
The medical community members are not alone in their opposition. The Portland area League of Young Voters and the Maine Education Association also are urging people not to sign the petition.
Many of these opponents paint the petition drive as a lobbyist’s veto, because Fed Up with Taxes is made up of many groups from the food and beverage industries such as the Maine Restaurant Association, the Maine Grocers Association and the Maine Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association.
Chris Hall, senior vice-president-governmental affairs for the Greater Portland Chamber of Commerce, is working with Fed Up with Taxes. He said this isn’t the case. The drive started because of the volume of concerns the chamber heard from the public, Hall said. Plus, there aren’t enough lobbyists in the state to make up the 55,000 signatures.
While the group’s opponents see this as a health care issue, they see it as a taxation issue, Hall said. Gov. John Baldacci promised no new taxes, and the Legislature was able to pass a budget carrying out this promise. Two weeks later, the Dirigo bill was changed at the last minute to include the taxes, striking out the originally proposed cigarette taxes.
No one will lose health care, Hall said.
The petitioners aren’t trying to repeal the bill – they are just trying to change it to restore the original funding vehicle, Hall said. The Legislature struck the savings offset payments formerly used to fund Dirigo and replaces those with the taxes. The people’s veto proposal restores the SOPs.
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Fees
I have an idea, instead of raising taxes why don't we just send a bill to all Maine legal residents for whatever Dirigo costs all of us to support the 13,000 people on it. That way they could call it a fee instead of a tax. We all know how the governor likes fees. I don't think Mainers would mind getting a bill in the mail instead of a hidden tax. Their should be enough bleeding hearts to pick up any non-payments of said bills or just add fees to hospitals and medical professionals, union members etc.
Correction
It should be noted that a group of young Mainers originally submitted an application for the People's Veto...and were actually the first application approved. We are not lobbyists...just Mainers who are sick of our state's "leader of the pack" taxation status.
Also, what "Health Coverage of Maine" wants everyone to disregard is the fact that this isn't a tax on ONLY "beer, wine, and soda". It's a tax on beer, wine, and soft-drinks. The law defines soft drinks as: "...any nonalcoholic beverage, whether naturally or artificially flavored, whether carbonated or noncarbonated, sold for human consumption, including, but not limited to, soda water, cola and other flavored drinks, any fruit or vegetable drink containing 10% or less of natural fruit juice or natural vegetable juice and all other drinks and beverages commonly referred to as soft drinks, but not including coffee or tea unless the coffee or tea is bottled as a liquid for sale."
Such a definition covers every beverage on grocery store shelves that isn't over 10% juice, milk-based, plain water, or infant formula.
Nice propaganda ploy, "Health Coverage for Maine", but Maine's over-taxed citizens aren't buying it.
Repeat after me, beverage tax = good
Thanks Silver, but what you've typed is inaccurate on just about every level. Here's what I hope is a pretty concise rebuttal.
What those pushing for repeal fail to discuss is the incredible cost to society these items incur in the health-care setting. They argue that the tax is unfair, but here is the root of the issue: The real costs are deferred until years later, when the state pays to treat chronic illnesses like obesity ($357 million/year in Maine), type II diabetes ($92 billion/year in the US) and all the associated health problems of alcohol abuse (over $26 billion/year in the US). People abusing these products need to stop deferring some of the cost of their future treatment.
The new tax is a proportional one, where people pay as they consume. This has the end effect of holding them responsible for actions as they do them, not years down the road. Those arguing for repeal don't discuss that casual users of these products will barely be impacted. The main arguments against the tax are based on misinformation. For example, on Wednesday 5-21 I was told by a paid canvasser on the USM campus that it will affect milk prices. This kind of tactic is being used to confuse voters and trick them into opposing the tax.
Funding Dirigo with this revenue is one of the best ideas which has made its way into law in years. What needs to follow is continued advocacy about the health risks associated with these products.
Silver is against taxes. Well, I'm against people dying when we as a society can act to keep them alive. I think what people trying to repeal the tax really need to examine is how much human life is worth to them. How much quality of life is worth to them. Then feel free to get back to me about it.
Ps. I am sick of paid signature collectors lying to me, if that wasn't obvious already.
Dirigo? Why not invest in a
Dirigo? Why not invest in a new & improved Edsel, or a line of Tobasco Baby Food?
YES - it's THAT much of a total failure!
Get Maine OUT of the insurance business, roll back all the lobbyists' "mandates" that make Maine policies so high... and allow Maine people to buy policies from other states. (Florida just did this!)
Dirigo has caused 164,000,000 tax dollars to evaporate... and is YET to reach 4% of the program's goal!
Yeah - let's pour money into THAT loser!
If Baldacci's restaurant had roasted raccoon meatballs and NOBODY bought them... he'd take them off the menu.
Well, NOBODY'S buying Dirigo* - so take it off the menu!!!
* Oh yeah, that's right... Dirigo is doing so well - their enrollment is CLOSED! All these whining liberals seem to "forget" that fact when praising this LOSER of a stupid program.
How's that?
Here's a Sin Tax for You
"If you want to tax something destructive in this state, tax sloth. There's a sin tax for you.. sloth. Tax those who live off of the system with no remorse. Tax those who do not work for the food that is on their tables. Tax the second and third generation drains on our society that Augusta keeps taking more and more money from the working class to support. The answer isn't more taxes; nor is it holding the hands of the people to make sure they make correct choices."
See here for the complete comment from a poster named Doug:
http://www.sunjournal.com/story/266722-3/LetterstotheEditor/Tax_it_tax_i...
Nice Try, Jeff...
...but, save for a little bit of opinion, my entire post is fact. It's verbatim citations from the law, itself (I welcome people to check at the Legislature's website).
That bottle of Snapple...or Hawaiian Punch...Veryfine Fruit Drink...or Lipton Iced Tea...are all going to cost an additional $0.42 cents a gallon. I sincerely doubt that there are a lot of health effects generated by these products. What's more is the families that used to not be able to afford to buy 100% juice because of it's higher cost might not be able to afford any beverage anymore.
What about the small businesses and local restaurants that will be immeasurably hurt by the additional $4.00 in taxes they have to pay on a gallon of syrup?
Or the families who are barely able to afford their own health insurance, but who will have to pay almost another 2% more for that plan?
I'm all for people not dying, too. The thing is, the Legislature has to come to grips with the fact that it can't just keep sticking their hands deeper in our pockets to fund their shortcomings. There are other was to pay for Dirigo...but our Legislators refuse to make tough choices.
You want to tax something to make up the cost? Keep the original plan: Increase cigarette taxes. Smoking results in far more health insurance costs than ANY bottled beverage in the grocery store does.
I don't believe "small
I don't believe "small business will be immeasurably hurt by the additional $4.00 in taxes they have to pay on a gallon of syrup"! How absurd. Many of these small businesses are the ones who create the need for the Dirigo Health Program by refusing to provide employer sponsored insurance for their employees. Many large businesses as well.
What about the hard working families who rely on Dirigo Health Insurance? It's not costing the businesses - they will pass it along to the consumers. But the business owners complain because they want to keep their minimum wage workers under their thumb.
I Repeat: No One Will Lose Insurance
Maine Native---
No one is going to lose health insurance because the People's Veto passes. The funding is there via other avenues.....the Maine State Legislature has just gotten used to the fact that they aren't actually required to make any choices, since they can always fill budget shortfalls by increasing taxes in some form or another. It's time for Maine's citizens to stand up and say that, no, they can't.
If they are really dead-set in favor of funding Dirigo, then great...be my guest. However, there are ways to do it that don't involve raising taxes. Just do a search on Google or any other search engine...there are leagues of analyses around that explain exactly how Dirigo Funding is already available, and how no one will lose their health coverage because of the passage of a People's Veto.
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