On Wednesday, Maine House Democrats voted to increase state spending by over $1.2 billion.
This spending alone represents a nearly 20% increase in the entire two-year budget for the state of Maine.
Additionally, a review of the bills shows that it would add to the already enormous spending proposed by Democrats in their “Opportunity Agenda” proposal.
At the core of the issue, what this demonstrates is that Maine House Democrats desire to not just pass the most irresponsible spending increases in state history, but to fundamentally break the state budget so badly that the Baldacci-era budget shortfalls look like rounding errors in retrospect.
In all, without Republicans stopping the massive spending the Democrats are piling up between their one-day ‘Red Wednesday’ shopping spree and the Opportunity Agenda, Mainers would see the two-year state budget balloon from about $6.7 billion every two years to well over $8.5 billion.
Just one bill, which Democrats hijacked from a Republican who submitted it only at the request of a constituent – would increase spending by $800 million. Even when that Republican spoke out against the bill on the House floor, telling everyone this was not affordable, Democrats rammed it through.
In case you are wondering, among the spending passed by House Democrats on ‘Red Wednesday’ were a bill to give $5 million in grants to ‘ethnicity-based community organizations’, about $150 million in new welfare spending in a series of bills, and an $800 million bill to change the state pension program that requires a massive initial payment and continued liabilities to state taxpayers.
This all comes as the state’s individual income tax revenue is projected to come in $28 million less than it did last year, and the Maine Revenue Forecasting Committee has revised the 2017 forecast down by almost $17 million overall.
Yes, while we are clearly failing to see the revenue from the Democrats’ “tax the rich” scheme, they are continuing on trying to spend money we absolutely will not have.
That means if this spending were to go into effect, the hard-working people of Maine who are not even close to anyone’s definition of “rich” would be required to pony up hundreds of millions in new tax revenue to the state each year.
