Strimling, Fischer call estate tax vote fiscally irresponsible

    AUGUSTA – Sen. Ethan Strimling (D-Cumberland County) told lawmakers on the Senate floor April 10 that a bill to re-couple Maine’s tax code to the federal government at a cost of $50 million would be fiscally and morally irresponsible at a time when lawmakers just cut $200 million from the state budget.     “We just passed a budget a week ago in which we cut $200 million from many of the neediest, the poorest, the disabled, and the working families of this state,” said Strimling. “It would be completely fiscally and morally irresponsible to now give a tax break to those with over a $1 million, but that’s what this bill does.”
    The House Chair of the Appropriations Committee, Rep. Jeremy Fischer (D-Presque Isle), called the vote in the House of Representatives the previous day unaffordable and bad policy.
    “This is a tax cut to people with estates worth over a $1 million,” he said. “That’s what this is all about.”
    Under the bill, LD 1556, An Act To Recouple Maine Estate Tax with Federal Estate Tax, Maine would conform its estate tax code to the federal government’s retroactively to Jan. 1, 2008.
    Although the bill won initial approval in both the House and Senate, the bill will now go to the Legislature’s Appropriation’s table where legislation that require funding are sent. Since the Appropriations Committee only has about $1 million available to spend on all remaining legislation with fiscal notes, the bill will ultimately die because of lack of funding.