Even though they cannot vote in this election, the sophomore class of the Presque Isle High School got to experience some of the state issues at stake this year, in a public forum they held with seven candidates for the state legislature in Aroostook County.
As part of their social studies class with Michael Waugh, the sophomore class organized the forum to talk about this year’s ballot initiatives with candidates Trey Stewart, Rosemary Monahan, A.J. Edgecomb, Bob Saucier, Dustin White, Michael Carpenter and Troy Jackson.
The students also hosted a voter registration drive for members of the public who have not yet registered.
Monahan, a Democrat from Woodland, is running against incumbent Republican White of Washburn for the 146 House District. Stewart, a Republican from Presque Isle, is running against incumbent Democrat Saucier of Presque Isle for the 147th House District. Edgecomb, a Republican from Fort Fairfield, seeking re-election for the 148th House District (running against Democrat David McCrea, who was absent due to his duties as Fort Fairfield town council chair).
Jackson, a Democrat from Allagash, is running against Republican Tim Guerrette of Caribou, who was not at the forum, to replace the Senate District 1 seat being vacated by Republican Peter Edgecomb. In the Senate District 2 seat, Carpenter, a Democrat, is running against incumbent Republican Rick Long of Island Falls, who was not at the forum.
Here’s a sampling of the their comments on Question 2 on the November ballot. It reads: “Do you want to add a 3% tax on individual Maine taxable income above $200,000 to create a state fund that would provide direct support for student learning in kindergarten through 12th grade public education?”
Trey Stewart
“I don’t think that simply putting a surcharge of 3 percent on people making $200,000 or more is the simple fix. I think we need to be looking at a balanced approach to how we want to make our state more economically feasible for people to live, while at the same time giving our schools and teachers the tools they need to have the most well-qualified workforce.”
“I know that we have the drive and I think one of the biggest things is we’re lacking in the resources to really channel that energy. There is no one simple solution to funding education and I don’t think the question is the right answer to that.”
“The other piece of this puzzle, too: I don’t know how many of you know what an unfunded mandate is. It’s something that the state says you have to do or we’re not going to give you the resources to do it. I think that puts a serious burden on a lot of educators and it takes them away from what their job is … I think if we get back to letting our teachers do what they’re good at and what they love to do, we’ll be better off.”
Rosemary Monahan
“I don’t think that Question 2 is designed to enforce the same standard around the state, but to make sure that we have equal funding for equal quality education for students throughout the state. Like it or not, funding is a big part of that.”
“In my district, school funding is a crisis. Year after year, school board and towns meet and try to fund schools without raising mill rates and it can’t be done. Mill rates are rising. Our elderly are struggling to stay in their homes because of their property taxes. When I was knocking on doors I spoke with a woman whose husband is a logger and she’s a stay-at-home mom. They live in a very modest ranch house on a very small lot and they’re paying $1,800 per year in property taxes. When we talk about an increased income tax, keep in mind that we’re trying to relieve a different kind of tax burden on our citizens.”
“The tax being proposed on incomes over $200,000 is not a tax that is going to adversely impact my district, and if I’m elected my district is going to be my highest priority. My district needs this measure to pass to keep our schools open and prepare our students for the 21st century economy.”
Anthony Edgecomb
“It’s one of those ones to me that sounds amazing. It sounds great. Who could possibly vote against this? Until you look into the details. The people in our area who make over $200,000 are joint filers of two people who have a pretty decent paying job, but some are joint filers of $100,000 a piece. You have some of our doctors, some of our lawyers, some of our large farmers, some of our large business owners who bring jobs into Aroostook County. Those are some of the people that we don’t want to drive out.”
“It’s going towards education, which makes it sound even better. The unfortunate part about it is it just ends up in the general fund. Yes, that 3 percent has to be dedicated towards education, but unfortunately political games are played down in Augusta as we all know. Even though they put that 3 percent in there, they’re going to take that bottom 3percent out and put it back into the general fund.”
Bob Saucier
“In the last two budget cycles that I’ve been involved in, every time the state is looking for money they go after education. They cut education and in the last budget cycle, we said no more and we rejected the Governor’s cut to education and funnelled $95 million more into education.”
“We need to educate our kids so they can get jobs in Aroostook County, and not take their education somewhere else. Higher education is another area that always seems to want to get cut and we rejected those in the last session, and we fully funded the University of Maine to what they had asked for and gave Northern Maine Community College a 1 percent increase in their budget.”
“The other thing we did in the legislature the last two sessions is that we increased the funding 1 percent a year to get towards that 55 percent. It’s still not enough and not quick enough, and I think anytime the legislature refuses to do their jobs in a manner that’s not conducive to increasing money for education, the voter’s will take it into their own hands and that’s what’s happening with this Question. It sound’s like a lot of money. But if you’re making $200,000 you get no increase in tax. If you’re making $210,000, you’re going to get a $300 increase in your taxes. I think if I was making $10,000 more than $200,000, I could afford $300 to keep our kids educated.”
Dustin White
“Referendums are tough ways to make laws because they bypass the legislative process. It eliminates the public’s opinion to have contributions to the law itself. It eliminates the public input. We have professionals, people whose jobs it is to create policy.”
“The issue with this legislation is that 3 percent goes into the general fund. After serving two years in Augusta, I know anything that goes into the general fund disappears. We increased education funding to 53 percent last year and we’re giving Maine the first ever budget cut. If we were able to lower income taxes for everyone out there while still increasing education funding, why would we add a 3 percent tax to the people who are chosen to invest in our local economy. These are people who have owned businesses who employ many of our businesses every day. These are my concerns.”
Michael Carpenter
“It’s a tough one for me because I’m concerned about how the money gets distributed … Public education in Aroostook County is probably the most important thing we have. Our young people can compete with anybody in the world in my opinion.”
“I’m not sure this is the way to go.”
Troy Jackson
“I believe it was 2006 when voters voted in the referendum and asked for 55 percent for education. They demanded they didn’t ask. I could remember after it passed debating it in the House and I believe I was one of 23 House members that voted to implement 55 percent immediately. I felt that’s what the voters had just voted for and that’s what we should do.”
“I think the most we ever got was 54 percent in 2008. We’re still waiting for that 55 percent. One of the other things that affected this drastically is that fact that we haven’t been keeping up with revenue sharing … When those two things, the loss of revenue sharing and not getting 55 percent, don’t happen, education funding suffers, the property taxes go up. I think that’s driven all this.”
“I’d like to cut income taxes completely but I don’t want to pay for it on the backs of property taxpayers … Since we did give tax cuts to the wealthiest people in the state, who received the biggest amount of it, I think that this is appropriate.”
