Last week it was the state budget and school consolidation. This week the big story for our paper is tax reform.

As our State House reporter Paul Carrier reported last week, the Legislature’s Taxation Committee voted 11-2 to endorse a plan that would expand the sales tax, and raise it in some cases, to pay for income-tax and property-tax breaks. The House and Senate are supposed to debate the plan this week, with a possible vote by the end of the week.

We’re monitoring several elements of the story, and it’s still in flux as to which one is going to rise to the surface for Tuesday’s Press Herald. We’re pushing the Maine Department of Revenue for more numbers to help explain how the tax proposal would affect average families in Maine. The department, we're told, is working on an analysis with the House speaker’s office.

Gov. John Baldacci is scheduled to meet with Democrats at 5 p.m. to plan strategy around the tax reform proposal. This is interesting because, to date, Baldacci hasn’t taken a firm position on the plan, and what he has to say could influence what ultimately happens in the Legislature. Whether he’ll say anything about it today remains to be seen.

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