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Maine people should have the facts before deciding on whether they want to vote on repealing this law.

ALBERT A. DiMILLO JR. September 3, 2009

SOUTH PORTLAND — In a Maine Voices column on Monday about the Maine "tax reform" law, LD 1495, state Rep. John Piotti, D-Unity, claims opponents are making public misstatements and are using faulty analysis, which is misleading or false. 

Unlike Piotti, I have support for my facts in a report from Maine Revenue Services.

As a lifelong Democrat, a retired corporate tax director and CPA with 30 years of tax experience, I am amazed at how deceptive Piotti has been in promoting this tax reform package and how little he understands the details.

At all turns, proponents have tried to suppress the facts that did not favor their position. 

The facts are that many misstatements have been made by both sides, mostly because of lack of detailed knowledge of the law. 

Unfortunately, the majority of the misstatements have come from proponents like Piotti. 

Piotti claims that LD 1495 will save Mainers $57 million and that the law will make the tax system more progressive. 

Sen. David Trahan, R-Waldoboro, and I met with MRS staff members recently and they confirmed that the $57 million figure used by Piotti is actually only $53.9 million.

In addition, MRS estimates that $5.7 million of this total that is projected to go to low-income taxpayers will not be paid out, because these taxpayers will not file income tax returns to get their refunds. Accordingly, the actual number being used by MRS for budget purposes is $48.2 million for 2010. 

However, because LD 1495 does not have inflation adjustments in the law until 2014, the MRS report for 2013 shows that the tax saving goes down to just $31.5 million.

This report details that a group of 4,638 taxpayers in the top 1 percent of Mainers earning over $350,810 will get a $34.8 million tax cut, while the other 99.3 percent of taxpayers will have a tax increase of $3.3 million.

The majority of Mainers will understand that any law with these results is unfair and clearly makes the tax system less progressive.

Piotti also recounts a phone conversation with an elderly couple he claims will save $200 a year under the new tax law, based on the MRS Web site tax calculator. 

Of course, he has no details that support this claim, and the tax calculator does not calculate the tax changes in years 2011-2013. 

Using the MRS calculator, an elderly couple with an income of $35,000 who do not itemize deductions will have a tax increase of $10 in 2010, and this will increase to about $60 by 2013, based on MRS estimates of the impact of loss of the inflation adjustments.

There are even larger tax increases for elderly taxpayers with incomes of $40,000 to $60,000. 

But probably the most unfair result of this new law is that middle-class elderly taxpayers with substantial medical costs, such as nursing home expenses, will see their taxes increase by thousands. 

I have talked to several families who will see their taxes increase by at least $2,500. 

There are more taxpayers with large medical expenses than there are millionaires in Maine, who will be getting windfall tax cuts.

Apparently proponents believe it is fair to fund tax cuts for millionaires with tax increases on the elderly taxpayers with large medical expenses.  

Piotti says, "DiMillo's information has been exposed as misleading or false."

The fact is that not one of my facts has been shown to be false, and in fact, several other CPAs have confirmed that my numbers are correct.

Unlike Piotti and many other politicians, I have no reason to lie or make false statements, while their motives are clearly political.

I welcome an honest debate based on the facts, but based on the past actions of the proponents of LD 1495, that is unlikely to happen. 

Instead proponents like Piotti want to suppress the facts and ask voters...