Just another in a long line of embarrassing moments for Maine 
Yeah, but they’ll always have Moxie. IMHO that buys them a whole lotta cultural capital.
Ranked choice voting, yo. Let’s DO this!
Oh the hypocrisy! Think about it: a tax hating Tea Party fool who only hates the fact the he has to pay taxes and not the peasants who may have moved to a tax free state. You’d think the governor would admire the move. Me thinks I smell a rat. Instead of decrying whatever King may have done, shouldn’t the governor try to explain how the state’s government intends to govern with no income tax coming in?
It’s common for politicians to lie, but modern Republicans really have a thing for brazenly doubling down by lying about the lying. It’s like they have a wallet filled with lies, and can afford to up the bid indefinitely. Eventually, anyone interested in the truth gives up, and the liar pretends that means they were right all along.
Dems are generally still a little furtive and embarassed when they lie, but Repubs – at least most of the leadership – seem to take a perverse pride in being bold liars.
King and Lepage are polar opposites. King actively supports libraries and other educational institutions in Maine; Lepage is ignorant enough to believe in trickle-down economics. Also, the reason Lepage gives for Mainers wintering in Florida is a lie. It’s not taxes, it’s the weather. Florida functions (barely) because it heavily taxes the tourist industry. (Hey Guv, that means snowbird Mainers pay taxes in 2 states!)
The governor can’t apologize without admitting that evading taxes is actually bad citizenship, rather than just good business.
Regressive sales-tax increases?
There should probably be a better way to make your point than by slandering your most famous, beloved, and possibly highest taxpaying person in your state.
In England, when someone becomes famous and doesn’t immediately leave for a tax haven, they get knighted.
All hail Sir Stephen King!
The fundamental flaw with modern conservatism is that they expect good governance from people that were elected for their hatred of government.
Te@B@ggers are the perfect example of how the GOP promotes ignorance as a virtue. That is how they produce a coalition of religious zealots and the economically illiterate. This helps them to achieve their objectives [by the way] of getting Americans to vote against their own interests. Which further widens the gap between rich and poor.
I haven’t always agreed with King’s views 100% (although I probably agree with a large chunk), but I really love that he is vocal and not afraid to speak out about what he believes in.
So did King move from Maine or something? Or is the governor just bringing him up for no reason? (Not that I think for a second that he would move because of tax reasons)
Nice metaphor. Captures the problem exactly.
No, but he has property in FLA. Which is a requirement for people on the east coast when you hit a certain age and have the dough… 
But he’s still paying taxes in ME. The guv is just a mental case, tea bagger asshole.
Yes, except he calls them “modern” instead of using other adjectives. He goes into it on page 7 of the budget:
Independent analysis conducted by the Tax Foundation noted that these reforms, if fully implemented, would improve Maine’s ranking in the Tax Foundation State Business Tax Climate Index from 33rd to 23rd.
Which is about non-sensical as saying "Independent analysis from MartinRobert Downey Jr. says that implementing those reforms would improve Maine’s ranking in the “MartinRobert Downey Jr’s Top 100 Sexy States that I Want to Bang” list. He is sucking at Tax Foundation’s teat, which is run by Bush-era republicans and executives from Koch, Exxon Mobil, and Microsoft.
I think some parts of that statement may well be redundant. 
And bravo for Stephen King!
Daring Stephen King to use you in his next book and promising not to ask for royalties seems to be a particularly stupid thing for a politician to do. He might do it. You could end up in charge of the eighth level of hell, or worse Donald Trumps permanent personal assistant. The man rights scary stuff.
