Maine AFL-CIO Supports Bill to Raise Taxes on the Wealthy, Opposes Cut to Minimum Wage COLAs

On Wednesday, the Maine AFL-CIO testified in support of LD 1089, sponsored by Rep. Cheryl Golek (D-Harpswell),  which would create an income tax surcharge of 4 percent on income above $1 million to fund public Pre-K-12 education.

Speaking in favor of the bill, Maine AFL-CIO Legislative and Political Director Adam Goode noted that Governor Janet MIlls has proposed cut $30 million for child care worker stipends to balance the budget. This would reduce the average earnings for nearly 7,500 child care workers by $4,000 over two years. Mills has also proposed a $7 million reduction in Head Start funding and the cancelling of a $5 million scholarship program that helps child care workers pay for care for their own children. At the same time, the proposed budget preserves hundreds of million of dollars in tax cuts primarily benefitting the wealthy that were passed in 2011.

"The wealthy should pay their fair share. Right now, Maine’s tax code treats someone earning over $61,600 the same as a millionaire. That’s absurd. Someone making over $1 million should pay a higher rate than a plumber, a nurse or a firefighter,” said Goode. “A millionaire’s tax would only affect the ultra-rich. Less than 1% of Mainers make over $1 million per year. If you don’t make over $1 million dollars a year, this won’t change your taxes at all.”

Maine Opposes Bill to Cut Minimum Wage COLAs

This week, the Maine AFL-CIO also testified against a bill that would roll back the minimum wage law that Maine voters passed at the ballot box in 2016. LD 206 An Act to Protect Maine Businesses by Eliminating the Automatic Cost-of-living Adjustment to the Minimum Hourly Wage, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Timberlake (R-Androscoggin), would set the minimum wage permanently where it is at $14.65. The measure, which is supported by House Republican Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) and Senate Minority Leader Trey Steward (R-Aroostook), would eliminate the annual cost-of-living adjustment for the minimum wage.

“In 2016 voters passed by referendum an increase in the minimum wage that has steadily raised wages, lifted working Mainers out of poverty and raised expectations of the working class,” said Maine AFL-CIO Legislative and Political Director Adam Goode. “We are opposed to this bill and will be opposed to any efforts to lower, weaken, slow or in any way undermine the minimum wage. Low wages have become the new norm in America and in Maine. Across the board, wages are too low and they’ve been that way for 40 years.”