I don’t like taxes. Nobody likes taxes. I get it.

I make $19.50 per hour. The exact amount I take home varies a little from week to week, depending on if I pick up an extra shift or something like that. Last biweekly pay period, my paycheck was $1,983.32 in gross pay, with $412.72 taken out in taxes.

The specific breakdown is $119.88 for Social Security, $28.03 for Medicare, $75 for Maine state income tax and $189.81 for federal income tax. (In case you’re doing the math along with me, I also have $129.10 taken out pre-tax for health insurance and retirement contributions.)

Among other things, this year I also have to pay taxes on my wage reimbursement from the National Kidney Registry – when I donated, my short-term disability insurance (which covers 60% of wages, with the rest being made up by my saved PTO) didn’t kick in for the first two weeks of my four-week medical leave, so I applied for lost wage reimbursement through the registry. You’d think, of all the things to get a little tax break on, a kidney donation would be it. Alas. So please understand, I know whereof I speak when it comes to complaining and eye-rolling about taxation.

However, I also think that if taxes are your biggest problem, you’re probably doing pretty well, all things considered – especially when it comes to income taxes.

Shortly after I read about how the Maine Republican Party walked out of state budget negotiations because tax cuts weren’t on the table, I read a story about how Maine’s school budgets are facing drastic cuts in the next two years, and how a program that provides laundry and shower facilities to homeless students in Lewiston’s school district is on the chopping block. The Lewiston district has 250 homeless students.

Tax cuts just don’t seem urgent to me compared to that.

My ex-boyfriend Rory works for Independence Association, a nonprofit that provides residential homes, home care services and day programs for adults with developmental disabilities. Some of their clients require 24/7 care. One of their most visible programs is the Spindleworks art gallery in Brunswick, and if you’ve never been, I highly recommend a visit, or taking a look at their website. My home is pretty much solely decorated with Spindleworks art.

I suspect most Mainers would agree that the work a nonprofit like Independence Association does is necessary and important. But the MaineCare reimbursements for long-term care are low, and kept low because nobody likes to pay taxes. This makes finding and retaining qualified staff difficult. While the work can be rewarding, it’s also physically and emotionally taxing. Salary for a direct support professional ranges between $18.67 and $22.17 per hour. Could you raise a family on that?

In my day job, I work for MaineHealth, which, despite being the biggest hospital and medical system in the state, reported losses of more than $45 million in the 2022 fiscal year. Although many factors are contributing to this, MaineCare reimbursements not keeping up with inflation and the economic situation in general are part of it, as is the cost of providing care to uninsured or underinsured patients. When politicians say that we, as a state, save money by keeping people from accessing MaineCare, just remember that the bill will come due somewhere. Usually, in the emergency room.

Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham said that the Republican income tax-cut proposal “would provide, on average, $300 in ongoing tax relief.” That would obviously be nice. But even if I donated the whole $300 to charity, it still wouldn’t be as effective on its own as is everyone chipping in to fund important programs that, unfortunately, only the state has the capacity, reach and mandate to run.

Rich people will always be able to afford lobbyists to wander the halls of government and make the case directly to lawmakers that their tax rate is a great injustice. I’m sure they’re quite convincing. And, for some people, taxes might be the biggest financial problem right now.

But just as poor people tend to benefit from social programs, rich people tend to be the ones who benefit from tax cuts.

And if you think you’ll never need government assistance, know that life has a way of throwing curve balls at you. I myself was on MaineCare for most of 2020, which allowed me to get prompt medical treatment when I came down with shingles. I’m grateful for that, and I want this column to serve as a reminder that when you pay taxes, they don’t just vanish into a black hole of big government. I’ve been lucky enough to get to see them at work every day.

Rory’s clients don’t have lobbyists or ad campaigns or interest groups; that makes their line on the budget much easier to cut. But it doesn’t make it any less important.

Victoria Hugo-Vidal is a Maine millennial. She can be contacted at:
themainemillennial@gmail.com
Twitter: mainemillennial

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