Jim Barr of Portland discusses (“Maine Voices: Mansion tax could help put our state’s financial house back in order,” July 6) the failed surtax on high earners in Maine, concluding: “Something else is needed, and that something else is a tax on residential mansions.” He suggests that many large homes are owned by nonresidents who seldom use them, and an additional tax on them won’t matter to them.

I have to disagree. Within finance there is “bracket creep,” whereby inflation drives up income and so income taxes increase without an increase in purchasing power. What we have in Maine is “tax creep,” whereby everything that legislators can get away with taxing is, in fact, taxed.

To get a flavor of tax creep, visit the Maine government website on taxes. There we find the following taxes: fuel tax (gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, propane, methanol, ethanol, compressed natural gas and so on), corporate income tax, individual income tax, estate tax, property tax, sales tax (including spirits, beer, non-alcoholic beer, wine, non-alcoholic wine, medicine unless sold by prescription, vitamins, water and ice, candy and confections, soft drinks, nuts and seeds that have been processed), lodging tax, service provider tax, blueberries and use tax.

It would appear that all we’re currently missing is a mansion tax.

William Vaughan Jr.

Chebeague Island

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