Maine's Tax Evader Police Patrols

And once again, the question looms - How does New Hampshire do it? Bad roads? No. Uneducated children? I don't think so. Attitude? Yes.

Taxes

Compare Maine to New Hampshire.

McKane...do you understand that NH has about the same road mileage as Maine but receives 2X the federal funding. Fix that problem and then you can pretend to know what you are talking about.

Determining federal funding for highways comes from a state's total vehicle miles (which factors linear miles of road, lane miles of road, traffic patterns and usage), the gasoline tax collected by each state and sent to the Federal Highway Administration and old-fashioned (but unquantifiable) political clout.

According to the FHA, Maine has 12,273 vehicle miles, and New Hampshire has 11,835. In 2006, Maine received more than $202 million in FHA funds, while New Hampshire received $184 million. In fact, Maine has gotten more than New Hampshire from the FHA the last five years, a total of more than $59 million.

The fact is Maine has gotten more than NH.

There you go ldwight, ruining a perfectly good argument with your facts.

Yeah - stop confirming that TM is only pretending to know what he's talking about, will ya?

Meanwhile, I'm really glad to know that Kittery's PD still has so little to do they can afford to cruise around looking to browbeat residents in person.

Must make Kittery residents REALLY anxious to trust and communicate with the local PD.
[/sarcasm]

The ultimate question, of course, is that if all these alleged scofflaws did pony up their "fair share" of registration and excise fees, would those monies actually flow back to all Kittery residents as tax relief?

Or, would the Kittery municipality suddenly "discover" a burning need for another facility, more dumptrucks, a performing arts center, a public swimming pool, etc.?

I leave the outcome to your own imagination... I know my own conclusions.

Naran, in case you haven't noticed from another thread (http://www.asmainegoes.com/content/maine-tax-dollars-used-political-acti...), the Town of Kittery was a participant in the MMA's recent political campaigns against Q.2 and Q.4... they must keep that political machine rolling... ugh!

Hey TM, is your office open today or do you have a sign like this posted on the front door?

Thanks, Mark. Color Me Not Surprised.

Any town that would demand a fee for home maintenance such as PAINTING, would be certain to contest a tax break like Question Two.

Oh ye of little faith....pull the federal earmarks for highway projects and then tell me Maine receives less in federal highway dollars than NH!!

.....and your road mileage totals are way off. That probably only includes state highway but here are the factual road mileage for the two states:

Maine: Total Miles: 22,692
New Hampshire: Total Miles: 15,627

There is a new Highway Simplification Study Group that is looking at the issue of roads in Maine. This might be good info to pass along to them. We might want to look at how NH has shafted the Feds back by putting more of their traditional local roads under state jurisdiction to get more $$ from Washington.

STUDY GROUP INFO
GROUP MEMBERS

Yesterday at dinner I met a very nice lady who owns and operates a payroll company in Portsmouth NH. She had (past tense) 20 clients in Maine. She went through the paper chase with Augusta and paid $500 for a license to do business in our great state. Wonderful.

A couple months ago, two Augustacrats appeared at her place of business demanding to audit her books, to make sure she was operating according to high Maine standards. She let them look at everything and they went away. A few days later, she was notified that she passed the audit and could continue to do business with Maine clients. Oh, by the way, here's the bill for the audit, including all travel expenses, and this happy horsesh*t would repeat every quarter.

She immediately sold all her ME clients to a ME payroll company and told Augusta exactly what they could do with the bill.

Not all the sharks are rolling around in blue cruisers.

Unbelievable.

I am glad to hear she told them to put the bill where the sun don't shine. Talk about usury.

Meanwhile, Maine government is so anxious to preserve business and jobs in the state they consistently outsource marketing and tourism efforts to companies out of state. Go figure.

People demanded more regulation when a few payroll companies stole their clients money and left the employers with big tax bills.

People can't have it both ways. If you want the government to protect you that has a cost.

Dan, I understand your point. However, I also wonder if the state told the payroll company owner she would be getting a bill for the audit, prior to the performance of said audit.

Or, did they simply assume she'd be willing to pay, no questions asked?

People demanded more regulation when a few payroll companies stole their clients money and left the employers with big tax bills.

As a result, the state told the payroll companies to play it the State's way, or be shut down.

Also, in addition to the licence fee and audit, she should also have been asked to pay into the state insurance fund, which is based on 1% of her highest exposure, which with 20 clients easily could have been a grand or two. Also, the state requires a letter of credit which banks will issue if it is secured by a CD for the same amount, so that would require her to come up with another 10 grand or so to be set aside in a restricted CD.

I'm actually glad they let us stay in business, but I pay a couple grand for the licence and contribution to the state fund. I don't like writing those checks very much, but recognize that the past abuses hurt too many people.

"pull the federal earmarks for highway projects and then tell me Maine receives less in federal highway dollars than NH!!"

TM: Could you tell us where to find this list?
Thanks.

How mant fewer audits of things have been done with much loved job freezes cuts etc. .
I know I haven't seen an auditor at my work place for years opposed to wht used to happen!

Bruce: The difference is that your auditors are probably paid out of the General Fund. The ones assigned to the payroll companies are paid out of funds collected from the companies they are assigned to audit. The more audits they perform the more revenue collected.

Just say....here is the latest rankings. As you can see, NH ranks 28th compared to Maine at 41.

OINK OINK

Sort of wants to make you pack up and move... To Alaska or Hawaii...
Figures the last two states to come into the union are getting all the perks.

Hey TM, is your office open today or do you have a sign like this posted on the front door?

Mark, some town halls worked Veterans day in order to get today off. I think that is an insult to Veterans, but it happens.

All the perks going to Alaska? They must have had a good governor. Oh wait! That would be Sarah.

"here is the latest rankings. As you can see, NH ranks 28th compared to Maine at 41."

TM: What is your formula for translating from pork per capita
to Federal Funding per mile of road?

Perhaps having fewer public employees and less welfare is a factor...

IAC - Don't mean to argue with what that lady told you about her audit but that just doesn't make any sense. I don't know of any state agency who charges to audit and I know a few payroll folks so I'm guessing they would have said something. I mean the likely people from Augusta to audit would be Revenue Services (payroll taxes) they don't charge, Labor (unemployment) they don't charge, and Workers Comp and I don't think they do either. Also none of them would do an audit quarterly. I just don't understand what audit she could have been having? They do need to register with the state but as someone said before its a result of past fraud by payroll processors. From what I understand the registration is mainly to ensure your bonded so that if you run out on your clients you don't leave a whole bunch of small businesses holding the bag.

So the state understands the concept of audits and yet they don't feel a need to have an out of state group perform one on all state departments. Must be because they are so efficient that the cost would not be justified.
Q. How many state workers does it take to change a guard rail? A. How many have we got available? Send them all.

Justsayso...I don't have a formula. But, take a look at the total road mileage of each state and divide it by what each state receives. Maine has more to take care of. A road is a road.

maineright, I just relayed what she told me. From which I believe she did register and was bonded - it's likely NH and MA have similar requirements. She implied to me that the extra scrutiny was just because hers was a NH company doing business in ME. Beyond that, all I can relate is my direct, personal experiences with various state agencies and the common theme: They love to nickel and dime the very people who pay their salaries. Hers is not the first business to be harassed out of state and it won't be the last.