Politics
Our political journalists are based in the Maine State House and have deep source networks across the partisan spectrum in communities all over the state. Their coverage aims to cut through major debates and probe how officials make decisions. Read more Politics coverage here.
Maine’s five Democratic gubernatorial candidates debated taxes, housing and the limits of bold promises Wednesday, with the sharpest exchange coming over a proposal to impose higher property taxes on out-of-state second-home owners.
The dispute offered a rare glimpse of friction in a Democratic field that has been notably collegial. For most of the debate, the five candidates agreed on raising the minimum wage, banning cellphones in classrooms and standing up to President Donald Trump’s administration against healthcare cuts.
But the field split on the issue of second-home taxes. Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and former House Speaker Hannah Pingree have both backed amending the Maine Constitution to make it happen. Right now, it says that property taxes must be assessed equally.
Constitutional amendments require the approval of two-thirds of lawmakers in each chamber — a high bar given the relatively even divide of the Legislature — plus a statewide referendum. That would make for a “labor-intensive, long process” that could also violate the U.S. Constitution, former Maine public health chief Nirav Shah said.
Bellows fired back that “that’s simply not correct.” As the former head of the ACLU of Maine, she noted that New York and South Carolina have proposed similar measures, and that there were many court cases people thought were impossible “and we won.”
“I say we try it,” she said. “Worst-case scenario somebody sues us, maybe they find it to be constitutional, maybe they don’t. If they don’t, we have the political will to make a constitutional amendment.”
Pingree agreed, calling for greater investment in housing production and pushing to make those with the “fanciest homes” and out-of-state second homes pay more.
“We’ve seen property taxes double,” she said.
Former Senate President Troy Jackson said the second-home proposal would “make a lot of people excited, and then we wouldn’t be able to do it, and nothing would happen.” He said there are other ways to earn tax revenues from the wealthy.
Shah directed his focus elsewhere for new revenue, suggesting heavy online betting and cannabis, while arguing the bulk of revenue from a new millionaire tax should be spent on education “to fund our schools and reduce property taxes.”
On the budget more broadly, Shah said he wanted to use funding “we have far more efficiently.” Republicans, he quipped, are focused on autocracy, while Democrats focus on bureaucracy.
