A Tempting Idea from Maine

Frustrated by unaccountable politicians socking your small business and/or family budgets with high taxes?

Well, I came across a July 6 story in the Portland Press Herald about how voters in a small town in Maine reacted. Consider the following:

Route 4 rises due north from Farmington, then west into the foothills of Maine’s western mountains to the Franklin County town of Phillips, population 992. The stores are open, but town government is closed. No town manager, no municipal budget.

Voters at a town meeting June 28 rejected an article to raise just over $256,000 to cover spending that exceeded last year’s budget under the state’s three-year-old tax cap law.

With that vote, the rest of the town meeting warrant was moot, Town Manager Lynn White said, and the meeting was adjourned.

Salaries, fuel costs, highway department, fire and transfer-station services ended June 30, as did White’s paid position. The new fiscal year was to have begun July 1.

Taxpayers are angry and worried as the price of everything continues to rise and local roads continue to fall apart. They want accountability...

I love these people. They have spunk … not to mention a very tempting idea.