Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Like most of you I have people that depend on me, many that look to me for their safety and well being.

Like you I work hard, work long hours and take my responsibilities seriously. I barely earn the minimum I need to pay my bills and remain fiscally solvent. Then, I get hit with the same increased costs that you must be seeing at your house. A 15% increase in health insurance premiums, and 18% rise in property insurance, heating oil slamming at us more than 50% higher than a year ago, and you know what costs are like at the gas pump these days.

Like most of you I'm sure, we are dealing with it by cutting corners wherever we can, conserving whenever possible and watching our budget like a hawk, in other words getting by on the bare necessities while still taking care of those we are responsible for.

But then out of nowhere, (our out of Topsham to be accurate) comes a woman who doesn't know me, doesn't know my specific set of circumstances and nonetheless proposes to turn my world upside down.

Her name is Carol Palesky. A convicted criminal I might add, her agenda is to dictate that every city and town across our state set their property tax rate at 10 mils. A “one size fits all” approach if ever there was one.

She spent so little time in throwing her :initiative” together that many key parts of it are unconstitutional in the state of Maine and can not even be enacted should her ballot question pass.

I share her frustration that the citizens of Maine do need measurable property tax relief but she is taking the cowardly way out, going after the little guy. Taking a sledgehammer to the foundation of town government is not the way to do it.

Small towns like Dexter that provide a range of services for their citizens will cease to exist as we now know them. Gone will be much of the towns' fire and police protection, snow plowing, sanding, road maintenance, the library.

Even the ambulance contract Dexter has with Mayo Hospital would be history because in Palesky's infinite wisdom she has left school funding untouched, since Dexter's fiscal obligation to S.A.D. 46 alone exceeds 10 mils the entire property tax revenue collected by the town would be shoveled off to the school district.

Meanwhile the state fiscal structure is not addressed in the Palesky Proposal. The House, Senate & Governor are allowed to raise taxes, raise fees, continue to run up deficits and when things get dicey, push more and more of their responsibilities onto the cities and towns. The State's out of control spending spiral will be allowed to continue unabated per Carol Palesky.

If I were a Dexter Resident even thinking about voting for the Palesky Tax Cap I would ask myself one simple question…Do I really thing the town council and Town Manager set our mil rate at 21.70 for any reason other than that was the minimum necessary to provide services?

I, like you, have bills to pay and obligations to meet, you see, I am the town of Dexter.

Rick Goodwin
Dexter Reg. Development Corp. Board of Directors
Dexter Town Councilor