Press Releases

New polling: Overwhelmingly, Mainers would tax wealthy and fund health care and Head Start

May 20, 2025

Large majorities support taxing high income earners and oppose cuts to health care and child care statewide and regardless of age and income level.

New polling shows Mainers are mostly in agreement when it comes to what Maine should prioritize in the state budget. View full state budget poll results here.

They largely reject proposed cuts to health care, childcare and housing programs, and at the same time they overwhelmingly favor increased taxes on high income earners, cigarette sales and corporations.

The survey, conducted by the Maine People’s Resource Center over the last two weeks, asked Maine voters whether they found a number of cuts and taxes proposed as part of ongoing state budget negotiations “acceptable” or “unacceptable” in order to close a gap in the biennial budget.

Specifically:

  • 63% of Mainers found cuts to housing assistance unacceptable (24% believed them to be acceptable.)
  • 62% opposed cutting Medicaid reimbursement rates for health care providers (with 16.5% finding them acceptable.)
  • Cutting child care provider wages and the Head Start program was the least popular option, with 79% opposed and only 14% finding the idea acceptable.

All three cuts were part of Gov. Janet Mills’ initial budget proposal.

Respondents’ opinions varied on different taxes:

  • Taxing wealthy individuals and corporations at higher rates in order to fund these programs is widely popular: 57% of Mainers support cutting corporate tax incentives, 68% support increasing taxes on income above $200,000 a year and 81% support increasing taxes on income above $1 million. Several bills to do this have been proposed in a series of bills submitted by members of the legislature.
  • Only 33% found it acceptable to apply Maine’s sales tax to streaming services like Netflix (53% finding it unacceptable)
  • Increasing cigarette taxes by $1 a pack was acceptable to 69% of respondents, with 23% opposed.

For the most and least popular budget options, support and opposition cut across all demographic groups. Large majorities support taxing high income earners and oppose cuts to health care and child care across both Congressional districts, every county and every age, education and income level.

Mainers were most aligned on the idea of increasing income taxes on wealthy individuals, with even 65% of Republicans and 65% of those who described themselves as “very conservative” supporting increased taxes on income over $1 million a year, as well as 79% of respondents in the highest income quintile.

There were some small differences in the results across gender and age and income, with men, older Mainers and those with higher household incomes slightly more likely to find cuts to childcare programs acceptable. Mainers in lower income brackets and with less educational attainment were slightly more likely to find a cigarette tax increase unacceptable, although wide majorities supported it across both demographics.

754 Mainers were interviewed for the survey, which has a statistical margin of error of +/- 3.6% at the 95% confidence level.

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Maine People’s Resource Center (MPRC) was founded in 1984 by leaders of Maine People’s Alliance (MPA), with whom we partner in advancing local, statewide and national campaigns for progressive social change. Over the past four decades, MPRC has recruited and trained thousands of grassroots leaders, and educated hundreds of thousands of Mainers about legislative and ballot initiatives and the importance of voting to make their voices heard.

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Contact: Nora Flaherty-Stanford, [email protected], (207) 370-8314