{"id":1237,"date":"2025-05-20T15:28:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T15:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/?p=1237"},"modified":"2025-05-20T15:28:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T15:28:28","slug":"new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/","title":{"rendered":"New polling: Overwhelmingly, Mainers would tax wealthy and fund health care and Head Start"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">May 20, 2025<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Large majorities support taxing high income earners and oppose cuts to health care and child care statewide and regardless of age and income level.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1bI2FINou3BMHgGTDZL9yjd2xEv9zIwze\/view?usp=sharing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The survey, conducted by the Maine People\u2019s 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 \u201cacceptable\u201d or \u201cunacceptable\u201d in order to close a gap in the biennial budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Specifically:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>63% of Mainers found cuts to housing assistance unacceptable (24% believed them to be acceptable.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>62% opposed cutting Medicaid reimbursement rates for health care providers (with 16.5% finding them acceptable.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>All three cuts were part of Gov. Janet Mills\u2019 initial budget proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Respondents\u2019 opinions varied on different taxes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>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.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Only 33% found it acceptable to apply Maine\u2019s sales tax to streaming services like Netflix (53% finding it unacceptable)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Increasing cigarette taxes by $1 a pack was acceptable to 69% of respondents, with 23% opposed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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 \u201cvery conservative\u201d supporting increased taxes on income over $1 million a year, as well as 79% of respondents in the highest income quintile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>754 Mainers were interviewed for the survey, which has a statistical margin of error of +\/- 3.6% at the 95% confidence level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>####<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Maine People\u2019s Resource Center (MPRC) was founded in 1984 by leaders of Maine People\u2019s 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.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>####<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contact: Nora Flaherty-Stanford,&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:nora@mainepeoplesalliance.org\">nora@mainepeoplesalliance.org<\/a>, (207) 370-8314<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>May 20, 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>New polling: Overwhelmingly, Mainers would tax wealthy and fund health care and Head Start - Maine People&#039;s Alliance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New polling: Overwhelmingly, Mainers would tax wealthy and fund health care and Head Start - Maine People&#039;s Alliance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"May 20, 2025\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Maine People&#039;s Alliance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-20T15:28:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-20T15:28:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kate\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kate\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kate\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/#\/schema\/person\/dad378d903199b4b10bad4ef52d54b7b\"},\"headline\":\"New polling: Overwhelmingly, Mainers would tax wealthy and fund health care and Head Start\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-20T15:28:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-20T15:28:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/\"},\"wordCount\":551,\"articleSection\":[\"Press Releases\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/\",\"name\":\"New polling: Overwhelmingly, Mainers would tax wealthy and fund health care and Head Start - Maine People&#039;s Alliance\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-20T15:28:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-20T15:28:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/#\/schema\/person\/dad378d903199b4b10bad4ef52d54b7b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New polling: Overwhelmingly, Mainers would tax wealthy and fund health care and Head Start\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/\",\"name\":\"Maine People&#039;s Alliance\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/#\/schema\/person\/dad378d903199b4b10bad4ef52d54b7b\",\"name\":\"Kate\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ea231488ea2d3345c656bda1226b3bef00ea0ff70ce625e8731c6f2973d1f740?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ea231488ea2d3345c656bda1226b3bef00ea0ff70ce625e8731c6f2973d1f740?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kate\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/author\/kate\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New polling: Overwhelmingly, Mainers would tax wealthy and fund health care and Head Start - Maine People&#039;s Alliance","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New polling: Overwhelmingly, Mainers would tax wealthy and fund health care and Head Start - Maine People&#039;s Alliance","og_description":"May 20, 2025","og_url":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/","og_site_name":"Maine People&#039;s Alliance","article_published_time":"2025-05-20T15:28:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-05-20T15:28:28+00:00","author":"Kate","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kate","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/"},"author":{"name":"Kate","@id":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/#\/schema\/person\/dad378d903199b4b10bad4ef52d54b7b"},"headline":"New polling: Overwhelmingly, Mainers would tax wealthy and fund health care and Head Start","datePublished":"2025-05-20T15:28:25+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-20T15:28:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/"},"wordCount":551,"articleSection":["Press Releases"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/","url":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/","name":"New polling: Overwhelmingly, Mainers would tax wealthy and fund health care and Head Start - Maine People&#039;s Alliance","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-05-20T15:28:25+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-20T15:28:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/#\/schema\/person\/dad378d903199b4b10bad4ef52d54b7b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/new-polling-overwhelmingly-mainers-would-tax-wealthy-and-fund-health-care-and-head-start\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New polling: Overwhelmingly, Mainers would tax wealthy and fund health care and Head Start"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/","name":"Maine People&#039;s Alliance","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/#\/schema\/person\/dad378d903199b4b10bad4ef52d54b7b","name":"Kate","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ea231488ea2d3345c656bda1226b3bef00ea0ff70ce625e8731c6f2973d1f740?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ea231488ea2d3345c656bda1226b3bef00ea0ff70ce625e8731c6f2973d1f740?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kate"},"url":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/author\/kate\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1237"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1240,"href":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237\/revisions\/1240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainepeoplesalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}