Prominent Mainers Sign News Ads to Preserve Federal Estate Tax
Media Advisory from United for a Fair Economy
For immediate release
Contact Christina Kasica, United for a Fair Economy, 617-423-2148 ext 119
July 26, 2005
Prominent Mainers Sign Newspaper Ads to Preserve the Federal Estate Tax
Ads Highlight Need to Keep "Fairest Tax of All"
Portland, Maine-Local supporters of the federal estate tax are taking action this week, as it is expected the U.S. Senate will vote on full repeal of the estate tax before the end of the week. Newspaper ads bearing Maine estate tax supporters' names will appear in 3 papers across the state today. Supporters will also hand-deliver a Call to Preserve the Estate Tax to Senators Snowe and Collins today. Neither senator has as yet said how she will vote on repeal.
|
WHAT: |
60-plus influential Maine residents have signed their names to newspaper ads to appear in 3 Maine newspapers, urging Senators Snowe and Collins to preserve the estate tax. The signers are available to do interviews on the topic. Supporters of the estate tax will also deliver a Call to Preserve the Estate Tax, signed by a hundred prominent Maine citizens, to Senator Olympia Snowe and Senator Susan Collins. The ad, co-sponsored by the Coalition for America's Priorities, is available at http://www.faireconomy.org/Maine. |
|
WHEN: |
The ad will run Tuesday, July 26. Selected signers will be available for media interviews throughout the week. The Call to Preserve the Estate Tax will be delivered to Sen. Snowe's Office, 3 Canal Plaza, Portland, at 9:30 a.m, and to Sen. Collin's Office, One City Center, Portland, at 10:30 a.m. |
|
WHERE: |
Portland Press Herald |
|
WHO: |
Prominent Maine residents (please see list of spokespeople below) |
|
WHY: |
The news from Washington, D.C., is that the U. S. Senate is likely to vote on the estate tax the week of July 25. It is unclear how Senators Snowe and Collins will vote. Will the GOP majority succeed in holding out for full repeal? Or will a bi-partisan reform measure emerge? Whatever the outcome, it will have an impact on Maine residents as well as Americans overall. Estate tax repeal would mean adding another $1 trillion to the national debt over the next 20 years. Estate tax reform, if it is reasonable, would mean affirming a progressive tax that would help solve our nation's fiscal woes. On July 21, Alan Greenspan advised Congress against repealing the estate tax unless it finds other revenue to offset the cost of repeal. Paul Volcker, Alan Greenspan's predecessor at the Federal Reserve, and Bill Gates, Sr., father of Microsoft's founder, have called the estate tax the fairest tax of all, because it affects only multimillionaires well able to pay the tax-1% of the American population. This important debate is entering its final stages, and the undecided votes of Maine's senators mean Maine has an important role to play. |
|
|
|
United for a Fair Economy (UFE) is a national, nonpartisan, non-profit organization raising awareness that concentrated wealth and power undermine the economy, corrupt democracy, deepen the racial divide, and tear communities apart. For more information, see www.faireconomy.org.
Selected Spokespeople for the Estate Tax in Maine
Please contact Christina Kasica of United for a Fair Economy at 617-423-2148 ext 119 to schedule interviews.
James Wellehan, President, Lamey Wellehan Shoes
Jim Wellehan is president of Lamey Wellehan, a Maine family shoe store
started by his family over 90 years ago with current locations in nine
Maine communities. Before assuming the retail responsibilities of the
Lamey Wellehan stores, Wellehan served in the military, taught in South
Africa, and earned an MBA. He is active in numerous community and state
non-profit business and educational organizations and efforts. Wellehan
lives in Auburn.
Angus S. King, Jr., Former Governor of Maine
Angus King served as independent governor of Maine for two terms from
1995 to 2003. King has spent most of his adult life in Maine. He served
as a legislative assistant to Maine's US Senator William Hathaway in
Washington, DC, before beginning his law practice in Brunswick. In 1989
King founded Northeast Energy Management, Inc., an electrical energy
conservation company. As governor, King developed a
nationally-recognized program that provides a laptop computer to every
seventh and eighth grade student in the state. King is a resident of
Brunswick.
Bob Monks, Jr., President of Institutional Shareholder Services, and Real Estate Developer
Bob Monks, Jr., has successfully attracted global capital for a
wide range of business ventures. He and his partners have founded six
real estate companies, a commercial bank and the world's largest proxy
services company, Institutional Shareholder Services. Monks is a
founder and active partner in numerous real estate entities, including
Monks O'Neil Development, Headwater Capital Management, The Signal
Group, Dirigo Management, Northland Enterprises, New England Workforce
Housing, Eagle Point Enterprises and the Sprague Corporation. He also
serves on many non-profit boards (past and present), such as the
Natural Resources Council of Maine, Children's Museum of Maine,
Spurwink Foundation, Gulf of Maine Aquarium, Portland Performing Arts
and the Waynflete School. Monks lives at Ram Island Farm in Cape
Elizabeth.
Peter Mills, Maine State Senator
Peter Mills, a Skowhegan resident, is a decorated Vietnam war
veteran who has served in both the Maine State Senate and House of
Representatives since 1994. He is currently a member of the Select
Committee on Tax Reform and the Insurance and Financial Services
Committee. He is a board member of HealthReach Network, The Maine
Mathematics and Science Alliance, the Coalition for Excellence in
Education, the Somerset County Economic Development Corporation, the
Kennebec Regional Development Corporation, and the Steering Committee
of the Reforming States Group.
Hannah Pingree, Maine State Representative
Hannah Pingree is a second term Democratic state representative
for District 36 in the Maine Legislature. Pingree currently serves as
the House Chair of the Joint Committee on Health and Human Services,
and served on the Joint Committee for Appropriations and Financial
Affairs during her first term in office. Pingree was Finance and
Campaign Director in her mother Chellie Pingree's unsuccessful 2002 bid
for a Maine US Senate seat. The Pingrees are one of a few Maine
families to have had two generations serve terms in the state
legislature. Pingree lives in North Haven.
Philip E. Harriman, CLU, ChFC
For more than 24 years, Phil Harriman has worked with family-held
businesses in the areas of retirement planning, business continuation
arrangements and estate planning. In 1983, he and Michael Lebel formed
Lebel & Harriman LLP, an independent insurance and investment
brokerage firm. Harriman served four consecutive terms representing the
23rd District in the Maine Senate, and has been a board member of
several organizations, including: the United Way Foundation, St.
Joseph's College Business Department's advisory group, MidCoast Health
Services, Husson College and the Cancer Community Center.
Richard Rhames, Farm Owner, Shady Hollow Farm
Richard Rhames, former teacher, owns and runs a family farm in
Biddeford. Rhames is a past member of the Biddeford City Council, and
has also served on Biddeford's Comprehensive Plan Committee, as chair
of the Saco Valley Land Trust, and as co-chair of the Maine People's
Alliance. He is currently chair of Biddeford's Democratic Party.
Jim Amaral, Owner, Borealis Breads
Jim Amaral, entrepreneur and owner of Borealis Breads, established a
business presence in Waldoboro, Maine, in 1993 and has since expanded
his artisan bread business to Wells and Portland. Amaral has lived in
Maine on and off for the past 25 years and is actively involved in the
Maine business community as a MEBSR (Maine Businesses for Social
Responsibility) board member and a participant in Leadership Maine.
Amaral lives in Alna.
Claudia LaBella Adams, CEO, Sea Coast Management
Claudia Adams runs Sea Coast Management in Topsham, the largest
owner/developer of private retirement and active adult communities in
Maine. She is a resident of Portland and Brunswick who has lived and
worked in Maine for 25 years. A former community health nurse, Adams is
a current board member of Sweetser and the Topsham Committee for Fair
Housing, and a former board member of Midcoast Volunteer Hospice.
Chalmers "Chop" Hardenbergh, Owner, Atlantic Northeast Rails and Ports
Chalmers "Chop" Hardenbergh is a Freeport, Maine, attorney who served
two years as a Maine assistant attorney general and two years as a
lawyer for students at the University of Maine. He subsequently founded
the Arms Control Reporter, a self-supporting journal about arms control
negotiations, and Atlantic Northeast Rails & Ports, an independent,
profit-making newsletter. Hardenbergh is a former Goldwater Republican
whose political views have shifted over time.
Frances Frost, Political Affairs Consultant
Frances Frost is a Maine political affairs consultant who has been
active as an elected municipal official in Auburn and Portland.
Governor Baldacci appointed Frost as chair of the State Arts Commission
and as a member of the New England Fine Arts Commission. Frost has
worked as a Special Assistant for Public and Legislative Initiatives to
the President of the University of Southern Maine and as Director of
Appointments for Governor Angus King. She has served on numerous arts
and human service boards
Bruce McAfee, Certified Public Accountant
Bruce McAfee was born and raised in Portland, Maine, and has been an
accountant in Portland since 1968. McAfee is a lifelong member of the
Republican Party and an ardent supporter of non-profit foundations
throughout the state of Maine. He is the treasurer of Serenity House, a
non-profit substance abuse treatment center and halfway house for men,
and is an active supporter of programs and activities at Portland's
Deering High School.
Clifford Ginn, Tax Analyst, Maine Center for Economic Policy
Clifford Ginn grew up in the Portland area. A graduate of Harvard
College and Harvard Law School, he has worked for the Sierra Club and
clerked for Chief Judge William G. Young of the Massachusetts Federal
District Court. Ginn currently resides in Portland, and works as a tax
analyst for the Maine Center for Economic Policy, an independent,
nonpartisan research organization in Augusta.