Things You Need to Know Today: LePage’s Tax Plan Includes ‘NetFlix’ Tax for Online Servies
Here are the things you need to know today......
A Rhode Island man died in a snowmobile crash on a trail west of Millinocket this past weekend. According to WGME he failed to take a curve and hit a tree. This is Maine third snowmobile fatality of the season.
Gov. LePage’s budget proposal would increase the state sales tax to a range of in-person services from haircuts to movie tickets. According to WGME it’s also would extend the state’s tax to online services like Netflix with a 6% tax.
A plan to spend up to $375,000 to bring three-phase power to Hatch Hill landfill could also open the door for a second investment that would allow Augusta to use methane produced by rotting trash to make electricity. According to centrlmaine.com that plan is going up for approval by city councilors Thursday. The city says it would not affect property taxes.
From the Associated Press:
Mom charged in death of infant makes first court appearance yesterday. 32-year-old Miranda Hopkins of Troy on Jan. 13 was been charged with murder in the death of her 7-week-old son, Jaxson. Her attorney described the baby's death as a "terrible tragedy."
Gov. Paul LePage said will soon unveil new details about his administration's plans to build a new, privately run state psychiatric facility in Bangor. The plan is for a new facility for people charged with a crime but found not guilty because of mental illness. Lawmakers want answers on issues like why the facility should be outsourced. The governor said he would attend the next joint hearing of the appropriations and financial affairs committee to defend why Bangor's a better location than Augusta, as originally proposed.
The New England economy is expected to continue improving over the next two years, but forecasters say significant state-by-state disparities remain. The New England Economic Partnership released its annual outlook Tuesday, pointing to Massachusetts and New Hampshire as having the strongest economies in the region.
Many residents of Maine and New Hampshire are going to be awakening to snowfall. The National Weather Service says a coastal storm is going to dump about 3 to 4 inches along the coastline, and a half-foot or more of snow farther inland. The storm started late Tuesday and was expected to wrap up by Wednesday morning.
Maine's annual summit of the spud will bring potato producers, crop specialists and farmers to the northern edge of the state for a two-day conference. The 32nd Annual Maine Potato Conference and Trade Show is scheduled to take place Wednesday and Thursday at the Caribou Inn & Convention Center in Caribou.
A spokeswoman for civil rights leader John Lewis says the facts of history refute Maine Gov. Paul LePage's comments on how two Republican presidents fought against Jim Crow laws. LePage said Tuesday that Lewis needs a lesson on Ulysses S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes. But historians say Jim Crow laws didn't exist during the Grant administration and Hayes' presidency set the stage for the creation of Jim Crow laws.
In less than two weeks, Donald Trump is expected to announce his choice for Supreme Court justice, and last Saturday, he met with a possible pick. Two people familiar with the New York meeting say Trump met with Judge William Pryor, an Alabama-based judge on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. There's been an empty seat on the high court since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia nearly a year ago.
Chelsea Manning, the transgender Army intelligence officer convicted of leaking more than 700,000 U.S. documents, will go free nearly three decades early. President Barack Obama granted clemency to Manning, allowing her to be released from prison in May. She had been sentenced to 35 years, and has spent more than six years behind bars.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service have agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging racial discrimination when it came to promotions. More than 100 black Secret Service agents alleged in a 2000 lawsuit that they were routinely passed over for promotions in favor of less-qualified white agents. The Washington Post is reporting that the agency has agreed to pay $24 million to the plaintiffs.
Caroline Kennedy has stepped down as U.S. ambassador to Japan. Appointed by President Barack Obama in 2013, she had been expected to leave with the coming change in U.S. leadership. President-elect Donald Trump's transition team has said that all envoys who were political appointees must step down by Inauguration Day on Friday.
Police say the man wanted in the fatal shootings of his pregnant ex-girlfriend and an Orlando police officer was wearing body armor and armed with two handguns when he was arrested at an abandoned house Tuesday night. Police say 41-year-old Markeith Loyd was taken into custody after the home was surrounded by SWAT officers. There had been an intense manhunt since Orlando Lt. Debra Clayton was gunned down Jan. 9.