Sen. Bailey appointed to bipartisan working group for reviewing tax expenditures by the state

AUGUSTA — Sen. Donna Bailey, D-Saco, has been appointed to the Working Group to Review the Process for Ongoing Review of Tax Expenditures by the Legislature by Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash.

“I’ve always stood for proper accountability, fiscal responsibility and prudent budgeting. That’s why I’m proud to have been selected to serve on this working group,” said Sen. Bailey, who sits on both the Appropriations and Financial Affairs and Government Oversight Committees.

The tax expenditures working group covers the review of a broad set of policies and programs that have a tax impact, including exemptions, credits and incentives. Examples of these are sales tax exemptions on grocery items and services like haircuts.

The working group will make recommendations to improve the tax expenditure review process and the turnaround time for reviews to be completed. This working group is particularly significant because individual tax expenditures are not often subjected to the same level of scrutiny as other budget items. As a result, there is limited data and research on the impact of individual tax expenditures available for lawmakers to make more informed budget decisions.

The working group consists of Democratic and Republican members of both the House and Senate, and will release its final report by Dec. 1, 2021.

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