March, 2021 – Two-Thirds Of Mainers Support Raising Taxes On The Wealthy

New polling from Maine People’s Resource Center (MPRC) shows high support among Maine voters across gender, geography, age, and education level for increasing taxes on high-income earners.

The new numbers come as recent national polling shows high support for taxing the wealthy to fund federal infrastructure improvements.

“Mainers know the tax system is rigged for the wealthy and large corporations and they know it should be made more fair,” said Maine People’s Alliance senior strategist Mike Tipping. “Even without talking about the critical health care, education and other priorities we need to fund, Mainers overwhelmingly want to increase taxes on the wealthy simply to begin to level the playing field.”

According to the survey of 828 Maine voters, completed in early March, 66% of respondents support “creating a new state tax bracket, increasing taxes on those making more than $200,000 a year,” including 45% who say they “strongly” support such a policy. Only 30% said they opposed increasing taxes on wealthy individuals.

63% of independent voters and 66% of voters who self-identified as “moderate” said they supported increasing taxes on those making more than $200,000. 86% of Democrats and 37% of Republicans also supported the proposal.

Support was similarly high across gender, congressional districts, ages and levels of education. One of the few demographics with majority opposition to increased taxes on the wealthy were those who reported making more than $120,000 a year in household income, with 51% opposed.

The MPRC survey has a statistical margin of error of ±3.4% at the 95% confidence level. Results of the poll are available here: http://mprc.me/research/0421_tax_survey_results.pdf