 Maine's tax agency out of control New limits on power sorely needed to stop renegade agents from bullying citizens Land grab motive seen behind Maine Revenue Service police-state tactics A letter to the editor of a local Maine newspaper by Erich Veyhl, property owner on the too-beautiful Atlantic coast Maine Revenue Services Abuse Must Stop
Maine Revenue Services (MRS) has a sordid record of bullying private citizens through arbitrary accusations, threats and intimidation, demands for proof of a negative, re-writing the law for its own benefit, and obstructing legislators who try to help their constituents. During the Taxation Committee's May 12, 2009 work session in Augusta, an unidentified legislator slandered me as "probably pretty close to" being a "terrorist" and otherwise misrepresented me. He did this spurred on by MRS, impugning my character in response to testimony my wife and I had given at the committee hearing the week before on Sen. Raye's bill (LD1321) to clarify citizen privacy rights with respect to MRS. We drove four hours to Augusta to testify on behalf of the bill, which would have prevented MRS from stonewalling legislator oversight of MRS actions. At the May 6 hearing we described to the committee how MRS has been bullying and intimidating us for over two years in a personal and political vendetta with false accusations. Sen. Raye tried to investigate our and similar complaints from constituents against MRS but was personally stonewalled by MRS Director Jerome Gerard, who misused the "Privacy Act" to protect his agency. MRS agent Walter Carlow was present at the public hearing, where he ominously told me that MRS "keeps track" of people "testifying against us", but MRS did not publicly testify on the bill. It came out in the work session discussion about Gerard that he has been attempting to excuse his agency's abuse against us and others, and his stonewalling of Sen. Raye, on the grounds that I allegedly had a prior "long history" of being a "problem"; this is both false and irrelevant -- as was the slanderous "terrorist" accusation. The time for questions was during the public hearing, rather than attack my character behind my back in a work session not expected to be monitored by the public and where MRS undermined a bill it had not testified on at the public hearing. (The committee replaced the bill with a "resolve" calling for another MRS form.) The proceedings of the hearing and work session can be examined at http://tinyurl.com/obduga. This is extremely serious. Gerard and the committee members surely know the implications of slander and innuendo by government officials used to deflect complaints and discredit private citizens who try to stand up to them, and must realize the civil rights implications of raw power used for persecution and cover-up. The Taxation Committee should ensure honest oversight of the actions of MRS and put an end to the abusive, arbitrary tactics of this out-of-control agency under Governor Baldacci's tenure. Several members of the committee appear to understand this. It is time for them to act. Erich Veyhl Moose Cove, Maine |
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