State Treasurer Loses $20,000,000
Today, the Kennebec Journal reports in a story by Susan M. Cover on the ongoing investigation into the failed $20,000,000 investment made on behalf of Maine’s taxpayers by the State Treasurer David Lemoine. I will not rehash the story, but in a nutshell there is a very, very high probability that Maine’s taxpayers will not ever see a dime of this $20,000,000.
What does this mean to the average Mainer? The lost $20,000,000 is the equivalent of all the state taxes paid ($2,691) by 7,432 average Mainers (estimate based on methodology from this previous study). Or, to put it in more political terms, it is almost the same number of people as represented in a single Maine House District (85 percent).
Put simply, these 7,432 Mainers would have been better off burning this money to stay warm this winter than sending their hard-earned money to Augusta. Sound preposterous, well, it certainly beats having to resort to stealing fuel oil.