From Russia with love BY AL DIAMON

Ethan Strimling is looking for a couple good Republicans. Or even a couple mediocre Republicans. He’s not fussy.

Strimling, a Democratic state senator from Portland and arguably the most liberal member of the Maine Legislature, is regarded by most in the GOP as some kind of retro-Commie, a meddler who wants to take away their guns, force their children to study evolution, and require everybody to marry a member of the same sex.

(Okay, slight exaggeration. Strimling would allow anyone who doesn’t want a same-sex wedding to apply for a waiver.)

But Strimling isn’t just about social issues. He’s also concerned with tax reform. If state Senator John Martin of Eagle Lake had been elected Senate president last month, Strimling would have been the new chairman of the Taxation Committee, giving him the platform to advance his ideas for reform. But Martin lost to Beth Edmonds of Freeport, and Strimling was relegated to the Joint Standing Committee on Gulag Management.

Undeterred, he’s introduced two bills to repair the tax system. This news may prompt those of you familiar with the senator’s previous forays into reform to bury your money in the backyard. After all, Strimling was a prominent member of the cadre of Senate Democrats that attempted during last year’s session to raise the sales tax to six percent to pay for property-tax relief and a bunch of new programs. That idea was summarily executed by a firing squad composed not only of Republicans, but also of many House Democrats and Democratic Governor John Baldacci. (Unfortunately, they used cheap bullets, and this session, the proposal is less dead than being re-read.)

If the GOP regards Strimling with suspicion, it may be because he confuses the Russian words for "tax reform" with the Soviet term for "tax increase."

Which brings us to the senator’s current quest for Republican support for his bills. His first measure would expand the sales tax to cover many exempt items, which account for over $650 million a year in lost revenue. Some of the money raised by repealing exemptions would go to property-tax relief, while the rest would cover the cost of Strimling’s second bill. That measure seeks to repair the state’s Stalinist income tax, which currently hits even minimum-wage earners at the top rate on part of their paychecks, by creating several new middle-income tax brackets, allowing everyone to keep more of what they earn.

Without bipartisan support, both bills stand about as much chance of surviving this session as a bottle of vodka stands of surviving a Saturday night at Boris Yeltsin’s house. But no Republican in his or her right mind (and, come to think of it, all their minds lean to the right) is going to sign on to a measure that, in effect, raises taxes. Nor is a member of the GOP likely to endorse anything Strimling crafts to alter the income tax, fearing some hidden provision will allow liberal legislation to crush calls for fiscal restraint like Russian tanks rolled over the resistance in Prague.

The elephant party regards Strimling as a prime example of Democratic disregard for economic reality and the personification of left-wing excess.

As usual, the GOP is only half-right.

In a series of email exchanges with the senator, I’ve become convinced he’s sincere about reforming taxes. He’s just not realistic.

In that, he has a lot in common with Republicans.

While Strimling wants to increase sales-tax revenues to pay for property-tax relief and income-tax reform, he doesn’t want to place any constitutional limits on state spending. He’s called such a cap a "fiscal nightmare," citing the example of Colorado, which, when the recession hit earlier this decade, had to make massive cuts in programs because its cap prevented the state from increasing revenues. But the cap proposal being pushed in Maine would place 20 percent of excess tax collections in a "rainy day fund" to cover such emergencies, with the rest going back to taxpayers. Without a cap, Strimling’s expanded sales tax would allow the state to spend huge amounts of new money.

As for the GOP, it refuses to discuss an expanded sales tax, even though the current levy is so narrow it’s subject to violent fluctuations every time there’s a blip in the economy. The sales tax also fails to cover entertainment, thereby giving tourists a free ride. While even a modest expansion (for instance, covering professional services, movie and ski tickets, and Communist Party dues) would produce enough revenue to avoid economic upheaval and provide meaningful tax relief, Republicans insist on making lots of noise about cutting taxes and not a whisper about how to pay for it.

A fiscal fix for the state requires both a revamped tax system and a realistic spending cap. Strimling and the GOP each offer half the answer. To get the entire problem solved, both of these old foes are going to have to come up with an new name for each other:

Comrade.

If I made you see red, email me at ishmaelia@gwi.net