An analysis by Maine Revenue Services concluded that 87 percent of Maine's 665,000 income tax-paying households would see their overall tax burden decrease.
But the Greens say the tax restructuring hurts low-income Mainers and makes the state's system less progressive. In particular, they don't like an expansion of sales tax to car repairs, for example. They also don't like the elimination of tax income brackets.
Anna Trevorrow is chair of the Maine Green Independent Party. "We oppose it for the flat tax. When you institute such a comprehensive tax package it's likely to be many years, 30 or 50 years, before it's ever revised again. So we think it's scary to implement flat tax that could be in place for a very long time."