Since the passage of Question 2 on last November's ballot, the debate over it has centered around the question of taxes. Does Maine want to have, depending on how you count it, the highest or second-highest income tax rate in the country? Is that what Maine people voted for, or were they just trying to vote for some vague concept of "better schools"? Just how bad will the flight of wealth from Maine to other states be? How many people will decide to never move here because of the new tax rate? What will be the impact on jobs?

They called him “The Junk Man” because his hobby was to pick up junk and restore it. For Robert Godwin Sr., the satisfaction of restoring all things junk was married into the life of leisure that retirement brings,

Is there really any logical reason for the Charter Revision Commission to eliminate the ability of Dover-Foxcroft residents to vote all budgetary Articles by Secret ballot in the privacy of the voting booth at June's municipal election?

Will your organization support the Moosehead Region Futures Corporation to prevent the building of two large windmill farms consisting of over 100 windmills? They will be built on Misery Ridge and on Burnt Nubble and Black Nubble.

The editorial piece written by Governor LePage that was published in the April 19th edition of the Observer is decidedly misleading. The Governor has a history of granting tax breaks to big business and the wealthy at the expense of education, the elderly, working families, the poor and the environment.

So we have our first officially credible candidate, State Treasurer Terry Hayes, of the 2018 gubernatorial cycle. Hayes is currently unenrolled and will be running as an independent. I say “officially credible,” of course, because she is not the very first human being to file for the race. She just happens to be the first one with a chance north of zero of actually being elected.

Democrats say they want to reduce property taxes. But they don’t have the courage to actually do it. You can’t talk about reducing property taxes without addressing state funding for education. Education costs are a major driver of local property taxes.

When fools build a caricature and call it a crown, Blindness is bliss in the new double down.

Democrat politicians in Augusta will take every opportunity to spend more of your money, and most Mainers simply can’t afford it.

When considering what to do about the Syrian situation, there are simply no good answers.

America’s rural hospitals are at risk. In fact, 80 rural hospitals in 25 states have closed since 2010. In Maine, 19 of the state’s 36 hospitals ended fiscal year 2016 with negative operating margins. On average half of Maine hospitals have reported negative operating margins annually since 2012.

There is a thief in Dover-Foxcroft. It currently exists in the proposed revision of the town charter and it's ready to steal away your right to vote all the budgetary warrant articles presented on the ballot at the June municipal election. That's right! If you approve the revised town charter appearing as a referendum on this June's ballot you will effectively lose the ability to vote by secret ballot on any budget-related item except a "bottom line" budget total.

Taxed enough already? Well, yes and no. In our last letters we discussed taxes levied by the State of Maine. About 50 percent of their revenue comes from regressive sales taxes and another 40 percent comes from (very) mildly progressive income taxes (the rest from licenses and other taxes).

The Forest Society of Maine (FSM), a land trust serving Maine’s North Woods, holds nearly 1 million acres of forestland in conservation easements. A good portion of the conservation easements we hold surround the Moosehead Lake region and extend to the north, west and east including many mountains, lakes and rivers. The conservation easements typically allow for continued sustainable forest management and the landowners, who still own the land, continue to pay taxes on the land. The public benefits from the permanently assured public access and the conservation of wildlife habitat, special natural areas, recreational assets, and scenic beauty the easements ensure.

Stop trying to fool us, Angus. I'll admit, you are a talented salesman. You have built a carefully crafted image over the years, and have created a very successful personal brand. You have used that mythos to make quite a career for yourself. But what you have built is a phony house of cards, and it is time to just come clean with the truth about who you are. Enough already.

Aren't town charters developed to be a kind of rule book to which town administrations and town residents can agree to adhere? Shouldn't one be able to assume revisions of that charter would be undertaken in the interest of these residents and in an effort to achieve maximum transparency by the town's government? Well, the currently proposed (revised) Dover-Foxcroft Municipal Charter appears to do just the opposite.

On behalf of our lovely community and the Moosehead Lake Region, I want to thank the People's United Methodist Church for the wonderful spaghetti suppers they have on Wednesday nights. They are delicious. Also the Thanksgiving dinner every year. We appreciate all the work church members do in preparing these lovely meals.

The spring that never was, at least that's the prediction as of late from the weather prophets. As we dream of warm spring air and fear it may never again appear through the snow drifts, the maple sugar industry is just wishing the sap would run. It’s awful hard to boil sap without any sap.