Stephen King is one of America’s most prolific and popular fiction writers, famous for his mastery of the horror genre, and is financially very successful. He’s hardly the only rich and famous American to own a vacation home in Florida, but his legal residence is Maine, and he pays Maine income taxes. Roughly $1.4 million in 2013, according to him.
Meanwhile, it’s no secret that Paul LePage, who bears a striking resemblance to J. Edgar Hoover from some angles, is one of America’s worst governors. For sheer head-up-ass lunacy he’s hard to beat. He’s accused President Obama of hating white people, told a group of students that reading newspapers “is like paying someone to tell you lies,” and pals around with sovereign citizens — the folks who refuse to pay taxes and sometimes shoot police officers. (Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols was a sovereign citizen.)
Gov. LePage is hell-bent on reducing Maine’s income tax and raising its sales tax in order to shift more of the state’s tax burden from high-income households to moderate and low-income households. As part of his coddle-the-rich tax crusade, LePage gave a radio address last week that went like this:
“Remember who introduced the income tax here in Maine,” LePage [a Republican] thundered. “Well, today former Governor Ken Curtis [a Democrat] lives in Florida where there is zero income tax. Stephen King and Roxanne Quimby have moved away, as well.”
Except Stephen King has neither moved to Florida nor stopped paying more than a million dollars a year of Maine income taxes. So, quite naturally, King reacted to LePage’s bluster (there wasn’t much love lost between them to begin with) with the eloquent outrage befitting a master craftsman with words. That is, he didn’t exactly say LePage is full of shit. What he exactly said was, “Governor LePage is full of the stuff that makes the grass grow green.” King didn’t have any problem getting the radio station to broadcast his rebuttal, inasmuch as he owns the radio station.
It’s not the first time King has waxed eloquently about LePage. Four years ago, King referred to LePage as a “stone brain,” which is insulting to stones; and has called him “Moe,” a reference to the Three Stooges (with the roles of Larry and Curly assigned to Scott Walker and Rick Scott, respectively).
King, who thinks rich people like him should pay their fair share of taxes and opposes LePage’s regressive tax scheme, wants more than the record set straight.
“I think he needs needs to man up and apologize,” King said. LePage’s flunkies have removed the false insinuation that King is a tax dodger from the governor’s website, but otherwise nothing has emanated from him except methane gas.
Photos: The popular author (top) and the execrable blowhard politician (bottom)