Taking Stock: What a Carrie on!
LePage cited the author - responsible, for such supernatural classics as The Shining, IT and Pet Sematary, as an example of a resident seduced by the low tax regimes of other US states
LePage cited the author - responsible, for such supernatural classics as The Shining, IT and Pet Sematary, as an example of a resident seduced by the low tax regimes of other US states
TAXING TIMES lie ahead for Maine governor Paul LePage who has caused consternation, if not unbridled Misery for Stephen King, the undisputed master of horror fiction.
King has demanded LePage “man up and apologise” for suggesting he doesn’t pay state taxes.
LePage cited the author – responsible, for such supernatural classics as The Shining, IT and Pet Sematary, as an example of a resident seduced by the low tax regimes of other US states.
King quickly denied the claim, stating that while he wintered in Florida, he had a home in Maine where he paid high amounts of tax.
He tweeted: “Governor Paul LePage implied that I don’t pay my taxes. I do. Every cent. I think he needs to man up and apologise.”
Born in the high-tax state of Maine, King has set a number of his works there, including Carrie, later turned into the Brian De Palma-directed 1976 horror flick that gained immediate cult status.
The 67-year-old author told the Portland Press Herald that he and his wife Tabby paid $1.4m (£940,000) in taxes in 2013 and that his King Foundation gives out grants amounting to $3m-5m a year, primarily to Maine-based causes.
“Governor LePage is full of the stuff that makes the grass grow green,” King said.
“Tabby and I pay every cent of our Maine state income taxes, and are glad to do it. We feel, as governor LePage apparently does not, that much is owed from those to whom much has been given.
“We see our taxes as a way of paying back the state that has given us so much. State taxes pay for state services. There’s just no way around it. Governor LePage needs to remember there ain’t no free lunch.”
An apology from LePage has yet to be issued, provoking the writer to tweet at the weekend that “some guys are a lot better at dishing it out than taking it back”.