Please be sure to join us this week in welcoming our two newest members Jeff Malloy and Phil Spiller. We know they will both be great assets to our club. Their sponsors Patty Kenney and Henry Saunders will introduce them and help induct them into Rotary.
Our book distribution boxes have been placed at the Westbrook Community Center and the Gorham Parks and Recreation Center. Please ask you family, friends, neighbors, colleagues or folks in other organizations to which you belong to consider donating new or gently used children’s books.
Julie Hamm will collect them each week at our meetings or they can be dropped off at the offices of Desmond & Rand Monday through Friday from about 9AM to 4:30PM. Let’s help make this District project a great success!
As we enter the gift giving season, please consider visiting this site: http://purchasing4mycause.com/ When you buy a gift from Purchasing 4 My Cause, and name us as your charity, 15% percent of your purchase is returned to Rotary Club of Westbrook Gorham.
Thanks to the generosity of our members, in honor of Polio Plus month, we are able to send $260.52 to Rotary International to continue the fight against polio. Our donation will be double matched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation so our dollars will go further.
As part of this donation, we will be honoring our recent speakers:
Senator Cathy Breen - Maine State Senate
Sheriff William L. King Jr - York County
Scott Linscott - Westbrook
Elias Thomas - Sanford-Springvale Rotary
Sheila Rollins - District Governor Bridgeton
Robert Marcroft - Preble St Veterans Housing Services
We were fortunate enough to have Senator Cathy Breen speak to our group today. She highlighted the '16-'17 budget tax changes and answered several questions from the audience.
Some of the highlights:
Income tax cuts for all Mainers with a targeted cut to working and middle-income Mainers - top rate has been reduced from 7.95% to 7.15% and nearly doubles the standard deduction to $11.6 for singles and $23.2 for married couples.
Property tax relief – Doubles homestead property tax credit and retains municipal revenue sharing level.
Other tax reforms – military pensions 100% exempt and conforms to federal exemption for estate tax at $5.5M
The budget is fully paid for - lodging tax increased to 9%, meal tax remains at 8% and sales tax remains at 5.5%
