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Why Stephen King wants Maine governor to 'man up and apologize'

Maine Gov. Paul LePage said that horror author and long-time Maine resident Stephen King moved to Florida so he doesn't have to pay income taxes. Not so, says Stephen King. 

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(AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
Novelist Stephen King speaks to creative writing students at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell in Lowell, Mass., in 2012. King says he still lives in Maine, and he insists that Gov. Paul LePage's claim that he has moved from the state is inaccurate.
  • By Staff Associated Press

| Augusta, Maine

Stephen King says Maine Gov. Paul LePage should "man up and apologize" after claiming the author has moved away and doesn't pay income taxes in Maine.

While arguing for eliminating Maine's income tax, LePage said during his radio address this week that states without an income tax, like Florida, have lured away Maine residents, including King.

The Portland Press Herald reports:

The governor’s remarks were in the context of his defense of a controversial tax overhaul proposal. The plan reduces the state income tax by raising the sales tax and applying it to new items and services, a proposal that LePage argues will lure wealthy retirees and seasonal inhabitants to make Maine their primary domicile. The tax migration theory has been challenged by Democrats, but LePage attempted to hit back in his weekly radio address, arguing that the state’s income tax was adopted by former Democratic Gov. Ken Curtis, who now lives in Florida.

“Meanwhile, remember who introduced the income tax here in Maine,” LePage said. “Well, today former Governor Ken Curtis lives in Florida where there is zero income tax. Stephen King and Roxanne Quimby have moved away, as well.”

King spends winters in Florida but tells the Portland Press Herald  that he and his wife paid about $1.4 million in Maine state taxes in 2013 and likely paid about the same for 2014.

King says his foundation awards $3 million to $5 million in grants annually, mostly in Maine.

A revision of LePage's address released Thursday no longer mentions the author. LePage's spokesman did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

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