March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Look at Question 9: Pretty is as pretty duns

If it weren’t for Questions 1 through 8, Question 9 would be the big noise on next Tuesday’s nine-question referendum ballot. It has, after all, everything Mainers need for a major-league rhubarb: it tinkers with their beloved constitution; it fiddles with their detested property tax; it toys with their affection for all things historic and scenic.

As it is, though, this is the question that can’t get itself arrested. It raises a important issue that just isn’t being heard above all the shouting about Land For Partial Birth Digital Big Birds.

The issue is how to keep Maine’s historic buildings and spectacular scenery from getting gobbled up by development. It is a real and significant problem, as evidenced by the years of hand-wringing at the highest level of state government about sprawl. The solution suggested by Questions 9 is a constitutional amendment that would permit a municipality, if it wishes, to offer reduced property tax rates to the owners of these special properties if they promise to keep them special.

Credit this refreshing proposal to use enticement instead of regulation to the good people of Cape Elizabeth. They recently lost to development one of their architectural treasures — the Two Lights keeper’s house, celebrated in the paintings of Edward Hopper. Rather than kick and scream about it (OK, there was a little kicking and screaming), rather than engage in an orgy of ordinance-writing, they wisely came up with the idea of using carrots, not sticks, to keep their remaining splendor intact. And credit Senate Minority Leader Jane Amero for getting this good Republican combination of incentive and home rule through the Legislature and onto the ballot.

But, alas, as is often the case, this solution creates its own problems. Critics of Question 9, including the Maine Municipal Association, observe correctly that the tax base in many towns, especially those that are regional service centers, already is shrinking due to the increase in tax-exempt property. Others have observed that the property tax is detested because it often bears no relation to ability to pay; it is acceptable only to the extent that it gouges everyone equally and the public will not stand for two-tier gouging. Especially when the lower tier would be occupied by the most prevalent owners of historic and scenic properties — rich folks from away. Just imagine the reaction by the typical Mainer when some trust-funder from Connecticut tries to hold his own 19-room Victorian hostage. Pay up or the wainscoting gets it — that’ll go over real well.

Still, Question 9 contains the germ of a good idea. It just doesn’t go far enough. The real crisis is not the occasional swell who spoils the spectacular, but the day-to-day creeping uglification of everything around us. The use of tax policy to reward prettiness holds promise.

Drive through any neighborhood, even a nice, upscale neighborhood. Count the rusting stoves parked beside garages, the broken toys littering lawns. How about a property-tax break for people who pick up their yards?

And why stop at the property tax? Why not an income-tax credit for people who don’t have tattoos? Or a business-equipment tax rebate for restaurants that make patrons park their ball caps at the door?

The next time you’re sitting at a traffic light behind a motorcycle, ponder the fleshy cleavage that protrudes between the top of some biker’s jeans and the bottom of his T-shirt. Ask yourself if filling that breach wouldn’t be worth a few bucks off his registration fee. You know it would.

Visual blight isn’t just a Maine phenomenon — it’s global. And around the globe, people are fighting back. The Coalition to Raise Aesthetic Consciousness is a worldwide network of activitists alarmed by the planet’s increasing cheesiness — in particular the extent to which function has routed form in buildings, appliances and automobiles. CRAC’s position is this: Whereas Early Man took pride in making earthen water jugs that both held water and had high artistic value; Modern Man makes plastic water jugs. Period.

So CRAC has mounted Operation Ugly Aware. Agents around the world download “This Is Ugly” stickers from the mother ship’s website (www.mindspring.com/(tilden)chadallen/crac/crachome.html) and affix them to objects that work well, but do so in a way devoid of style. That new fast-food pyramid entrance to the majestic Louvre is a frequent target of these merry pranksters. Dependable, safe yet boxy Volvos are often tagged. If a CRAC cell ever forms in Maine, members no doubt will make a bee line for the State Office Building.

The fate of Question 9 is unclear. It is so little known that pollsters aren’t even asking about it and it may be that the voters’ aversion to constitutional tweaking and to tax breaks for the wealthy may overcome their desire to preserve the picturesque. But even if this proposal goes down to defeat, the seeds have been sown, the idea is out there that the best way to get people to tidy up and look sharp may be to pay them.

I’m optimistic, but I’m not taking any chances. I’ve downloaded my “This Is Ugly” stickers from CRAC. I keep a page in my car. There’s still a lot of good biking weather left and I figure an 8 1/2-by-11 sheet ought to just about cover the situation.

Bruce Kyle is the NEWS assistant editorial page editor.


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