Taxpayers group appeals state’s denial of cap initiative

AUGUSTA – As promised, an activist group has appealed a state ruling that short-circuits its campaign for a tax cap referendum this year.

The Maine Taxpayers Action Network filed an appeal in Cumberland County Superior Court challenging a ruling announced last week by state election officials.

The appeal sets into motion a process requiring a nonjury trial on the matter within 15 days of the election officials’ Feb. 4 decision.

It also requires a written decision within 30 days of the trial, and provides an appeal route to the state supreme court.

In order to initiate a statewide referendum in November, the group needed to collect valid signatures of at least 42,101 Maine voters. The initiative seeks to cap property taxes at 1 percent of assessed value.

Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky said thousands of signatures were invalid because municipal registrars did not certify them as belonging to local voters or they were duplicates.

Hundreds of others were thrown out for a variety of other problems, including lack of proof that one of the collectors was a Maine resident. With the rejected signatures, MTAN was 2,812 signatures short of the minimum needed to force a vote.

In its appeal dated Feb. 7, the taxpayers’ group challenges those findings and requests a trial.

MTAN leader Carol Palesky of Topsham said Monday that the major issue before the court will be the residency of the petition circulator who collected more than 3,000 of the 54,000 signatures submitted by the group.

In its appeal, MTAN asserted that the circulator identified as James H. Powell “was both a resident of the state of Maine and a registered voter in the town of Scarborough, Maine, at the time he collected the signatures in question.”

It also asserts that it “is a violation of the ‘free speech’ clauses of the Maine and U.S. Constitutions to require a petition circulator to be a resident of the state of Maine.”

The Secretary of State’s Office declined to comment on the appeal because the case is in litigation.

In petition drives in which the minimum number of signatures are certified, initiated questions are sent directly to the Legislature, which may enact the proposals or send them to voters.