Tax plan battle turns to TV 3 Question 1 ballot proposals in ‘dead heat,’ polls show

AUGUSTA – Proponents of Question 1A in the fall referendum on tax relief intensified the pace of their statewide campaign this weekend with the release of a 60-second television ad.

With two weeks of radio ads already in heavy rotation, supporters of the Maine Municipal Association’s property tax relief plan were confident their television spot would resonate with Maine voters. While Question 1A proponents escalated their campaign, supporters of Gov. John E. Baldacci’s competing measure, Question 1B, were still in the midst of raising money for polling and campaign ads.

Meanwhile, Bob Stone of Lewiston has announced the formation of Common Sense for Maine Taxpayers, a political action committee that supports Question 1C, which rejects both questions 1A and 1B.

“Voting for 1C is a way for Maine’s taxpayers, already suffering under the highest tax burden in the country, to say, ‘Enough is enough,'” Stone said in a prepared statement. “We need to convince 50 percent of Maine’s working people to reject higher taxes. That will be a great first step toward getting job creators and job providers to remain in Maine. It’s up to Maine voters to determine our own future.”

MaryEllen FitzGerald of the Portland polling firm Critical Insights said Monday that the preliminary results of her continuing survey on Question 1 indicated a statistical “dead heat” among the three options. In a statewide sample of 300 residents so far, FitzGerald said, 32 percent of the participants favored Question 1A, 35 percent favored Question 1B, and 28 percent preferred Question 1C. Five percent of the respondents were undecided in the preliminary results of the poll, which carried a margin of error of 5.7 percentage points.

“At the moment, there’s not a lot of strong recognition about what the differences are between the two questions,” said FitzGerald, who plans to poll another 300 Mainers on the issue.

Sparked by the MMA’s citizen initiative that attracted more than 100,000 signatures, Question 1A requires the Legislature to identify funding sources to bring the state’s share of local education costs to 55 percent without raising taxes. The state currently funds those costs at about 43 percent. The additional revenue, estimated at about $264 million, would be made available to Maine communities effective July 1, 2004.

Question 1B is a competing measure crafted by Baldacci and amended last month by the Maine Legislature. The revised proposal would phase in additional education funds over a five-year period until the 55 percent goal is reached. The plan also provides an additional $40 million through June 30, 2005, to enhance property tax relief currently available under the state’s “circuit-breaker” and Homestead Exemption programs.

Question 1C allows voters to reject both the citizen initiative and the competing measure. Under state law, if neither Question 1A nor 1B receives a majority of the vote, the option receiving the greatest number of ballots would be considered next June as an unopposed question as long as it received at least 33 percent of the total number of votes cast. If 1C receives a majority of the vote, 1A and 1B would be automatically defeated.

Dana Lee, vice president of the MMA and president of Question 1A’s political action committee, Citizens to Reduce Local Property Taxes Statewide, said Monday he thought the organization’s first television ad on the issue was “on message” and clearly understandable by viewers. He said the potential for more TV spots depended on how the campaign unfolds.

“At this point it is the ad,” Lee said, adding that his organization had no immediate plans for other ads unless they were deemed necessary to correct what the Question 1A PAC perceives as misleading or erroneous information by opponents.

Kay Rand, representing the Question 1B PAC, Mainers for Real and Responsible Property Tax Relief, said she had not yet seen the Question 1A television ad. Although her organization has not begun its advertising campaign, she insisted that supporters of the competing measure were on track.

“It was always our goal to be more visible the first weekend in October and we’re on target,” she said. “We’re raising money for television and building our network.”

FitzGerald said Rand’s group can still catch up with Question 1A’s two-week lead in advertising – but that they cannot afford to wait much longer.

“They’re not too late, but they seem to be having trouble getting out of their own way,” she said. “They need to make a more compelling argument to the voters. Their television ads should have been out yesterday.”