Legislature looks to craft 1A solution

AUGUSTA – Supporters of Question 1A failed to reap a majority vote Tuesday, but they may be happy to settle for the full attention of the Legislature’s majority party.

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate said Thursday they are looking forward to meeting with the Maine Municipal Association and the Maine Education Association to craft “the fairest possible solution” for tax reform, educational funding and property tax relief.

Their desire to meet was expressed in a letter sent Wednesday by Senate President Beverly Daggett, D-Augusta, to officials at both the MMA and MEA.

“We’re certainly not going to shut the door on any conversations with any of the parties involved,” said Mike Starn of the MMA on Thursday. “Obviously the Legislature is an involved party in any type of tax reform that’s going to take place, and the governor’s office is going to clearly be a critical component of any type of tax reform. But these parties have been getting together and talking tax reform for a long time and we haven’t had an agreement yet. Perhaps we’ve reached a turning point.”

The 1A supporters maintain that before the referendum campaign the Baldacci administration did not negotiate in good faith to seek a compromise that could have averted a showdown over property tax relief. Instead, 1A supporters went ahead with their own referendum plan to force the Legislature to find ways to come up with an estimated $250 million by July 1, 2004, and to increase the state’s share of local education costs to 55 percent. The goal was to reduce the burden of local property taxpayers, who pay more than 58 percent of local education costs.

In response to the MMA proposal, Gov. John Baldacci crafted Question 1B, a competing measure that would increase the state’s share of education to 55 percent over five years and persuaded the Legislature to endorse the plan in August.

Tuesday’s balloting gave 1A nearly 38 percent of the vote, 1B 35 percent, and Question 1C – the option to reject both proposals – 27 percent. Because it won the most votes but failed to get more than 50 percent, 1A must now be considered by voters again as an unopposed question.

Maine law stipulates the second vote cannot be held any sooner than 60 days after Tuesday’s election and no later than the first statewide election, which most state election officials have acknowledged is the June primary. Proponents of 1A, however, would like to see the vote held in February.

The governor said he would prefer to hold the runoff vote in November. He argued that a June primary would not attract enough voters since it would be geared toward party politics and exclude Maine’s unenrolled voters. Regardless of opinions on scheduling, the date of the runoff ultimately lies with state lawmakers.

Party leaders in the House and Senate rejected the governor’s suggestion of a November vote Thursday, a possible indication that the Legislature may be distancing itself from the governor and charting its own course with 1A. The lawmakers maintained that scheduling a runoff election during the June primary was the only option that made sense.

“To say that one third of the people are excluded is a bunch of foolishness,” said Senate Republican Leader Paul Davis of Sangerville. “That’s poppycock. We need to have a good debate on it and June will give us the time to do that.”

Daggett, who does not support the November or February election options, said majority Democrats in the Senate share the same goals as 1A proponents who want to lower property taxes and “fund education properly.” Daggett and House Republican Leader Joe Bruno of Raymond expressed some bewilderment at the inability of the governor’s office to reach some common ground with 1A proponents earlier this year that could have circumvented Tuesday’s vote.

Lee Umphrey, the governor’s spokesman, said Baldacci had sought to convince 1A supporters to delay seeking a statewide vote on their plan until he had an opportunity to prepare his tax reform package in the next year. Some lawmakers clearly thought the governor’s office could have done more to strike a compromise.

“I guess I don’t know what the stumbling block was,” Daggett said. “But I’m certainly willing to have continued conversations and I hope that others will as well.”

Bruno, who said he hopes Democrats also will include minority Republicans in their discussion plans, placed responsibility for the failure to reach some level of consensus with 1A on the governor’s office.

“In my opinion, they should be the ones who are leading the charge on tax reform,” Bruno said. “They could have crafted a better deal than what we wound up sending out as 1B and they didn’t take the initiative to do it.”

The GOP House leader favors a June run-off and expressed some surprise over Baldacci’s reluctance to agree given that he expects the governor “to place his $100 million Land For Maine’s Future bond” on the ballot during the same month.

“So are you telling me that’s not going to happen because he doesn’t believe enough people will vote? I don’t think so,” Bruno said.

House Speaker Patrick Colwell, D-Gardiner, expressed a desire to find “some common ground” with 1A supporters and characterized Maine as “one big small town” where everyone “has to live with each other.”

“I think the [Senate] president has got it right,” Colwell said. “We all need to sit down and see if we can reach a common solution. We’ve got to work things out on [1A] and I fully support the president in her initiative. We can’t stop the process of the election, but I don’t want a special election in February because it would be an unfunded mandate on the towns. We have to be smart with the taxpayers’ money. We’re waiting for some legal analysis, but my feeling is that the June primary is a statewide election.”

Daggett said she hopes to be able to work with 1A proponents to look at the issues of the plan “in a different light.” She said it was not inconceivable that lawmakers and tax reform supporters could develop an alternative plan.

Ironically, Daggett’s ideal strategy would essentially place the MMA and MEA officials in a position where their best hope of immediate tax relief would require them to campaign against their own proposal in favor of the alternative.

“Instead, they could say they’ve got something better,” she said. “I know there is still a fair amount of pent-up frustration [on 1A around the State House], but I also think there are a number of people who would like to accomplish something. Sometimes things have to reach kind of a fever pitch before we can come together around one single solution.”

Umphrey pointed out 1B was amended and supported by the Legislature and maintained that the governor always encouraged cooperation with MMA to come up with the best plan.

“The Legislature is doing what they’re supposed to do in working with them and the governor is also looking forward to working with them,” he said.