PORTLAND – A controversial plan to cap property taxes drew strong support Wednesday in a new statewide survey that also found widespread backing for legal recognition for gay couples.

More than half of the Maine voters surveyed by Strategic Marketing Services said they would would vote for, or lean toward, the plan by Carol Palesky’s Maine Taxpayers Action Network to limit taxes to 1 percent of the assessed value of a property. About 32 percent said they would vote against the cap or lean toward doing so, while 18 percent were undecided.

Patrick Murphy, president of Strategic Marketing Services, said he expects those numbers to change as voters learn more about the effects of a tax cap.

“I think the question straight up probably reads very well – who doesn’t want to cut their taxes,” Murphy said. “When all the issues come out then there’ll be a spirited debate and then who knows how it will go.”

On legal recognition for gay couples, 30 percent of the people surveyed said they support full marriage rights, while 36 percent said they support civil unions but not gay marriage. About 32 percent said they oppose any legal recognition for gay couples.

Republicans were more likely than Democrats or independents to oppose any kind of recognition for homosexual couples, while women were more likely than men to support full marriage rights.

The random survey of 400 registered voters was conducted Feb. 28-March 3 as part of the quarterly Omnibus Poll by Strategic Marketing Services. The margin of error was plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Respondents were evenly split on the reasons behind President Bush’s push for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, with 47 percent saying his stance has nothing to do with the November election and the same proportion saying Bush’s position is politically motivated.

The poll found that if the election took place tomorrow, President Bush would get 38 percent of Maine’s vote, John Kerry would get 51 percent, and Ralph Nader would get 4 percent.

The opinion on the government’s response to terrorism was more evenly split.

In a question about government’s expanded powers to fight terrorism, 46 percent said new laws were being used correctly and 40 percent said the laws went too far. Seven percent said the laws did not go far enough.

And voters polled were almost equally divided on the Iraq war. Nearly 47 percent said it was the right thing to do; 49 percent called it a mistake.

More than half of those surveyed said that jobs, employment and the economy are the most important issues facing the state. Survey respondents were pessimistic about the state of the economy and their own job security.

Sixty percent of the respondents said Maine’s economy is headed in the wrong direction, 10 percent more than in the October poll. And 29 percent said it is moving in the right direction, down 17 percent from the January 2003 poll.

More than 40 percent said their job security has stayed the same in the last six months, while 12 percent say it has improved and 23 percent say it has worsened. The percentage who say their job security has worsened has grown steadily since April 2002, rising by 15 percent.