Legislature ends session, leaving unresolved issues Summer work likely for lawmakers

AUGUSTA – Getting something done can be complicated by an imperative to get anything done.

Exhibit A: the just-adjourned session of the Maine Legislature.

Versions abound of why getting something done did not happen in property tax relief legislation and new state borrowing.

Gov. John Baldacci’s closing talks with legislative leaders and his remarks to the full House and Senate – “we may not have accomplished everything we wanted to” – suggest that one way to recast what didn’t happen is to say that some things just haven’t happened yet.

In fact, something, at least, has happened.

The last-minute passage of specifications for Maine’s fledgling essential programs and services school funding system could tighten a link between more state aid and downward pressures on local property taxes.

Now, the governor is looking toward another special legislative session in late summer. That could allow – or necessitate – a fresh look at the state of the so-called tax revolt, perhaps with new requirements for state government.

On June 8, after all, Maine voters will be asked a second time whether they want to approve a citizen initiative championed by the Maine Municipal Association and Maine Education Association that would mandate an immediate state assumption of 55 percent of the costs of local education.

The proposal, which carries a price tag of a quarter of a billion dollars, failed to pass last November but did outpoll a competing measure put forth by the Legislature and backed by Baldacci. The inconclusive outcome set up next month’s second vote.

Democratic Senate Whip Kenneth Gagnon, D-Waterville, who is active in legislative tax discussions, says the competing question – which envisioned a phased-in increase of the state’s school cost share – lost last fall because it was “too modest.”

This time around, Speaker Patrick Colwell, D-Gardiner, came down from the podium in the middle of the night before adjournment to urge House members to boldly answer “the voice out there that property taxes are too high in this state.”

The House, however, rejected a sin-tax package designed to raise money for local schools and existing property tax relief programs. Some lawmakers argued it would be unwise to “provide tax relief with another tax,” as Republican Rep. Mary Black Andrews of York said.

Colwell’s package, in the face of strong GOP opposition, was undercut further by a belief among Democratic House members that the Senate was unlikely to go along even if the speaker’s plan began to advance.

In the Senate, by some standards, boldness was almost boundless.

Democrats had coalesced around a 1-cent sales tax hike, explored prospects for a commercial water extraction tax, and finally floated the surprise idea of embracing the MMA-backed referendum proposal, providing it could be changed back to a phased-in process after voter enactment.

That failed to be approved as well, and Republican ridicule of faltering Democratic efforts picked up. So did expressions of an underlying GOP election year message.

“Mainers struggle every day under the highest tax burden in the nation,” said House Minority Leader Joe Bruno, R-Raymond, in a statement issued at 2:34 a.m. Friday. “Republicans recognize this challenge and have pledged to not raise Mainers’ taxes!”

Obviously, a special session in late summer would occur that much closer to the November general elections. Tax talk would be likely to become even more politically sensitive.

Many Democrats may continue to charge that Republicans, with their stress on constitutional spending limits, are satisfied to help an impasse continue. Lots of Democrats also may continue to argue that property tax relief can’t come out of thin air.

“A real honest proposal has to come with real money,” Senate President Beverly Daggett, D-Augusta, said last week.

But regardless of Republican policy positions, Democratic divisions persist.

Baldacci has signaled he might countenance constitutional spending caps. In that, he received restrained assent from Colwell. For Senate Democrats, it has been a nonstarter.

By late summer, the MMA-backed provisions on school funding could have the voters’ blessing. A November vote will be advancing on the strict so-called Palesky tax cap, named for tax activist Carol Palesky.

If the Legislature returns, there would be new pressure to do something – and new risk that too many somethings may not accomplish anything and add up to nothing.