Ex-King economic official to back Palesky property tax cap

Thomas McBrierty, a former economic development commissioner in the King administration, will throw his support behind the so-called Palesky property tax cap at a Thursday news conference in Portland.

McBrierty, who served during former Gov. Angus King’s first term, said Wednesday the 1 percent cap “had some good aspects,” including the potential to lower Maine’s overall tax burden – a hurdle, he said, to business expansion during his tenure at the State House.

“Frankly things are not getting better,” McBrierty, now a private businessman, said in a telephone interview. “It’s just as oppressive as it was then, and some would say it’s worse.”

On Nov. 2, voters will consider the so-called Palesky initiative, named after the question’s architect, Topsham accountant Carol Palesky. If passed, the initiative would limit property taxes to 1 percent of assessed value.

In supporting the cap, McBrierty also noted the Legislature’s inaction on tax reform as well as the recent passage of an education funding reform initiative designed to send more state money to local school districts.

But Dennis Bailey, another King administration official working for the anti-tax cap group Citizens United to Protect Our Public Safety, Schools and Communities, said Wednesday that sending a message to Augusta lawmakers was no reason to support the cap, which he said will decimate municipal budgets.

“That’s not belt-tightening,” he said of arguments the cap would force towns to trim waste from their budgets. “That’s arm-severing.”