PORTLAND – Elementary school teacher Lois Kilby-Chesley doesn’t know a single teacher who will vote in favor of a property tax cap in November’s referendum.

She hopes that type of conviction among Maine’s teachers, as well as other public sector employees, will be enough to defeat the proposal.

Across Maine, tens of thousands of teachers, municipal workers and other taxpayer-funded employees form what could be considered the state’s largest voting bloc on the tax cap issue.

Kilby-Chesley says most teachers are “petrified” by the prospect of property taxes being capped at 1 percent of assessed value. Many town and school officials say a cap would gut their budgets and put public jobs at risk.

“If we get all our people on board, I think we can change the outcome,” said Kilby-Chesley, who teaches at the Mast Landing School in Freeport.

Mainers will vote Nov. 2 on the statewide initiative, which is sometimes called the Palesky proposal for tax activist Carol Palesky, who spearheaded the campaign to get the measure on the ballot.

Phil Harriman, a tax cap supporter and a leader of Tax Cap Yes!, said his organization estimates there are about 70,000 public employees in Maine who work at schools and for state, county and local governments.

“I can’t think of a more formidable bloc of people to organize and advocate defeat of the measure,” said Harriman. “It is certainly daunting to us because we’re a bunch of volunteers. It is overwhelming.”

Maine has about 17,000 public school teachers and thousands of other school employees, ranging from assistant teachers and librarians to bus drivers and cafeteria workers, according to the state.

The Census Bureau says there are about 52,000 municipal workers in Maine, including teachers and other school employees. There are more than 12,000 state employees, and county workers on top of that.

Public sector employees could make up close to 10 percent of the voters in the November election if the turnout is close to the 652,000 people who voted in the 2000 presidential election.

While virtually all property owners in Maine will be affected by the referendum should it pass, public sector employees are motivated because their livelihoods and workplaces could be affected by the election’s outcome.

Teachers acknowledge that property taxes are too high in Maine, but feel the Palesky proposal is not the right answer, said Mark Gray, executive director of the Maine Education Association.

Even those whose jobs are not at risk are troubled by the potential impact on the quality of education, he said.

“If you assume 650,000 people vote this time, you need half of those votes plus one to win,” Gray said. “If you need 325,000 people to vote against the Palesky tax cap to win, we’re hoping to have a significant impact on that number.”

Most municipal employees in Maine’s 491 cities, towns and plantations also are expected to vote against the cap, said Michael Starn, spokesman for the Maine Municipal Association.

But he doesn’t think public employees alone are enough to carry the election.

“We have to convince people outside government that this issue is important to them and that it will affect them in the services that are provided to them,” he said. “But it might not affect them directly.”

For now, the role of government in the campaign is drawing fire from tax cap supporters who accuse some government officials of politicking against the tax cap on government time using government equipment and supplies.

“They’re using the power and influence in their position to advocate an outcome,” Harriman said. “I believe as a citizen who cherishes our freedom and our way of making decisions that that is wrong.”

Starn said to his knowledge, town officials are merely informing, not advocating, by passing on to employees the potential ramifications should the referendum pass.

Kilby-Chesley, who has been teaching for 25 years and is treasurer of the Maine Education Association, said she stands to save hundreds of dollars a year on property taxes on her Durham home and the family’s Sebago Lake cottage if the referendum passes.

But for her, the price is too high. Instead, she’s telling fellow teachers they need to get five people each to vote “no.”

“They could make it so I would pay only $1 a year in property taxes and I still wouldn’t vote for it,” she said.