I’m sure the lawyers will have a lot to say about this in the coming months, but it is my conclusion at this point that if the language of the Maine Constitution means what it says, the Palesky tax cap is unconstitutional.

Specifically, Article VIII, Part First, Section 1 of the Maine Constitution states in part that “the Legislature are authorized, and it shall be their duty to require, the several towns to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the support and maintenance of public schools. …”

Clearly, by limiting the ability of municipalities and school administrative districts to raise money through property taxes, the Palesky tax cap prevents the Legislature from fulfilling its duty to require “the several towns to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the support and maintenance of public schools.”

Note also three points related to education and the Maine Constitution:

1. Education is specifically identified as a duty of both state and municipal government. Constitutionally, it is a duty, not an option. In this sense, providing financial support for education is different from providing financial support for police and fire protection or other traditional municipal services. A tax cap that might legitimatively apply to other municipal expenditures is not constitutionally applicable to “the support and maintenance of public schools.”

2. The Maine Constitution doesn’t just say that the Legislature is obligated to provide funds for education. It goes a giant step further by asserting that “a general diffusion of the advantages of education [is] essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people.” Thus, education isn’t a constitutional requirement because supporters of education fancy that it should be so, but rather because the framers of the Maine Constitution determined that education was central to the reason for the existence of that constitution – to preserve “the rights and liberties of the people.”

3. The constitutional duty of the Legislature with regard to education is not to fund education, but to require municipalities “to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the support and maintenance of public schools.” The Maine Constitution, therefore, requires that municipalities have the ability to raise funds sufficient “to make suitable provision … for the support and maintenance of public schools.” In denying municipalities the ability to set their own mill rates, the Palesky tax cap would deny them the ability to “make suitable provision … for the support and maintenance of public schools.”

Now, we can argue ’til the cows come home what constitutes “suitable provision” – and, Lord knows, the council and the school board in Old Town have disagreed about that – but it seems that the constitution says that decision is a responsibility of “the several towns.”

For voters elsewhere in Maine to prevent Old Town (or any other municipality) from raising the funds we deem “suitable” for supporting and maintaining public schools seems to be an unconstitutional infringement on both our duty to provide for public schools and on our right to perform that duty as we (the citizens of Old Town, or any other community) see fit.

David Wollstadt is a member of the Old Town School Board.