BANGOR – With elections less than two months away, incumbent state lawmakers from Bangor and some of the people who want to unseat them met Wednesday night with city officials to talk about some of the issues of concern to the Queen City.

In all, seven candidates for Maine House of Representatives and Senate seats in the Nov. 2 elections took the city up on its invitation to talk about some of the larger statewide issues expected to affect Bangor during the coming legislative term.

They were: Sen. Tom Sawyer, R-Bangor; Rep. Joseph Perry, D-Bangor, Sawyer’s opponent for the District 32 Senate seat; incumbents Rep. Patricia Blanchette, D-Bangor, and Rep. Sean Faircloth, D-Bangor, who are seeking re-election; Faircloth’s Republican challenger, Clayton Fowlie of Bangor; and Michael Dunn, a Bangor Democrat seeking the District 18 House seat.

Most of Bangor’s eight city councilors took part in the session, led by Council Chairman Dan Tremble and City Manager Edward Barrett.

The list of mostly state-level issues the city prepared for the talks held few surprises. Some related to finances and others to safety and education. Most have made statewide headlines in recent months.

. The Palesky tax cap’s effect on Bangor and the related issue of school funding.

It’s no secret that Bangor would have to do without an array of services and personnel if the tax cap happens. Barrett offered a lengthy list of what might be lost if Mainers adopt the cap on Nov. 2.

Given the problems already identified with the plan, including portions believed to be unconstitutional, Barrett expected the cap, if passed, likely would need to be addressed through the courts, the Legislature or both.

“This is an indictment of the Legislature for not doing its job” with regard to tax reform, candidate Fowlie said of the tax cap. He said what he’s hearing in his campaign travels is that while many voters oppose the tax cap, they want to know what the city was doing to ease the burden on local taxpayers.

Barrett said that municipal spending has remained fairly level, but that recent spikes in residential property values have shifted part of the burden from commercial and business properties to homes.

Other matters tackled Wednesday night were:

. The racetrack casino coming to Bangor, likely in the year ahead. The state’s newly appointed Gambling Control Board now is developing rules and regulations for the operation of up to 1,500 slot machines at the facility.

. Environmental and highway bonds, which the city has made much use of in recent road and wastewater management projects;

. Interstate weight limits for trucks that are forcing the drivers of tractor-trailer trucks weighing more than 80,000 pounds off the Interstate highway system and onto local roads. Some of the roads aren’t designed to handle weights of up to 100,000 pounds, the limit allowed by state law. Some run through congested or populated areas, which poses a safety hazard. Though not a state issue, this was a matter city officials want the Legislature and administration to continue to work on.

Sawyer noted that there might be other ways to attack the problem, citing Orrington’s limit on the travel times of trucks headed for the Penobscot Energy Recovery Corp., which has improved safety during school busing hours.

Blanchette urged fellow and future lawmakers to reach out in the coming legislative session to their counterparts from southern Maine, which is gaining in political clout as the state’s population shifts south.

“We need to reach out to the ‘Other Maine,'” she said. “Territorial fights are fun but they are counterproductive most of the time.”

For Maine to prosper, she said, its northern and southern parts must find ways to work together.

“If we survive, they survive,” Blanchette said. “If we die, they’ll die too in short time.”