PORTLAND – Thousands who own vacation homes but live outside Maine are watching from afar as the tax cap debate rages on.

Many, like David Huber, who owns a summer home in Biddeford Pool, are ambivalent about the outcome of the Nov. 2 vote.

“There’s nothing I can do about it since I’m not a voter. You tend to be more worried about things you can control, like the taxes here,” Huber said from his year-round home in Wilbraham, Mass.

Roughly a third of Maine’s 101,470 vacation homes are owned by out-of-staters. Many of those property owners stand to benefit if the tax cap passes, but they’re ineligible to vote on the proposal.

They have their opinions, though.

Some are worried about Maine’s growing tax burden. Others say Maine is a bargain at the current tax rates.

Few seem to be getting involved. Only a handful of out-of-staters contributed to the political action committee Tax Cap Yes! And while some out-of-staters are paying close attention, few are voicing their opinions loudly.

Saco Mayor Mark Johnston said out-of-staters don’t want to offend the natives. But some have approached him to express their opinions.

One approached him recently to say, “If you guys are foolish enough to vote it in, so be it. I’ll thank you,” Johnston said.

Maine has the nation’s greatest concentration of vacation homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. All told, 101,470 of 651,901 housing units – 15.6 percent – were devoted to seasonal use in 2000.

The breakdown of how many seasonal homes are owned by Mainers and how many are owned by out-of-staters is not known.

But a survey three years ago by the Maine State Planning Office determined that a third were owned by out-of-staters, said Richard Sherwood, who conducted the survey. The Maine Bureau of Taxation has estimated that out-of-staters pay 20 percent of all residential property taxes.

Critics of the so-called Palesky tax cap proposal have complained that outsiders who own pricey vacation homes in Maine would see a bigger tax benefit than typical Maine residents under the proposal.

The proposal, similar to California’s Proposition 13, would cap property taxes at 1 percent of assessed value.

Kennebunkport is home to one of the state’s most famous vacation homes, the Walker’s Point estate that became known as the “summer White House” while President George H.W. Bush was in office.

The three properties that make up the estate, assessed at nearly $4 million, would see a tax break of about $31,000 under the tax cap proposal. The most recent tax bill was nearly $71,000.

But not all vacation homes would get a break. For example, actor John Travolta’s estate in Dark Harbor would see no benefit because the mill rate is less than $9 per $1,000 in valuation on Islesboro.

Greg Webb, for one, has no problem with Maine taxes. He said he thinks Vacationland is a bargain compared to Massachusetts. He owns several properties around Sunday River ski resort in Newry.

“I don’t have a problem with what the taxes are. They’re in line with what you get. In Massachusetts, the values are higher, so the taxes are higher,” Webb said from his home in Norwell, Mass.

But Joe Dowd of Powell, Ohio, has watched with alarm as taxes have risen sharply on his summer home on a tidal cove in West Bath.

Dowd, who’s retired, said he and his wife hope to move permanently to Maine. But taxes are a concern because he is on a fixed income.

He takes exception to the notion that all waterfront property is being bought up by out-of-staters with unlimited resources.

“The suggestion seems to be that we should tax the hell out of them,” Dowd said. “It doesn’t seem fair.”