Presque Isle debates pros, cons of tax cap

PRESQUE ISLE – In a Tuesday night forum about the Palesky tax cap proposal, participants focused on what is right and wrong with the initiative, leaving little wiggle room for undecided voters.

Representatives on both sides of the issue kept returning to their side’s main point during the hour-long forum, attended by about 50 residents at the University of Maine at Presque Isle.

Proponents of the tax cap repeated the message that property taxes in Maine are higher than many other states, despite a decrease in population and low worker income, and that this measure is the right one to stop the increases.

Opponents reiterated that if voters approve the proposal, it will undermine the way towns have been governed historically and will force municipalities to cut services and jobs, and raise fees to make up for lost revenues.

The tax cap proposal, which will be on the Nov. 2 ballot, was initiated by a citizen petition. If it passes, it would cap property taxes at 1 percent of their assessed value.

Eric Cianchette, a leader of the Tax Cap Yes! Campaign, and Roger Thibodeau, a retired businessman from Presque Isle, spoke in favor of the initiative. Chris Lockwood, of the Maine Municipal Association, and Presque Isle City Manager Tom Stevens spoke against the measure.

While both sides concede that the proposed tax cap would force towns to change the way they do business, proponents see the tax cap as bringing town spending back in line and providing relief to property owners while opponents see the measure as a catastrophic event that they aren’t sure how towns will survive.

Tom Stevens explained that if voters approve the proposal, Presque Isle officials would have 59 days to cut $5 million out of the city’s budget. Comparing the city’s budget to an individual’s budget, Stevens questioned how a family would find a way to cut their household income in half and still pay all the bills.

Roger Thibodeau responded by saying that Maine residents are in a situation where something has to change. Having served as a city councilor, he said he believed that the problem of ever-increasing property taxes could not be fixed simply by electing the right person.

“I don’t know of any way to correct it [the problem] but to cap it,” he said on Tuesday night.

Fellow proponent Eric Cianchette said that Maine has one of the highest real estate taxes and one of the lowest mean incomes in the country. In the simplest of terms, he said, state residents are overtaxed and the legislature has not “done the people’s business.”

“This isn’t a perfect bill, but it’s the right thing to do,” Cianchette said.

Lockwood pointed out that the proposal wasn’t the only answer to the problem, citing a measure that voters passed in June. The approval of Question 1 requires state officials to honor a 1984 pledge to pay 55 percent of local education costs. Officials like Lockwood believe the measure will save municipalities as much as $250 million annually, which could be used to lower property taxes.

Regardless of whether another solution would work better to fix the problem, proponents and opponents can agree on one thing: they believe that Maine effectively will be dropping off a cliff if voters choose the other side.