Two days after voters soundly rejected her plan to cap property taxes in Maine, Carol Palesky announced her Maine Taxpayers Action Network would introduce a “slightly more moderate” version of the 1 percent tax cap in time for the November 2005 election.

Palesky, a 64-year-old accountant from Topsham and perhaps the state’s most persistent tax reform advocate, said Thursday the decision to undertake another referendum drive arose out of a Wednesday night conference call with MTAN board members.

“We’ve rejuvenated,” Palesky said, contending that since the cap’s Tuesday defeat, she and her seven fellow board members have fielded “hundreds of telephone calls and e-mails” asking them to put the matter back to voters next year.

But if history is any indication, Palesky and her group face a difficult task in launching such a citizen initiative, analysts say, and even more trouble getting voters to support it.

“My suggestion to losing candidates and losing causes is to take a deep breath and take a couple weeks off,” said Christian Potholm, a political scientist at Bowdoin College. “In the harsh light of day, when you’ve just been crushed, it’s not the best time to start something – slightly modified or not – that would undoubtedly meet the same fate.”

When the polls closed Tuesday, 63 percent of Maine voters had rejected Palesky’s tax cap plan, fashioned after California’s Proposition 13, which limited property taxes to 1 percent of a property’s value.

Palesky on Thursday was unable to offer specifics as to how her group would tone down its next proposal, which still must be submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office. In fact, she said the original plan was fine and needed to be altered only to insulate it from the “untruths and scare tactics” used by opponents to defeat it.

Palesky’s plans did not come as welcome news to Dennis Bailey, spokesman for the anti-tax-cap group Citizens United.

“She needs to get a life,” said Bailey, who helped spread the message that the cap would result in severe cuts to local police, fire and school budgets. “She might be a hero to her small band of friends, but the people have already spoken on this.”

Indeed, once voters have rejected a referendum, attempts to place a similar initiative on the ballot historically have met even more decisive defeats.

For instance, after voters defeated an initiative to close the Maine Yankee nuclear power plant in 1980, they did so again in 1982 and, even more convincingly, in 1987. A fourth attempt to place the matter on the ballot was abandoned after supporters couldn’t gather enough signatures.

To put her new initiative on the November 2005 ballot, Palesky would have to gather 50,519 signatures by Jan. 20, 2005. That’s without the benefit of corralling voters at busy polling places, such as those seen throughout the state on Tuesday.

Palesky, however, remained hopeful.

“It’s difficult but we’ve done it before,” she said, adding that the group collected half its signatures for the last referendum outside local stores.

Wishful thinking, said Potholm, the author of several books on Maine politics.

“It’s almost impossible to get them in the time frame she’s talking about,” he said.

If Palesky should beat the odds and gather enough valid signatures, Mainers could see three tax reform proposals on the November ballot next year.

At polling places Tuesday, the Maine State Chamber of Commerce gathered signatures for a citizen initiative that would cap spending and expand eligibility for a state program that assists low-income Mainers with property tax bills.

Another group, headed by activist Mary Adams, has proposed its own tax-reform initiative that would tie increases in state spending to the rate of inflation and population growth.

Tax reform is the issue of the day in Maine, and Gov. John Baldacci declared it would be his top priority for the next session. Baldacci on Wednesday appointed a select committee to review and revise the Chamber plan before the end of the month and submit a comprehensive proposal for tax relief for the Legislature to consider.

Palesky on Thursday repeated her doubts about the governor’s intentions, saying the prospect of Augusta delivering tax relief was akin to “believing in the tooth fairy.”

“The governor will provide comprehensive tax relief – with teeth,” countered Baldacci spokesman Lee Umphrey.