Tax bill deadline looms Referendum drives put pressure on lawmakers

January is not a big lawmaking month in Augusta.

Normally, it’s a time for newly elected legislators to figure out the elevators, learn lobbyists’ names and comb through the dozens of bills destined for their committees.

But this is no ordinary January.

With the governor – and voters – dubbing property tax reform a top priority and lawmakers rushing to meet a looming Jan. 20 deadline to come up with a plan, time has become of the essence.

“They’re going to have a long, tough week ahead of them,” Sen. Joseph Perry, D-Bangor, said of the task facing the State House staff charged with drafting the language agreed to this week by the majority of the Joint Select Committee on Property Tax Reform. Perry sits on the committee.

“But we should have no problem making it,” he said.

Although sometimes called “self-imposed,” next week’s deadline not coincidentally mirrors the drop-dead date for petitioners to submit the 50,000-plus signatures needed for a referendum to appear on the November 2005 ballot.

Two of those petitioners – the Maine State Chamber of Commerce and Garland tax activist Mary Adams – are pushing tax reform plans.

If the Legislature passes its own tax relief measure by two-thirds vote on or before Jan. 20 and the governor signs the bill, it would become law immediately.

But if the Legislature doesn’t pass the bill until after Jan. 20 and either petitioner submits enough signatures by that deadline, the Legislature’s bill would wind up as an alternative measure on the 2005 ballot.

Lawmakers might be wary of such competing measures for good reason: They haven’t been very competitive with Maine voters rejecting every one, based on historical accounts.

To be fair, there have been only four such attempts, according to the Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library.

In 1947, voters rejected two plans – a citizen initiative and a legislative compromise – to regulate collective bargaining. In 1985, voters rejected a legislative alternative concerning the disposal of nuclear waste.

The 1996 ballot featured a citizen-initiated clear-cutting ban alongside a forestry compact backed by the King administration. Although the compact received the most votes, neither measure received the needed majority to pass. The next year, voters rejected the compact outright.

Last, in 2003, a Maine Municipal Association initiative to boost education funding received more votes than a legislative plan to phase in the increase. Although neither received the needed majority, voters the next year approved the MMA plan.

While there have been some rumblings about the wisdom of crafting complex tax legislation in a matter of weeks, Jim Melcher, a political scientist at the University of Maine at Farmington, said voters weren’t likely to be patient with this group of lawmakers.

“The sentiment appears to be that the Legislature should have dealt with this a long time ago,” Melcher said. “I don’t think voters are going to give them much slack on this at all.”

Indeed, Adams on Tuesday showed little inclination to ease the deadline pressure on the Legislature and reveal whether her group was on track to submit the needed signatures by Jan. 20.

Dissatisfied with the committee’s report – particularly its allowance of a majority override of government spending caps – Adams said she was convinced that even if the deadline pressure were lifted, the product would fall short.

“A monkey can’t talk no matter how long you ask it to,” said Adams, adding she would continue her effort to get her Taxpayer Bill of Rights on either the 2005 or 2006 ballot.

Chamber president Dana Connors said his group, which has continued to collect signatures, was “very close” to the required amount. He said, however, the point might be moot, considering how closely the committee’s report resembles the chamber’s proposal.

“It’s obvious the committee has taken this task very seriously,” he said.