AUGUSTA – Just hours before closing the first regular session of the 123rd Legislature on Thursday, Senate backers of an effort to overhaul Maine’s tax code dropped the attempt – at least for now. Declaring the drive doomed so late in the legislative session, some proponents suggested another review could come as soon as this fall.

“It’s over,” said Taxation Committee House Chairman John Piotti, D-Unity, conceding that remaining enthusiasm in the House of Representatives for continuing the debate was not matched in the Senate.

Some supporters of a general approach involving a broadening of the sales tax and a lowering of the income tax, however, said they held out hope that the matter could be taken up again sometime before the start of the 2008 election year. With the adjournment Thursday night, the Legislature won’t reconvene until January of next year unless a special session is called.

“I am hopeful and rather certain that the chief executive is with us,” Taxation Committee Senate Chairman Joseph Perry, D-Bangor, said as the Senate put the matter to rest with a series of lopsided votes.

Gov. John Baldacci, who had expressed reservations over parts of the committee plan, said Thursday night lawmakers had reason to feel good about their accomplishments this year and he hoped to join them for “unfinished work” on taxation and health care.

Some legislative opponents of the tax overhaul drive were almost gleeful.

The House Republican leadership team of Reps. Josh Tardy of Newport and Bob Crosthwaite of Ellsworth hailed the outcome in a joint statement.

“The business owners and taxpayers of Maine sent a clear message to Augusta. They want real tax relief, not a tax shift,” Tardy said.

Earlier this month, a Taxation Committee majority had endorsed a package that supporters said would cut taxes overall for Maine residents by a little more than $140 million, largely by shifting more of the current state tax burden to nonresidents.

That original package would have lowered the top income tax rate in the current multi-tier system from 8.5 percent to a flat 6 percent for all. The general sales tax rate would have been held steady at 5 percent, but expanded to include numerous services not currently covered.

To provide property tax relief, a homestead exemption would have been increased, and a property tax and rent rebate program known as the circuit breaker expanded.

An analysis by state revenue officials says the overall plan would generate tax decreases for nearly 624,000 families, while about 75,000 families would experience tax increases.

Shifting more of the current tax burden to out-of-staters would result in the overall reduction for residents with winners realizing an average tax decrease of $338 and losers realizing an average tax increase of $413, according to the Maine Revenue Services analysis.

In the last few days, in an effort to drum up more rank-and-file support, a variety of revisions have been circulated among lawmakers.

One developed and distributed late Wednesday night would have lessened the sales tax broadening recommended by the Taxation Committee and included a not-quite-so-deep drop in income tax rates that the Taxation Committee had also proposed.

It would have also eliminated personal care services and real property services from the list of new subjects of the 5 percent sales tax.

But by Thursday morning, with some believing a new forum for debate would come along, several key Senate supporters gave up.

Floor comments by them and others sounded almost like eulogies.

“It is a tough moment,” said Democratic Sen. Ethan Strimling of Portland. “We are so close.”

Republican Sen. Richard Nass of Acton, who in seeking a stricter constitutional curb on tax increases had joined forces with Strimling, said a public backlash against elements of the committee package indicated that to date “our citizens are not coming along with us.”

One outspoken critic of the package, Senate Minority Leader Carol Weston, R-Montville, cast a similar observation differently.

“I think we lost a bit of touch with the very people we were trying to help,” she said.

With some anticipating more active participation by Baldacci, Democratic Sen. John Martin of Eagle Lake looked toward a new legislative effort in the fall.

“We ran out of time today,” he said.

There was also speculation that in putting off action now lawmakers might still have a chance somewhere down the road to address stalled proposals for redirecting and refinancing Maine’s Dirigo health program.