AUGUSTA – Frustrated by what they see as the attitude of many lawmakers that tax reform means shifting who pays instead of lowering state spending to reduce taxes, members of the Maine business community say they are discussing launching a ballot initiative to limit the growth of state spending.

“There has been a lot of buzz, discussion in the business community that maybe we need to use the petition process as an insurance policy to get real tax reform,” said Dana Connors, president of the Maine Chamber of Commerce. “There is nothing formal, but there is a lot of talk about it.”

He said the Chamber led an effort to collect signatures four years ago to force consideration of a process that would put limits on government spending. Those limits could be exceeded only by a “supermajority” vote of the Legislature or local government body or by referendum. The group fell short of gathering enough signatures, but Connors said the effort had an impact.

“It led the governor and Legislature to adopt LD 1, which started down the road of spending limits,” Connors said. “But after this session, there are many that believe we need to go further.”

There appears to be broad support among businesses and the Chambers that represent them across the state to explore initiating legislation by a petition drive. Under the provisions of the Maine Constitution, petitions with 55,087 valid signatures would have to be submitted by 5 p.m. Jan. 27, 2008, to be considered by the second session of this Legislature.

“If they call a meeting, we will be there,” said Candace Guerette, president of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce. “There has been some talk about a petition effort, but I don’t think it’s gone beyond that.”

She said local businesses are worried about a proposed tax reform plan that would shift tax burdens but not lower the overall amount of taxes collected by the state. She said there was strong support of an effort to convince lawmakers that spending needs to be reduced in order to lower the overall tax burden.

“The Legislature failed to do that this session,” said Tony Payne, executive director of the Maine Business Alliance, a group funded by the business community. “We saw state spending go up. They could have used that revenue to lower taxes.”

He said the alliance will work with any group or coalition to reduce the tax burden, which he said is “crippling” Maine’s businesses and “stifling” economic growth.

According to the Legislature’s Office of Fiscal and Program Review, the state’s General Fund budget grew by $469.1 million to a projected spending total of $6.32 billion over the two years starting this July 1.

Chris Hall, vice president of the Greater Portland Chamber of Commerce, said there is strong support among businesses in the area to take some steps, possibly a petition effort, after a majority on the Legislature’s Taxation Committee endorsed a plan that would broaden the reach of the sales tax in order to lower the income tax.

“We remain one of the highest tax burdens in the country,” he said. “Shifting that burden between the tourist community and the resident community or something like that is not responsive to the problem.”

Voters rejected a spending limitation called the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR, last November. The ballot question asked voters if they wanted to limit increases in state and local government spending to the rate of inflation plus population growth and to require voter approval for all tax and fee increases. It failed by 41,796 votes out of the 536,146 cast in the referendum.

“A petition effort is not easy,” said Mary Adams of Garland, one of the leaders of the TABOR effort. She praised the interest the business community is now showing toward another petition effort.

“Whatever is drafted has to put the taxpayer in charge,” she said. “It’s not the Legislature, not the special interests, but the guy on the street paying the bills. That’s got to be the essential component of anything they draft.”

Bill Becker, president of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a conservative think tank in Portland, helped draft the TABOR petition. He hopes the business groups follow through with an effort to put spending limits on government.

“It does befuddle me that you have a situation where you have 46 percent of the people saying they wanted limits on government spending and the Legislature went out and increased spending,” he said.

Connors shares that concern. He said there is no time frame on the development of a petition effort, but he expects a decision will be reached over the summer.

“I think if this moves forward, it will be as an insurance policy to make sure this is addressed,” he said.