Tax reform backers propose ‘TABOR II’

PORTLAND – Tax reform supporters are proposing new legislation to limit government spending that could be put to a statewide vote as early as next year.

An application was submitted to Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap on Monday for a citizen initiative called “An Act to Provide Tax Relief.” Some people are calling it TABOR II, after the Taxpayer Bill of Rights spending cap proposal that voters rejected last November.

The proposal would limit state spending to the rate of inflation plus population growth over a three-year average, but there could not be a decrease in spending. It would limit municipal and county spending to the increase in personal income growth, capped at 2.7 percent, plus the growth of new property on the tax rolls.

The legislation does not address school spending; proponents say the newly enacted school reorganization plan already accomplishes that.

Portland attorney David Crocker, who submitted the application to the Secretary of State’s Office, said legislators last year assured Mainers they would address government spending and tax relief issues this year. But lawmakers have failed to live up to their promise, he said.

“I think the Legislature is incapable of collecting itself and realistically addressing the fiscal problems we have in this state,” Crocker said.

Voters last November rejected the Taxpayer Bill of Rights by a margin of 54-46 percent. Had it been approved, the initiative would have limited government spending at all levels to inflation plus population growth, with voter approval needed for tax and fee increases.

In an emotional campaign, supporters said government in Maine had been spending at an unsustainable rate, causing high taxes and hurting the economy. But opponents claimed TABOR would hurt the economy, and that schools, roads and public safety departments would suffer.

The secretary of state has 10 business days to approve, reject or revise the wording of the new initiative. Once the wording is approved, supporters would have 18 months to gather 55,087 valid signatures – 10 percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election – to put the matter before voters in a statewide election.

To get it on the November 2008 ballot, enough valid signatures would have to be submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office by Jan. 28, 2008. Supporters say they hope to make that deadline but aren’t wedded to the date because collecting so many signatures is a huge task.

The proposal is based on a bill crafted by the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a think tank in Portland that was active in last year’s campaign.

When the center released its new proposal last month, some key critics of TABOR reserved judgment.

The governor has asked that members of his staff study details of the proposal, but he has not taken a stand.

Michael Starn, spokesman for the Maine Municipal Association, said Tuesday that his organization will review the initiative and share information with municipalities. The MMA was among the vocal opponents of the TABOR referendum.

“We’ll talk to our municipal members and make sure they have an understanding of what it contains, what it says and how our best judgment would be applied if it were enacted by citizenry,” he said.

Mary Adams, a longtime tax activist from Garland who spearheaded the TABOR campaign, said the new model should be more palatable to voters. Besides not including schools, the new legislation also would require only a simple majority, rather than a two-thirds majority, by a governing body and the voters to override the limits.

“I think a lot of people figure [legislators] had their chance. They didn’t take it, and now the citizens will help them out by pointing the way with this legislation,” Adams said.