AUGUSTA – A legislative panel decided against a bill form of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights initiative, voting 5-3 to recommend that LD 2075 ought not to pass.

TABOR, the citizen’s initiative, will be on the November ballot, and lawmakers are precluded from changing the language of the measure.

The Taxation Committee of the Legislature, which has the option to vote the initiative up or down as a bill, divided along party lines over the TABOR’s intent to limit annual spending increases for state and local governments to the inflation rate plus increases in population.

Sen. Joe Perry, D-Bangor, and co-chairman of the Taxation Committee, said he agreed with parts of the TABOR proposal, acknowledging that legislation passed by lawmakers last year to impose spending caps “were not perfect” and could be improved.

“It’s the rest of this bill that I just think is terrible policy,” he said, “and it’s packaged in a very appealing and maybe somewhat deceptive way, but I think over time it will simply be a massive shift onto homeowners and one they can’t afford.”

Rep. Harold Clough, R-Scarborough, argued that the TABOR bill came close to the spending restrictions he has promoted as a legislator.

He said the proposal provided controls over government growth and spending and provided options for voters to exceed spending caps with a two-thirds vote of the legislative or municipal body and majority approval by voters.

Clough took exception to remarks made by representatives of the Maine Municipal Association who he said had described TABOR as a “belt-and-suspenders-approach” to state and local budgeting.

“I’ve got to say that when your pants are down around your knees, the belt-and-suspenders approach can look pretty attractive,” Clough said. “I think the people are really interested in this because they need to have some confidence that this body will get its act together and bring the tax burden in this state down from number one in the nation to a reasonable number.”

Reports that Democratic opponents might attempt to craft a competing measure to appear on the ballot to give voters another choice and diminish support for the TABOR plan proved to be unfounded.

A Democratic attempt to defer a vote on the bill in committee until the wording of the question was reviewed for accuracy was short-lived.

Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Portland, supported the review and warned Republicans that the bill could be construed to permit reducing existing local budgets in addition to capping spending.

“You are voting to reduce the budgets of hundreds of municipalities across the state, and this bill, as it’s written currently – well, I’m surprised that anyone would vote to put it in place without us being able to fix some of these pieces,” he said. “There is no time in this legislative session to fix this thing.”

The Taxation Committee was ready to vote on the TABOR earlier in the session, but the legality of the secretary of state’s decision to approve the signatures needed to put it on the November ballot was challenged in Superior Court.

Earlier this month the state supreme court ruled unanimously that the secretary of state acted within his authority in allowing extra petitions to be submitted after the statutory deadline.

Perry said the TABOR bill could be taken up by the full Legislature as soon as today.