AUGUSTA -- As most politicians and activists focused their attention Monday on today's elections, conservative activists used Monday to announce they had collected more than 200,000 signatures in a bid to force three ballot questions on to the ballot in November 2009.

The Maine Heritage Policy Center, a conservative think tank, and Maine Leads, an associated advocacy group, turned in signatures to the state promoting initiatives to pass a "taxpayer bill of rights," to authorize Mainers to sign up for out-of-state health insurance, and to reduce the automobile excise tax.

Tarren Bragdon, executive director of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, said the initiatives would ease Maine's tax burden and make it more competitive in attracting business.

Don Cookson, a spokesman for Maine's secretary of state, said the office will have a decision on certifying the signatures by Feb. 27, 2009, to determine if the measures gain ballot access.

If it makes it to the ballot and is passed, the taxpayer bill of rights, modified from a 2006 proposal rejected by voters, would require voter approval of all tax increases and restrict growth in municipal spending.

The new proposal requires only 50 percent of legislators to approve referring tax increases to voters, down from a two-thirds threshold in the 2006 bill.

In addition, the new proposal would not apply to school budgets, as the June 2007 school-district consolidation law required that voters ratify local school budgets.

"After the Taxpayer Bill of Rights nearly passed in 2006, we were promised responsible government spending and real tax relief," Portland lawyer David Crocker, who is leading the initiative, said in a statement. "In the two years since, politicians have failed to keep their promise."

The health care initiative, Bragdon said, would license health insurance options from the other five New England states in Maine.

The change would "give Mainers more choices for more affordable private health insurance," he said.

And the bid to lower the state's excise tax would slice the rate in half for most vehicles during the first year of registration, then keep the tax at reduced levels.

For hybrid vehicles, Bragdon said, the initiative would eliminate sales taxes and the first three years of excise tax.

"We're hoping it will give Maine families the incentive they need to buy newer, cleaner cars and improve our air," Bragdon said.

While a lower excise tax might inspire more hybrid-vehicle purchases, the excise tax reduction would deprive municipalities of a crucial source of revenue, said Christopher St. John, executive director of the liberal Maine Center for Economic Policy.

"The proponents don't tell us how service-center communities like Augusta can make up the significant amount of revenue they get from excise taxes," he said. "These people aren't saying, 'We're out to raise the property tax,' but that's the kind of consequence from this narrow referendum proposal that looks at one item without looking at the other things that are interconnected."

St. John also disputed the idea that instituting a taxpayer bill of rights would stimulate economic growth.

"Lower taxes means lower public services, and some public services such as roads and education are essential to economic prosperity," he said. "The people who argue on the other side are woefully out of date."

The conservative activists are first gearing their efforts toward persuading legislators to back their initiatives during their winter session.

"That would be the ideal, that the Legislature sees these as a priority for the Maine people and passes these," Bragdon said. "If not, then Maine voters have an opportunity to speak up for themselves."

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com