TABOR MAKES A COMEBACK
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BY SUSAN M. COVER
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 04/17/2009

AUGUSTA -- Mary Adams brought her cardboard pitchfork to the Statehouse to illustrate the frustration she senses among Maine voters when it comes to taxes.

Adams, a Garland resident who's led income and property tax revolts for more than 30 years, told legislators Thursday the mood of the electorate now is similar to what it was in the 1970s.

Back then, she led a property tax referendum. Today, she's urging legislators to support a new version of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which would institute tax and spending limits on state and local governments and require citizen approval to exceed those limits.

"I've seen it firsthand, from the bottom looking up, and I see an Augusta today that is as unable to read the tea leaves and react properly as your predecessors were thirty-five years ago," she told members of the Taxation Committee.

Adams was one of several people who testified before the committee in support of a revised version of a citizen initiative that failed in 2006. This time around, the new citizen initiative proposes to:

* limit the growth of the state general fund, highway fund and other special revenue funds to increases in population and inflation;

* distribute any excess revenues in those funds by putting 20 percent in a budget stabilization fund and 80 percent in a tax relief fund;

* require a majority vote of the House and Senate and majority approval of voters for state tax increases;

* require a majority vote of the House and Senate and majority approval of voters to exceed state expenditure limits;

* require voter approval of municipal and county expenditures that exceed spending limits; and

* require voter approval for the annual indexing of motor fuel taxes.

Opponents -- which included the Maine Municipal Association, Maine State Employees Association, Maine Education Association and AARP -- said a one-size-fits-all solution to the state's tax problem will not work.

"There's nothing preventing municipalities today from adopting TABOR II or any system to restrict spending," said Geoff Herman, a lobbyist for the municipal association.

Also, Herman said municipalities will be forced to spend millions to host elections that will have less impact over time if voters are asked to come to the polls on a frequent basis.

Ernie Marriner, a volunteer advocate for AARP, said the national organization set a policy that opposes these types of tax and spending limits.

"We urge you to vote against it and thereby let the initiative bill be placed on a ballot," he said.

Because the bill is a citizen initiative, lawmakers cannot change it in any way. They must pass it as is or reject it and send it out to voters.

But there is one other option.

Steve Clarkin of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, who testified in support of the bill, encouraged the Taxation Committee to consider writing a competing measure that would go out to voters in addition to TABOR.

Clarkin said the Chamber is supporting TABOR because there are no other alternatives. But he said it would like to see an amended version that removes restrictions on the highway fund, which pays for roads and bridges; and removes the need for limits on spending from special revenue funds, which support the blueberry and potato industries.

"While we've heard a lot of complaints about state spending, we can't recall anyone maintaining that the state is spending too much on our roads or bridges," he said.

Other supporters, such as David Crocker, a lawyer who is the state chairman for the new TABOR, said the state is at a critical moment.

"Fully a quarter of our people are now on public assistance because oppressive taxation and irresponsible spending have made it more lucrative to accept taxpayer-funded handouts than to find a job in Maine's shrinking economy," he said.

Susan Cover -- 620-7015

scover@centralmaine.com

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