BY TOM BELL

Portland Press Herald

Maine voters on Tuesday soundly rejected Question 4, the so-called Taxpayers Bill of Rights. With 33 percent of precincts reporting, the measure was trailing 61 percent to 39 percent.

The TABOR referendum would have placed spending limits on state and local governments and required voter approval to raise taxes. It was the third anti-tax measure on the ballot in five years -- all of which were defeated.

For TABOR's opponents, the victory was even bigger that the 2006 victory over a similar ballot measure, which was defeated by 8 percentage points.

The economic recession created an environment that made it easier to defeat Question 4, said Mark Gray, chairman of Citizens Unified for Maine's Future, the political action committee that opposed Question 4.

"The early polling in August showed the shaky economy was helping us," he said. "It created a lot of uncertainty. The last thing people want in a state of uncertainty is more uncertainty."

In addition, plummeting state revenues caused the Legislature to cut the current two-year budget by $500 million, making it difficult for Question 4 supporters to argue that spending was out-of-conrol, Gray said.

David Crocker, chairman of TABOR Now, the political action committee that ran the campaign, conceded defeat at about 10:45 p.m.

Question 4 had some early political momentum and held a significant edge in the polls until a month ago, but it was crushed in a lopsided campaign led by municipal leaders and public-employee unions. Opponents outspent supporters 10-1 on television ads.

Opponents -- led by Maine Education Association and the Maine Municipal Association -- ran a series of television commercials that portrayed TABOR as a risky measure that would cause cuts to services, such as schools and health programs services. The ads began appearing five weeks ago, at the cost of $900,000.

Proponents argued that Question 4 would not cut services but simply constrain growth to the rate of inflation. TABOR Now, the political action committee that ran the campaign in support of Question 4, began running its only television commercial in the final week of the campaign, for a total cost of $90,000.

TABOR NOW had trouble raising money. Its campaign was funded primary by individual contributions from Maine residents, it failed to attract money from out-of-state groups.

Citizens Unified, which also opposed Question 2, which would have cut the excise tax, raised $1.7 million, according the campaign finance report it filed on Oct. 29. TABOR Now reported raising $160,000.

Citizens Unified received several large donations, including donation from the Service Employees International Union, the National Education Association and the Maine State Employees Association

In fact, TABOR supporters spent more money getting the citizen initiative on the ballot than they did during the campaign. Maine Leads, the political action committee that paid volunteers to gather signatures and got the question on the ballot, received more than $200,000 in donations from out-of-state anti-tax groups in 2007 and 2008.