LEWISTON — Former state Sen. Lois Snowe-Mello of Poland, a Republican, recently circulated an e-mail containing false information about the state's new tax law.

The law lowers the state income tax from 8.5 percent to 6.5 percent for most Mainers. The reduction is paid for by increasing the meals and lodging tax from 7 percent to 8.5 percent and by expanding the 5 percent state sales tax to items, such as miniature golf, movies and the labor on auto repair, that were previously untaxed.

But the e-mail from Snowe-Mello, dated Aug. 17, states the law will remove the Homestead property tax exemption, increase the candy tax to "be the most unfair and highest candy tax in the U.S." and extend the sales tax to haircuts. All three charges are incorrect, according to both supporters and detractors of the law.

Sen. David Trahan, R-Waldoboro, who is leading the effort to gather signatures to allow for a repeal question, House Majority Leader John Piotti, D-Unity, who led the effort to pass the law and Mike Allen, the director of economic research at Maine Revenue Services, all refuted Snowe-Mello's claims.

"I don't want to mislead people at all," said Snowe-Mello, who is collecting signatures as part of the repeal effort. "If I had misinformation, I'd be happy to correct it."

Charlie Webster of Farmington, chairman of the Maine Republican Party, said Snowe-Mello probably got some of the incorrect information from his office.

"At the beginning, we passed out information that was wrong; initially, we thought hairdressers were taxed," he said. The tax reform proposal that failed two years ago contained a provision to tax hairdressers, but that was never part of the package considered by the Legislature this year.

"Somebody, somewhere analyzed it wrong, probably a staffer," Webster said. "It was hard to know early what this bill did."

Snowe-Mello said she received a letter from a candy manufacturer that said Maine's candy tax would be tops in the nation.

"It's one thing if they're debating whether or not it's a good policy based on what it does, but this is really a misinformation campaign," said Piotti, who was forwarded a copy of Snowe-Mello's e-mail and passed it to the Sun Journal.

According to Maine Revenue Services, a source both Trahan and Piotti say is accurate, about 87 percent of Mainers will pay less in state taxes under than new rules than the old ones. The new tax structure is revenue neutral, which means the state will still collect the same overall amount of taxes as before. But an estimated $55 million of the burden is expected to be paid by tourists and when the economy rebounds, that amount is expected to grow.

Piotti also said the tax reform package would result in new jobs in Maine, according to a report from the State Planning Office.

Michael LeVert, the state economist with SPO, confirmed that a preliminary analysis due to be published in about a week, indicates about 750 new jobs will be created from the $55 million expected to return to Mainers as a result of the new law.

Conservatives aren't the only critics of the new law — the Maine Green Independent Party has also joined the signature gathering effort, saying it hurts Maine's poor.

Roger Beeley, an independent insurance agent from Scarborough who has been part of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce for more than 20 years, supports the new law. He said he was upset last Saturday when he heard a signature gatherer tell people at the Portland farmer's market that the new law would increase some people's taxes from 2 percent to a flat-tax of 6.5 percent.

"That is so misleading and so disingenuous, it's incredible; and of course, the woman signed it," he said.

Kit St. John, executive director of the progressive group Maine Center for Economic Policy, praised the law and denied that it would harm low-income Mainers.

While the new law does replace the state's old tax brackets with a 6.5 percent rate for most filers, it provides household credits to low- and middle-income earners that result in lower overall taxes, said Allen of Maine Revenue Services. He encouraged those curious to see what their taxes would be under the new law to use the tax calculator located on the Maine Revenue Services Web site.

Petition gatherers have until Sept. 11 to turn in the 55,087 certified signatures of Maine voters to place a repeal question on the June ballot.

rmetzler@sunjournal.com