LEWISTON – Councilors didn’t back off from their support for the Maine Municipal Association and their ballot initiative Tuesday.

Bob Stone, who leads Common Sense for Maine Taxpayers, urged councilors to agree to cut property taxes by 15 percent next year or repudiate the MMA. Stone’s group opposes both Questions 1A and 1B on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Question 1A would increase state spending on K-12 public education to 55 percent immediately, while question 1B would do it within five years.

The state currently pays about 43 percent of those costs. Increasing its share to 55 percent, plus paying 100 percent of special education costs as required by proposal 1A, would force the state to come up with an additional $246 million annually, according to state estimates.

“My concern is a commercial being aired by the pro-1A groups that makes false statements,” Stone said.

According to the commercial, property taxes would drop if voters approved 1A, Stone said.

“That’s a lie,” Stone said. “There is nothing in the initiative that says taxes would be reduced. It says only that funding would increase and leaves it up to the state to determine how that would happen.”

The MMA is the main backer of the initiative. Stone suggested the councilors either agree to cut city property taxes by 15 percent if the voters approve the ballot or denounce the MMA.

“If you fail to address this, I can only assume that you support this group’s attempt to mislead voters,” Stone said.

Councilor Roger Philippon said Stone was over-dramatizing the commercial. The commercial assumed a best case scenario, that every community in Maine would cut property taxes if the voters agree to the ballot. Stone assumed the worst, that none would.

“There’s not that much difference between what you are saying and what they are saying,” Philippon said.

Councilors didn’t act on Stone’s request.

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