Approval of Question 1A would take almost $3 billion from taxpayers over 10 years.

Question 1 on the Nov. 4 ballot requires the close attention of every Maine voter. On the surface, this question concerns the state’s funding of Maine K-12 schools. But more importantly, this question goes right to the heart of the economic future of Maine.

The Maine Municipal Association, an organization representing most of Maine municipal governments, gathered about 100,000 signatures last fall in a successful effort to place a “citizens initiated referendum” question on the ballot. At the polling places of Maine, voters were enticed into signing the MMA petition with the headline “lower your property taxes.”

If the MMA’s Question 1A wins this November, the cost of Maine state government will increase 10 percent next year, or about $264 million by MMA’s estimates. Maine will be forced to send these millions to the towns. And guess what. Under the MMA’s legislation, the towns are not required to cut our property taxes by one red cent.

The MMA has admitted to this “one way street” in published reports in Maine newspapers. “Tax reform” and “tax relief” to the MMA means Maine’s taxpayers showering hundreds of millions of dollars into municipal bank accounts with no regard as to where the state is going to come up with the funds. The state can get the funds from only one source – taxpayers.

The campaign to convince Maine’s taxpayers to vote themselves a tax increase by voting for Question 1A is costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Since the MMA is funded by an annual infusion of dues from cities and towns, how do you like your property tax dollars being used to get more taxes out of your checkbook? If you vote for Question 1A, you will be voting to send an “invoice” to the state of Maine totaling almost $3 billion over the next 10 years.

Question 1A is bad fiscal policy and will be a financial disaster for Maine government. The governor and Legislature recognized this and hastily negotiated a “competing measure” as a means to thwart the MMA money grab. It appears as Question 1B on the ballot.

Question 1B bleeds the Maine taxpayer over time rather than the “all at once” approach to financial ruin taken by the MMA. Question 1B also insults the Maine taxpayer by throwing a couple of “fish” at us, as if we were barking seals at the zoo.

The “fish” include an increase in the Circuit Breaker Rebate program and a restoration of the recently gutted Homestead Tax Exemption. Question 1B proponents are offering the fish as “real and responsible” tax relief. Both offer an extremely small token of tax relief, a mole hill while a mountain is needed.

It is also interesting to note that, since the Circuit Breaker and Homestead Tax Exemptions are both state rebates, the taxpayers pay for the rebates in the end. One way or the other, we are taxed. How can the governor call that tax relief?

Voting for 1B is also a vote for increased taxes. How much? Who knows. During a debate the other night, a senior Republican legislator admitted that the Legislature voted “in the blind” when it voted to approve Question 1B. They could not get their hands around the estimated cost of Question 1B.

Is this any way to run a state?

I am voting for 1C. It summarily rejects this poppycock and will send a message to the Legislature and municipal government that we have had quite enough of their incessant taxing and spending.

Maine is a wonderful place, and Maine people are an outstanding lot. We are suffering under a tax burden that is the highest in the country. It is absolutely incredible that those who live at the public trough are working so hard to tax us into oblivion.

We, at Common Sense for Maine Taxpayers, pledge to push for a Maine Taxpayer Bill of Rights that will bring an end to this push to tax Maine into poverty. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. It is called “1C.”

Robert Stone, a Maine native and resident of Lewiston, is chair of the City of Lewiston’s Finance Committee and treasurer of Common Sense for Maine Taxpayers, which is advocating for Question 1C.