Thirty-two percent of Mainers oppose legal recognition of same-sex couples.
AUGUSTA – California here we come?
A far-ranging poll released Wednesday found that Carol Palesky’s property tax cap referendum, which is similar to tax caps passed in California, has significant support among Maine voters.
The same poll found that 30 percent of those asked support full marriage rights for same-sex couples, 36 percent support civil unions but not gay marriage, and 32 percent oppose any legal recognition for same-sex couples.
Mainers, who a few years ago rejected a statewide anti-discrimination law for gays, have since adopted more liberal thinking when it comes to homosexuals, observed Patrick Murphy of Strategic Marketing Services, which conducted the poll.
“But if this thing were to go to referendum, there’s no way a majority of Mainers would allow full marriage rights,” he said. “Michael Heath would get his Christian Civic League and conservatives in the state” to fight it, Murphy said.
When asked whether they would support Palesky’s referendum to limit property taxes to 1 percent of the assessed value, 50.8 percent of those polled said they would vote yes or are leaning yes; 31.6 percent would vote no or are leaning no; and another 17.8 percent said they were undecided.
Sen. Stephen Stanley, D-Medway, who co-chairs the Taxation Committee, predicted the numbers will change when voters “are educated about what could happen” – that it would mean a collective loss of $800 million to communities.
Palesky said Wednesday she was “thrilled” that the poll showed her Maine Taxpayers Action Group ahead, even if the lead is slight. In every poll taken so far “we’ve come out ahead,” she said.
Geoff Herman of the Maine Municipal Association said that he wasn’t surprised to see Palesky’s tax cap referendum has so much support. “At first glance there’s a seductive appeal to it. It looks attractive,” he said. Once people understand the impact to services they depend on, “those numbers will change,” he predicted.
Other poll findings:
• After U.S. weapons inspector David Kay’s report that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction, 49 percent of Mainers said the invasion in Iraq was a mistake, 46.5 said it was the right thing, 4.5 percent said they didn’t know.
• If the election took place tomorrow, President Bush would get 38 percent of Maine’s vote, John Kerry would get 51 percent and Ralph Nader would get 4 percent.
• In a question about government’s expanded powers to fight terrorism, 46 percent said new laws were being used correctly and 40 percent said the laws went too far. Seven percent said the laws did not go far enough.
• More than half of those surveyed said jobs, employment and the economy are the most important issues facing the state. Further, 60 percent said Maine’s economy is headed in the wrong direction, 10 percent more than in the October poll. And 29 percent said it is moving in the right direction, down 17 percent from the January 2003 poll.
• Respondents supported joining the Powerball lottery by a factor of more than two to one.
The random survey of 400 registered voters was conducted between Feb. 28 and March 3, and was part of the quarterly Omnibus Poll by Strategic Marketing Services. The margin of error was plus or minus 5 percentage points.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Comments are no longer available on this story