LEWISTON – Tax-cap supporters call him a prophet of doom when he says their measure would kill municipal government in Maine.

So Jim Bennett is inviting them to help figure out how city services would survive if voters agreed to a property-tax measure on the November ballot.

Supporters of the referendum question that would drastically limit property tax rates maintain cities have reserves of money to fall back on, said Bennett, Lewiston’s city administrator.

“If that’s truly the case, they should have no problem doing the hard work and demonstrating where that money is,” he said.

He is calling for a panel of seven to nine citizens to review city finances and come up with a plan that would accommodate the effect of the referendum.

He’ll ask the City Council to create the panel at Tuesday’s regular council meeting.

No city officials – no councilors, staffers or people who sit on committees – would be on the board, Bennett said. The idea is to get an independent group to demonstrate how the city can balance its books.

“We’ve said how we think this will affect us,” Bennett said. “But people don’t want to listen to us when they think we’re just protecting our jobs. They just glaze over what we say about the budget.”

Approval of the referendum question would limit property taxes to 1 percent of the assessed value of property.

The cap would allow cities to levy $10 in property taxes per $1,000 of value, based on 1997 assessments. Values can be adjusted for property that has been sold or renovated since 1997.

Bennett’s projections assume the worst-case scenario, that the city would get 1 percent of 1997 property values. That would be about $12.6 million. Androscoggin County takes its $2 million share and another $7.4 million goes to pay the city’s debts. That leaves about $3.2 million to run the city and the schools. The city’s current budget calls for $40 million in property tax revenues.

“The way it looks right now, that wouldn’t even be enough money to pay for all of the state and federal mandates,” Bennett said. Those include water-quality guidelines, school initiatives and other state and federal requirements.

“So, we may be asking this group to tell us which laws we’re going to have to break,” Bennett said.

If councilors approve, the group would start meeting in August and issue a report to voters in October, a month before the election. Bennett hopes to have the panel’s meetings televised on Great Falls TV, he said.