PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – A statewide organization that opposes November’s tax cap referendum will kick off a campaign this week that will include fund-raising, extensive advertising and a grass-roots initiative.

Citizens United to Protect Our Public Safety, Schools and Communities is the first group to form a political action committee to oppose the referendum.

The umbrella organization is comprised of groups that are local – such as backers of schools, libraries and police departments – and statewide, including the Maine Municipal Association and Maine Association of Realtors.

The campaign will be directed by Larry Benoit, a 30-year political veteran who has worked for former Sens. George Mitchell and Edmund Muskie, as well as Gov. John Baldacci.

“We have a significant challenge ahead,” Benoit said. “But we believe that once voters become educated on the impact of the (tax cap) proposal, they’ll understand how extreme it is and how adversely public education and vital community services will be affected.”

The Nov. 2 referendum will ask Mainers if they want taxes to be capped at 1 percent of a property’s value based on 1996-97 assessments.

Supporters say the cap is needed to keep down property taxes before they drive people from their homes. Opponents say a cap will devastate local budgets and schools.

Four groups have formed political action committees in support of the referendum, sometimes called the Palesky proposal after tax activist Carol Palesky of Topsham, who spearheaded the drive to get the question on the ballot.

They are Palesky’s group, the Maine Taxpayer Action Network, along with Tax Cap Yes!, Tax Cap Now and the Yarmouth Taxpayers Association.

The opposition group registered with the state in mid-July. Additional details about the group and its campaign will be announced at a news conference Wednesday in Portland.

Linda Gifford, legal counsel for the Maine Association of Realtors, said her organization is getting involved because it believes the cap would have a dampening effect on real estate sales and be bad for the state as a whole.

“We’re very concerned about taxes, but we think this would create a Draconian effect, that it would be a sledgehammer blow to services and it’s not the right thing to do,” Gifford said.

The relatively late start for the new PAC probably won’t matter much in the countdown to the election. The more important issue is how much money each side has and who makes the most effective use of that money, said Calvin Mackenzie, an American politics professor at Colby College.

“I think as a general rule, referendum campaigns don’t engage the public until close to the election,” Mackenzie said.

Douglas Hodgkin, professor emeritus of political science at Bates College, said both sides still have to present their cases to the voters.

“There hasn’t been any campaign on the airwaves, so the issue hasn’t been defined in the voters’ minds yet,” he said.

The opposition group will raise money, hire a polling firm and organize a grass-roots effort to reach voters, Benoit said. An advertising campaign will begin after Labor Day.

“It will be a full-scale campaign that’s typical in competitive referenda elections,” Benoit said.

AP-ES-08-02-04 1636EDT