Maine voters will be faced with a very important decision this fall regarding the Palesky tax cap. Many believe that it would provide much needed property tax relief for Mainers, but that, unfortunately, is not the case.

By lowering property taxes, municipalities would be forced to implement user fees in order to compensate for the lack of revenue. This means that property taxes might go down, but other taxes would be correspondingly raised. The tax-cap initiative will do nothing to solve our problems with high taxes, in fact, many people will suffer from the devastating toll the cap will take on our state.

This bill would affect basic services that are taken for granted, such as police, fire, trash pickup and, of course, something that is very important to me as a student, education.

With the budget available under the Palesky tax cap, significant cuts to the Lewiston Regional Technical Center could be made, along with nearly eliminating all extracurricular activities and school bus transportation in grades K-8, unless students were charged to use them.

As far as education goes, these are the least of our problems. Under state law, each municipality is required to set aside a certain amount of money from taxes each year to fund public education. Based on the mill rate given in the Palesky bill, Lewiston, in particular, would not be allowed to raise that amount of money. The penalty for this is retraction of state funding. For every dollar our city fails to raise in order to meet the mandate, the state takes away that much funding, leaving education to face injurious consequences.

I hate to refer to the old clich, “children are our future,” but that is so true. If we don’t provide the youth in our community with the opportunity to accomplish great things, what will we have when this generation is gone? A city with high crime rates because of our inadequate police department, and low economic growth rates because no business would want to come to a place that seems to be such a dead-end investment.

If the tax cap passes, the city would be forced to eliminate over half of its workers, creating more than a hundred people who would be unemployed. Ironically, the money to pay for unemployment comes from the taxpayers. Isn’t the tax cap supposed to save taxpayers money?

Supporters of this bill say that although the initiative isn’t perfect, changes can be made to it once it’s passed. However, in order to do so, voters would have to pass the amendment, not by a simple majority, but by a two-thirds majority. Also, the vote must be on the ballot during a general election, which only occurs once every two years, making it very difficult to make those changes.

Another reason some Mainers are in favor of a tax cap is because they are frustrated with our government at the state level, saying that nothing is being done to help lower taxes. Maine voters have a right to be upset. Property taxes in our state are too high. In some places, especially in areas along the coast, people have been forced out of their homes because they could not afford the rising cost of taxes. Something should be done, but the initiative on the ballot is simply not the answer.

Some believe that if the tax cap is passed it would force the Legislature to take action, but if other forms of taxation, such as user fees are implemented, they would have to be approved at the state level.

Also, by making cuts to police services and education, we would have to rely more heavily on state police and state funding for our schools. By voting yes on the tax cap, Mainers would be taking the power away from municipalities and handing it over to the state, the very body voters were upset with in the first place.

Mainers deserve property tax relief, but the current initiative is simply not the answer. Trying to punish legislators by passing bad legislation will not help solve the problem. Taxes may seem to be lower, but the money to run our cities has to come from somewhere, therefore it would just be added in other areas, accomplishing nothing.

The most important thing to realize when heading to the polls this November is that a tax cap will affect everyone. Whether you are a senior citizen, a business owner, a worker at BIW or a parent, a cap will impact you negatively.

I strongly urge people to be informed voters, and make the right decision for Maine. I urge voters to join me in voting “no” on the Palesky tax cap issue this November.

Katie Lauze, a student at Lewiston High School, is a three-year member of the Lewiston Youth Advisory Council.