A group that campaigned for November’s failed tax-cap initiative panned Gov. John Baldacci’s latest tax relief proposal Tuesday.

Instead of lowering the overall property tax burden of Mainers, Baldacci’s plan would actually increase the amount they end up paying, Tax Cap YES! said in a press release.

One of the key provisions in his plan would allow taxpayers who spend more than 6 percent of their income on property taxes to borrow the money needed to make up the difference. When they sell their property, the loan must be repaid – with interest – thus boosting the total they end up paying in taxes.

“This is not relief,” the release said. “It is a deferment and actually a tax increase.”

Martha Freeman, Maine’s state planner, who also is point person for Baldacci’s tax plan, said the loan program is merely a safety net feature available to all property owners regardless of income. Low- and middle-income property owners would be eligible for grants through the state’s Circuit Breaker program, which Baldacci has proposed expanding.

The tax-cap group also criticized the 6 percent threshold itself, noting that figure is nearly double the 3.2 percent national average property tax burden. Maine’s average, the second highest nationally, is just over 5 percent, the group wrote.

Freeman said the 6 percent threshold is based on the average burden experienced by participants in the state’s tax-reducing Circuit Breaker program.

If Baldacci’s tax relief plan is fully implemented, the average Mainer’s property tax burden by fiscal year 2009 should be less than 4 percent, Freeman said. By fiscal year 2015, it should be 3.62 percent, close to the national average, she added.

Tax Cap YES! was formed earlier in the year to promote Topsham tax activist Carol Palesky’s tax-cap referendum, which would have limited property taxes in Maine to 1 percent of a property’s market value. The measure failed by a wide margin in November. The tax-cap group disbanded and has had no paid staff or formal offices since Nov. 2. But former members maintain contact on the subject of tax relief and plan to monitor legislative efforts, said Phil Harriman, a former state senator from Yarmouth and spokesman for the tax-cap group.

His release also said the spending cap component included in Baldacci’s tax reform package is “laden with loopholes” that allow state, county and local governments to duck strict spending limits.

Freeman said that a portion of Baldacci’s plan is modeled on language proposed by the Maine State Chamber of Commerce.

“If the business community feels they’re tight enough caps, we are happy to line up with them,” she said.

Those caps would allow budgets to go up 2.75 percent annually.