AUGUSTA (AP) – Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap ruled Tuesday that enough valid petition signatures were submitted last fall to place a taxpayer bill of rights proposal on Maine ballots later this year unless lawmakers approve the measure first.

While clearing the way for legislative consideration and a potential popular vote, Dunlap also disclosed that the citizen initiative campaign led by anti-tax activist Mary Adams would have failed if state officials had not chosen to, in effect, extend a deadline for signature filing.

“The process really is, and should be, weighted toward the petitioner,” Dunlap said.

Patterned on law in Colorado and echoing proposals in other states, the Maine taxpayer bill of rights plan seeks to limit increases in state and local government spending to the rate of inflation plus population growth and require voter approval for all tax and fee increases.

“On the local level, revenues which exceed the limit will have to be used to reduce local property taxes; at the state level, revenues beyond the limit can be used to reduce existing taxes or as cash rebates,” Adams said in a celebratory statement.

“Augusta will have to debate how to give us back money each year instead of trying to figure out how to get it away from us! I can’t wait for November,” she said.

Critics contend the proposal is too rigid and could hamstring government and produce drastic cuts in services.

“Mary Adams’ TABOR proposal is a slap in the face to both home rule and majority rule, under the apparent belief that the town meeting doesn’t know how to conduct its business,” wrote Geoff Herman, director of state and federal relations for the Maine Municipal Association in the December issue of the association’s “Maine Townsman.”

Last November, Colorado voters suspended the state taxpayer bill of rights, a constitutional amendment approved in 1992 and known as the strictest government spending limit in the nation, and agreed to relinquish more than $3 billion in tax refunds over five years.

At the time, the Maine Heritage Policy Center, which is allied with Adams on the issue, called the Colorado vote proof that the overall goal of promoting tax and spending limits was working. On Tuesday, the center’s president, Bill Becker, said a referendum in Maine would offer “a choice between those who support the status quo versus those who believe in greater economic prosperity.”

Maine is just experiencing the first impacts of a property tax reform effort that dates to a citizen initiative focusing on local school funding that was championed by the municipal association and a statewide teachers’ group and approved by referendum in June 2004.

Subsequent legislation imposed annual growth limits on government spending. Thus far, according to the administration of Democratic Gov. John Baldacci, as well as the municipal association and the state chamber of commerce, there have been signs of a spending slowdown.

But House Republican leader David Bowles of Sanford said Tuesday that popular support for a taxpayer bill of rights undercuts claims of success on the tax reform front.

To move forward with the citizen initiative, organizers needed to submit at least 50,519 valid signatures. On Oct. 21, 2005, a Friday which had been treated as the deadline, petitions containing 54,127 signatures were filed with the secretary of state.

On the next business day, Monday Oct. 24, another batch of petitions bearing 4,024 signatures was submitted.

“These petitions were ready to be filed but were inadvertently omitted by petitioners” on deadline day, Dunlap’s office said in a statement.

Explaining his decision to validate the petition drive Tuesday, the secretary of state said that except for a delivery oversight, the organizers had met legal requirements.

“Technically, we could have” rejected the second batch of petitions, Dunlap said, adding that it was the second batch that put the petition drive over the minimum threshold.

In the end, he said, 6,540 signatures were found to be invalid, leaving the number of valid signatures at 51,611 – 1,092 more than required.

“We’re just trying to be fair,” said Dunlap, whose office consulted with the Maine attorney general’s office on the matter.

House Speaker John Richardson, D-Brunswick, warned Tuesday against a taxpayer bill of right’s consequences.

“This calamity from Colorado – which the people of that state recently rejected after years of failure – puts our children’s future at risk by threatening to undermine our investments in education. It also puts at risk the future of our roads, water systems, police response and all the things that make our communities livable.”

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