Candidate: Ad was made by the Republican Governors Association for the benefit of Republican gubernatorial candidate Chandler Woodcock. It was not coordinated with the campaign.

Title: “Nation’s Highest Tax Burden”

Length: 30 seconds, TV ad.

Producer: McAuliffe Message Media

Market: Statewide. The ad was edited after being pulled for inaccuracies by two TV stations.

Announcer: The ad is narrated by an off-screen male voice.

Visuals: The ad opens with the words “State of Maine” in the top corner and the words “Nation’s Highest Tax Burden” imposed over a picture of the state capital. “Eighth Highest Gas Tax” appears next, followed by “$733,000,000 Budget Gap” and “One of Only Two States to Experience Economic Decline in 2005.”

Then the the dark tone and word-heavy ad changes to a profile photo of Chandler Woodcock on a blue background with the words “Chandler Woodcock” and “Economic Plan.” The words on the screen then match the audio as footage of Woodcock on the campaign trail runs in the background.

Audio: “The nation’s highest tax burden for 10 consecutive years. The eighth-highest gas tax. A $733 million budget gap. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston says Maine was one of only two states in the country to experience an economic decline in 2005.

“Maine needs new solutions.

“Chandler Woodcock’s plan: Cut unfair income taxes; reduce Maine’s property tax burden; cap government spending.

“Tell Chandler Woodcock you support new solutions to change Maine’s direction.”

Purpose: This message of this ad is easy to spot. Maine is headed in the wrong direction and if state voters want to change course, then Chandler Woodcock has a plan to do just that. The ad does not mention Gov. John Baldacci, the Democratic incumbent by name; it doesn’t have to. The ad builds on an idea that has shown up in poll after poll: Many people think the state is in trouble. That pessimism doesn’t reflect the more nuanced picture of the state’s economy, but it is nonetheless a reality in the mind of many Mainers.

Accuracy: This ad has been harshly criticized by the Maine Democratic Party, and at least two television stations decided to stop running it over what one general manager described as grossly misleading and inaccurate claims.

The truth is in the numbers, and everybody has numbers to make their case. There are various ways to rank the state’s tax burden. The one cited in the ad – and most often cited by Republicans – is from the conservative Tax Foundation and measures combined local and state taxes per capita.

U.S. Census Bureau figures, which measure state tax burden without local property taxes and fees, tell a different story. Those numbers show that the state tax burden is ranked 19th and has been falling. It doesn’t include Maine’s high property taxes in its calculation.

Likewise, there are different rankings for the state’s gasoline tax. The Tax Foundation says Maine’s is the eighth-highest in the country. The American Petroleum Institute ranks Maine’s gasoline tax as 15th-highest and below the national average.

As Mike Young, the station manager for WABI-Channel 7 in Bangor, which pulled the ad, said: Those are shades of gray, especially in an election campaign.

The ad also says the state has a $733 million budget gap and cites as it source a report from February 2005. That report is outdated. The Legislature has since passed a balanced budget, which the state constitution requires, and a supplemental budget. Maine finished the fiscal year with a sizable surplus and about $150 million in reserve accounts. There’s no budget gap of $733 million.

The other assertions in the ad can be argued. Maine’s income tax is progressive in that it taxes people with higher incomes more. But if you graph the different rates for income taxes, the picture looks like a ski slope. The top rate kicks in a relatively low income threshold, which could be described is unfair.

Also, L.D. 1, which was passed by the Legislature and increased state funding for school districts, includes spending caps for state and local governments. The argument is over whether the caps are too high and too easily overridden. That’s in the eye of the commentator.

Our view: This is another “issue” advertisement by the Republican Governors Association that stretches the truth to the point of breaking. There’s plenty about Maine’s economy that could be legitimately criticized, but the RGA picked an outdated and inaccurate budget gap number, which hurts the entire ad’s credibility.

The ad was re-cut with a different budget number after it was on the air for almost a week.

The Maine Democratic Party has its own ad that counters the RGA’s.