AUGUSTA (AP) – Gov. John Baldacci looks ahead in an interview published over the weekend, saying a top second-term priority will be a call for freezing property values for homeowners.

Suggesting that concerns over property taxes remain widespread despite the Nov. 7 defeat of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, Baldacci told the Maine Sunday Telegram that “the first thing is, we have to get the job done.

Baldacci, resurrecting an idea that has been discussed before, said he will ask lawmakers to propose to voters a constitutional amendment that would block valuation increases on year-round homes until the homes change hands.

He also wants to require communities to use 90 percent of any future increase in state school aid to curb property taxes and to bolster incentives that encourage local consolidation, the newspaper reported.

“I feel very strongly about this in terms of nailing down guaranteed relief,” Baldacci said. “The driving force is the fact that our land values are rising much faster than our incomes, and I just think that people need to have some permanent relief, to reduce a tremendous amount of anxiety.”

If lawmakers reject a proposed valuation freeze, which would need two-thirds majorities, they “are going to need to be held accountable because people will want to know why they are not getting the relief that, frankly, they deserve and have been demanding,” Baldacci said.

Baldacci, who fended off three major rivals to win re-election, begins his second term in January.

He told the Telegram he wants to get out of the State House more to talk with Mainers and promote optimism about the state’s economic potential.

Assessing his first term, Baldacci said he had “a tendency to be in the office too much.”

A basic message moving forward should be Maine has much to offer.

“We have to toughen up a little bit,” Baldacci said. “We need to dust ourselves off and we need to have confidence in our abilities. We’re problem solvers. There isn’t any problem on the face of the earth that a Mainer can’t solve,” he said.

Maine has “something that everybody else wants” because of its quality of life, Baldacci said.

“It is our time to shine,” he said. “I’m trying to buck people up.”

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