AUGUSTA – Jerry Douglass, owner of a Lisbon real estate agency, fears what the proposed tax reform package before the Legislature will do to his business.

The tax package, he said, creates a new charge on home transactions, affecting buyers and sellers.

“It’s very bad for real estate,” he said.

Douglass was one of about 100 business owners crowding a staircase in the State House’s Hall of Flags on Thursday. All oppose the proposed tax reform package, which would lower the income tax rate and hike sales taxes on many different services.

It was organized by a coalition of 53 businesses that have sent a letter to the Legislature and the governor expressing opposition to the bill, which proposes new taxes on amusements, installation maintenance and repair services, personal care services, personal property services and real property services, according to the letter.

But they’re missing the point, said Rep. John Piotti, D-Unity, House chairman of the Taxation Committee, which crafted the plan. Piotti said the package will give Mainers about another $400 after the increased sales taxes are factored in, and more burden will be shifted to those from out of state.

In addition, Piotti said, the plan delivers a $96 million tax break for Maine’s small businesses.

“Maine’s future economic prosperity isn’t hinging on the price of a bag of potato chips,” Piotti said in a statement. “It rests on the ability of this state to attract investments in a global economy, and the No. 1 consideration for investors is the capital gains and income tax.”

But the executive director for the Ski Maine Association, Greg Sweetser, listed the many taxes the slopes would see: lift tickets, equipment rentals and electric work. Ski Maine represents all of the state’s ski areas.

In the end, it will make Maine’s ski industry less competitive.

Community ski areas, such as Titcomb Mountain in Farmington, will be hurt the most because they are used mostly by Maine residents, he said.

“Eighty percent of the people using those areas are children,” Sweetser said. “The tax, at the majority of the ski areas, would be directly levied on children.”

Proponents of the tax package also milled around the State House gathering Thursday, trying to dispel rumors and make their views known.

Jud Dolphin, state director of AARP, said his organization is in full support.

“This rally today left a lot out,” he said.

AARP supports the package for many reasons, he said, most prominently on a provision that prohibits foreclosures for overdue property taxes on homes of people older than 65.

Rep. Randy Hotham, R-Dixfield, a committee member, touted bipartisan support in the committee, but the sentiment was not shared in the House during an initial vote Wednesday.

Representatives favored the package 87-49, mostly along party lines.

Dueling statements came down from both parties shortly after the rally Thursday.

Rep. Josh Tardy, R-Newport, House minority leader, said the Republican caucus views the package as a tax shift that will burden small businesses, while providing no “meaningful” relief.

Tardy said that the only way to reduce taxes is to control spending over the next few terms.

“Without true spending reform, without curbing the state’s appetite for spending, any tax plan would be irresponsible,” he said.

Hotham, however, said in a statement that the plan does exactly what the business community has been asking for.

“It cuts taxes for small business, it drops the top income tax bracket by nearly a third, and it broadens the state’s volatile tax base to provide fiscal stability and predictability for businesses,” he said.