AUGUSTA (AP) – A conservative think tank has created a revised Taxpayer Bill of Rights, but it’s unclear whether anyone is going run with it.

Maine voters last November rejected the original TABOR proposal, which would have limited government spending increases and made it harder to raise taxes.

The new plan offered by the Maine Heritage Policy Center contains spending limits but makes it easier for lawmakers to send a proposed tax increase to voters by requiring only a simple majority instead of a two-thirds majority.

The idea of letting voters have the final say remains in place, said Bill Becker, executive director of the Maine Heritage Policy Center.

“The key here is that the voters would be required to approve tax increases,” as the original TABOR would have done, Becker said.

TABOR supporter Jack Wibby of Gray, a leader of Maine Taxpayers United, said the revised proposal takes away the argument that that the original proposal was unreasonable by requiring a two-thirds vote.

“It certainly takes that argument away from them,” Wibby said, “but I’m sure they will invent other arguments.”

Mary Adams of Garland, a leader of last year’s failed campaign to pass TABOR, told the Portland Press Herald that she had not finished reviewing the 12-page plan yet. But Adams said she does not have a new referendum campaign in the works.

Becker said the revision is being put on the table for others who might want to use it as a model for tax relief. So far, though, he said he’s unaware of anyone planning to use the draft as the foundation for another referendum campaign.

Two key critics of TABOR during the 2006 campaign – the Maine Municipal Association and the Maine State Chamber of Commerce – reserved judgment.

Christopher Lockwood of the MMA and Dana Connors of the business group said they need more time to study the plan before they can comment on it.

Baldacci, who also opposed TABOR last year, “has directed his staff to thoroughly review the many details of the (new) proposal” from the Maine Heritage Policy Center, according spokeswoman Joy Leach.

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