PORTLAND (AP) – A coalition that supports new taxes to help fund the state-sponsored Dirigo Health program said Monday that an opposition group is inflating the financial impact of the taxes.

The Fed Up With Taxes coalition, which has spearheaded the referendum drive to repeal the taxes, claims that Mainers will pay an extra $40.7 million a year in taxes on beer, wine, soda and other beverages if the new taxes aren’t repealed.

But the No on One Coalition said that the beverage taxes will amount to less than $17 million. Coalition leaders said Fed Up With Taxes is deceiving the public.

An economic study commissioned by Fed Up With Taxes and written by a University of Maine economics professor grossly overestimates Mainers’ beverage consumption, said Kurt Wise of the Maine Center for Economic Policy.

“The fact is, this study is a deeply flawed piece of work,” Wise said. “It gets the underlying economic theory wrong, and this in turn leads to vastly overstated estimates for the fiscal and economic impacts of the new law.”

Ted O’Meara, spokesman for the Fed Up With Taxes coalition, said the new beverage tax covers a wide range of drinks including beer, wine, soda, flavored water, sports drinks, iced tea and fruit beverages.

“We stand by our numbers totally,” he said.

Mainers will vote Nov. 4 on whether to repeal a measure enacted by the Legislature in April to increase beverage taxes to help bolster funding Maine’s state-run Dirigo Health program. The measure also adds a new 1.8 percent tax on health insurance claims to replace an assessment on insurers.

The taxes have been put on hold until after the election.

Supporters of the taxes say they are needed to continue providing health coverage to thousands of Mainers who are insured through the Dirigo program.

But opponents say they were passed with little discussion and come at a time when Mainers can’t afford new taxes.

In all, opponents say the new taxes will add up to more than $78 million a year – $40.7 million on beverages and another $38 million on health insurance claims.

Supporters say the taxes will add up to less than $50 million – $16.7 million in beverage taxes and $33 million on health insurance claims. They say the taxes on health insurance claims replace a previous assessment on insurance companies, and therefore don’t represent “new” taxes.

Wise said the 31-page study by Todd Gabe, who works at the University of Maine’s school of economics, used faulty beverage consumption figures. The study said Mainers consume about 72 million gallons a year of soda and other nonalcoholic drinks, but the real number is only one-third that amount, Wise said.

In response, Gabe said he used numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau and the American Beverage Association for his calculations. Furthermore, the study looks at only soda and sports drinks, and doesn’t include fruit beverages and flavored water, which will also be taxed if Mainers vote to allow the taxes to go through.

Gabe said his study was reviewed by peers.

“Nobody’s contacted me with any concern about the numbers,” he said.