With another Election Day upon us, Mainers will head to the polls to vote on a couple of issues never go away: taxes. The most notable proposal is the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Following closely behind is a referendum to slash the excise tax in Maine on new and hybrid vehicles.

The rhetoric on both sides is compelling. The pro-TABOR camp, again claiming that restraining the growth in spending is the best approach to manage government services, is taking a second stab at using the citizen initiative process to pass spending caps.

Those opposed to TABOR haven’t strayed far from previous talking points: public safety will be in jeopardy, our schools will crumble, and that the famed local control Mainers love will be stripped from our hands.

It has almost reached a state of schizophrenia in Maine. Residents and businesses continue to cry for tax relief and a pro-business climate, yet continue to protest and demand significant levels of service, often delivered at the smallest of scales, and maintain consistent voting patterns for who they send to the capital.

I agree with the argument for TABOR that government infrastructure and bureaucracy has grown beyond the means of Mainers and businesses to pay for it. But I also agree with the anti-TABOR point that one-size fits all solutions is not good policy. In my opinion, dismantling or rebuilding our bureaucracy cannot occur with the formulaic solution that TABOR proposes.

While there are those involved in government  involved in attempts at implementing spending and tax reforms, the ballot questions this year are also strongly opposed by those working for government.

Those concerned about TABOR, the excise tax referendum, and the pending need to slash another $200 million from the state budget decry that we are down to cutting bone, since there is no more fat in government spending. Perhaps they are right — the anatomy of state and local service delivery, built on 17th and 18th century models, cannot be cut anymore.

So what Mainers will need to do is toss out most of the body and start over.

Where do we begin? Let’s see what local control is getting us.

In Cumberland County, home to nearly 300,000 people, municipal government collects nearly half a billion property tax dollars to deliver local services. With almost 30 towns, how much of that is going to overhead like administration and not into delivering an actual service?

For rural Washington County, with its economic struggles, municipal government extracts over $40 million in property tax dollars to fund local services in support over a little over 30,000 people. Closer to home, Androscoggin County municipalities push to collect more than $130 million from property owners to deliver local services.

Those dollars are just from the property taxpayer; local government also collects fees and revenue sharing from the state. While the state revenue sharing is down this year, in 2008, towns in Androscoggin County were given nearly $14 million from the state to subsidize their operations.

It is certainly convenient that advertisements warn of the loss of local control, but when towns and cities can no longer support their land use and spending priorities with local property taxes, why should the state come in and subsidize those decisions?

Perhaps a quote from former President Ronald Reagan can best define the challenge facing Maine. He said “no government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs — once launched — never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this Earth.”

The sound bites cluttering our radio frequencies and television screens offer either a silver bullet for government reform in TABOR and excise tax reductions, or a sky is falling scenario. Both sides are wrong.

Here’s what’s right: reforming how our government is structured from the local level through to Augusta.

Jonathan LaBonte, of New Auburn, is a columnist for the Sun Journal and an Androscoggin County Commissioner. E-mail: [email protected].