PORTLAND (AP) – The Maine State Chamber of Commerce has sought to broker a compromise in a dispute over state tax policy involving two of the nation’s best-known outdoors outfitters.

Chamber President Dana Connors asked L.L. Bean to forgo applying for a newly created business equipment tax exemption and Cabela’s to drop its request for a sales tax waiver on catalog and online purchases by customers in Maine.

The developer of the Cabela’s project expressed skepticism toward the chamber’s initiative, but L.L. Bean said it was “very open to Dana’s overture.”

The highly publicized spat between the two companies surfaced last month after Nebraska-based Cabela’s said it would scuttle plans to develop a 125,000-square-foot store in Scarborough if the state denies its request for a sales tax exemption. The store would anchor a $75 million project to include office buildings, a 200-room hotel, restaurants and a bank.

L.L. Bean, which is headquartered in Freeport, opposes the waiver, saying it would give its rival an unfair advantage.

In a letter to L.L. Bean President Chris McCormick and Cabela’s President Dennis Highby, Connors said his proposed compromise would resolve the conflict in a way that reinforces equitable rules involving retail store competition in Maine.

“We all have an interest in new employment and competition here in Maine as long as everyone is prepared to play by the same rules,” Connors wrote.

L.L. Bean spokesman Rich Donaldson said his company responded to Connors’ letter by saying it does not plan to apply for the property tax exemption and will not seek reimbursement.

“To the extent that this provision as it applies to L.L. Bean is clouding the picture in terms of Cabela’s decision to locate in our state, L.L. Bean will happily remove it as an obstacle,” L.L. Bean President Chris McCormick wrote to Connors.

Ted O’Meara, a spokesman for the Cabela’s project developer New England Expedition LLC, said the outfitter was only seeking guidance from the state on a sales tax issue and had made no request to either change or bend the law.

Equating the Cabela’s request for guidance to L.L. Bean’s new tax exemption was tantamount to “comparing apples with oranges,” O’Meara said.