We’ve spared the rod, and we’ve spoiled the child.

This is the feeling of many Maine taxpayers today, nearly two years after a citizen-initiated tax referendum – the Palesky Tax Cap – was soundly struck down. With that choice, overburdened Maine citizens instead entrusted state government with providing tax relief.

In response to this mandate, lawmakers gave the citizenry LD 1, a hastily cobbled piece of legislation that nibbled around the edges of tax reform.

With LD 1, the state looked at tax relief like a mountain climber: let’s take one careful step after another upward to the summit. Maine taxpayers saw it more like downhill skiers: after the initial push of Palesky, let the momentum carry us, and our taxes, swiftly downward through the Legislature.

Born from this dichotomy, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights is now before voters. TABOR is a harsh slap in government’s face, and an imperfect piece of legislation. Under different circumstances, TABOR’s obvious flaws would erode its chances of public support. The potential drawbacks are numerous.

These days, though, the lack of responsiveness from government makes TABOR – despite its defects – the only option for Maine taxpayers. Lawmakers have had years to make bold decisions, and have only handed down watery measures like LD 1 instead.

On Election Day, we say vote “yes” on Question 1, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

This endorsement is not just about the Legislature, however. Though our frustration with Augusta is palpable, supporting TABOR isn’t meant to punish lawmakers. Rather, we hope TABOR will help state and local governments make the difficult decisions that have thus far proven elusive.

Endorsing TABOR is about what we want for Maine. We want efficient state and local governments. We want consolidation of services, especially in school administration. We want to stop being a state where taxpayers vote with their feet by hightailing to more tax-friendly states.

We want this enough to endorse a piece of flawed legislation. Our patience with Augusta has ended, and the same goes for municipalities and school districts that spend more time avoiding, than pursuing, consolidation of services or other regional efficiencies.

Such is the desperation of our reasoning, which echoes the desperation of Maine taxpayers.

TABOR is an incentive for elected officials to start making the unpopular decisions needed to reduce Maine’s tax burden. Spending programs are too often added, or saved, by fierce lobbying. Perhaps TABOR can insulate these decisions from political pressure, by providing a bogeyman to blame.

One silver lining from TABOR comes from the detailed scrutiny it’s elicited. Investigations by the state chamber, the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce and others shouldn’t be ignored, but their finer points debated, considered and adopted if it improves Maine’s taxation and spending environs.

TABOR’s greatest drawbacks are its bureaucratic unwieldiness and shortsighted two-thirds requirement that allows for minority rule. Yes, Maine’s taxation and spending situation is bad, but it’s not bad enough to scrap simple democratic principles. When TABOR is amended, this should be the first revision.

There’s much more we’d like to change about TABOR as well, beyond the two-thirds requirement. As legislation, TABOR is subject to political whims. Real taxation reform should come constitutionally, and we would endorse an effort to amend Maine’s constitution to control taxes and spending.

And all the TABOR discourse from Colorado has done little except muddy the waters. Colorado’s experience, like the Rocky Mountains that crisscross that state, is a jagged tale of peaks and valleys. For every success, such as a billions in taxpayer rebates, there are failures, such as crises in education and social services funding.

The lesson from Colorado should be one of history. Colorado has blazed a TABOR trail that Maine is following, and only through studying its history will Maine avoid the doom of repeating its failures.

TABOR, quite simply, is an imperfect solution, but a solution, nonetheless. Preserving Augusta’s status quo is out the question, as is entrusting government again with enacting substantial tax reform. It would be akin to the old maxim: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

We prefer the one about sparing the rod. Mainers have done that enough, to its taxation chagrin.

It’s time the spoiling of Maine’s elected children comes to an end.