No department would be spared – not police, fire, schools or streets – from the tax-cap budget cuts, Lewiston city officials warned in October.

October 1980, that is.

Yes, for many L-A voters, this year’s tax-cap debate must sound faintly familiar.

On the day that Ronald Reagan won a landslide victory over Jimmy Carter, Lewiston gave a less-resounding thumbs up to the status quo. The tax cap lost.

Voting 10,063 to 8,882, voters decided to maintain city services and pay higher taxes, rejecting a locally initiated referendum.

By a four-to-one margin, Auburn voters had previously rejected a similar proposal.

Lewiston officials were relieved on election night 1980, but they said a message had been sent to them and, more importantly, received. They promised to cut budgets and do everything possible to hold the line on spending.

While today, nearly 25 years later, talk of a tax cap is back in the news, one difference between the 1980 proposal and today’s is stark: the size of the tax cut.

Lewiston officials estimated in 1980 that the proposed cap would cut city revenue by about 10 percent. Lewiston City Manager Jim Bennett has estimated that the current Palesky initiative would trim city revenue by more than 54 percent.

A big difference.