MINOT – Selectmen minced few words Monday night decrying the effect TABOR would have on how the town is run.

“TABOR tears the guts right out of town meeting. We do TABOR every single March. TABOR is not for small towns,” Selectman Dean Campbell said.

What set Campbell off was Selectman Eda Tripp’s description of what it would take for the town to increase fees it collects if TABOR passes.

Tripp noted that to increase any fee – from the largest development impact fee to the smallest fee for building inspection or perhaps even photocopying services – the matter would have to go to a town meeting vote, and, if it passes by a two-thirds majority, it then has to go to a townwide referendum and, 30 days prior to that referendum election, the town will have to mail all registered voters public notices with 500-word essays on the pros and cons of the issue, a process that is both time consuming and costly, selectmen pointed out.

“This is going to tie our hands over every 2-cent item,” Tripp said.

And that is what the legislation intends, Campbell pointed out.

“It’s trying to discourage government entities from ever, ever increasing a fee,” said Campbell.

Selectman Steve French acknowledged voter frustration with escalating taxes but said, “TABOR is just the wrong answer to the right question.”

Selectman Ralph Gilpatrick noted that the intent of TABOR wasn’t to pain or punish small towns but rather it began as a judgment against state legislatures for failure at that level.

Selectman Dan Callahan predicted that if TABOR passes, Maine will soon enough follow Colorado’s action to suspend it “once the roads get bad enough.”

In other business, Road Manager Arlan Saunders said that the winter sand pile is going up this week.

“We have seven trucks hauling sand to our garage and they hauled in 1,448 cubic yards today. I think that’s a new record for one day,” Saunders said.

Saunders noted that Hebron is helping to haul sand in return for Minot’s help putting up Hebron’s sand pile next week, and that Buckfield has joined the inter-town cooperative by providing a wheeler to haul sand in exchange for Minot shouldering roads in Buckfield.

Saunders also reported that Morton Salt was the low bidder with a price of $46.70 per ton, an increase of $1.57 per ton over last year.