LEWISTON – The biggest problem with a proposed spending limit is the levels of government it doesn’t cover, City Administrator Jim Bennett said Tuesday.

The proposed Taxpayers Bill of Rights isn’t an amendment to the state constitution, Bennett said. It’s a law, and that means state legislators can pass other laws exempting themselves from it.

Lewiston isn’t that lucky, he told city councilors.

“They can very easily say it’s somebody else’s problem, and pass it along to us,” Bennett said.

Bennett presented his view of the ballot issue to councilors during a special workshop meeting. He didn’t discuss school funding and tried to steer clear of political opinions. He still didn’t have many positive things to say about it, however.

“If people want to send a message to Augusta and think this will do it, they’re wrong,” he said.

Voters will decide on the ballot issue on Nov. 7. The question asks whether voters want to limit state and local government spending to the rate of inflation, plus population growth. Voter approval would be required to go beyond those limits.

But the ballot question is backed up by 10 pages of rules.

“It seems simple, but there’s a lot said in those 10 pages,” Bennett said. If voters approve, he expects that legislators and courts will work on interpreting those rules for a long time.

As far a spending limits, Bennett said the biggest problem for Lewiston comes if the state decides to cut the money it gives to local government. That amounts to about half of all state spending, he said.

“An easy way for the state to meet the TABOR requirements is to give us less,” he said. The city could make up the difference by cutting services or raising taxes. But it couldn’t raise taxes without a TABOR mandated vote, he said.

Councilors Norm Rousseau said he had similar misgivings about TABOR.

“I think it would set us back five, 10 years, from where were are now,” he said. For example, TABOR would make it difficult to react quickly to bring in new economic development.

“Are they going to wait for us if we tell them we’ll have an answer in six months, after we’ve gone to the voters?” Rousseau said. “I think they’ll just go to New Hampshire.”

But Councilor Stavros Mendros said he favors the measure. Lewiston voters will accept city spending plans if they make sense.

“I trust our voters to do what’s right for the city,” he said. “If we ask them and make a good enough case for it, I can’t imagine they’ll say no.”