What is TABOR?

Why TABOR won't work
Why TABOR will hurt schools, seniors and families
TABOR is a one-size-fits-all formula that takes away local control

TABOR: A bad idea
TABOR is an initiative to impose a rigid budget formula for local communities and the state that will appear on the Maine ballot November 7th.

It would force across-the-board limits in state and local budgets that become more severe over time. TABOR will require cuts to important local services including public safety and road maintenance. It will result in cuts to nearly a third of Maine’s schools and will harm important state-funded programs such as health care for the elderly and children.

TABOR didn’t work in Colorado:
In 1992, Colorado voters passed TABOR. Here’s what they got:

• By 2000, Colorado had fallen to 50th in spending on public education and now rates near last among states in high school graduation rates;
• Colorado now has the highest rate of uninsured low-income children in the nation;
• Colorado unemployment has more than doubled since 2000;
• The Colorado legislature was forced to eliminate the state’s Homestead exemption for property tax reduction.

By 2005, Coloradans had had enough and voted to suspend TABOR—but the damage was already done! Maine’s version of TABOR is even more harmful.

It didn’t work in Colorado and it won’t work here.

TABOR Won’t Work!

Real tax fairness needs to be achieved through thoughtful and careful reforms. Our community and state priorities cannot be achieved using TABOR’s one-size-fits-all formula. An across-the-board cap on how much our state and local governments can spend ties the hands of our elected officials to make the decisions we elected them to make!

Government budgets and taxes reflect our moral priorities and community needs, and should be determined by Maine’s citizens and the people we elect—not a flawed and rigid formula imported from Colorado.

TABOR won’t cut taxes, close a single loophole
or eliminate any exemption.

A careful look at Maine’s tax system shows the real problem is one of tax fairness. The reality is that the rich are getting richer while the rest of us are struggling to get by. TABOR will only make things worse.

It is critical that the democratic process be trusted to determine the direction of tax reform in Maine. TABOR undermines that process by requiring a 2/3 majority to override any budget restriction. This means a minority of 1/3 gets to control budget decisions, enabling this minority to achieve what they failed to convince a majority of Mainers to go along with before TABOR!

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TABOR will hurt schools, seniors and families.

If TABOR had been in effect last year, over 30% of all Maine school districts would face budget cuts this year due to TABOR’s one-size-fits-all formula. Ordinary people who can’t afford expensive private schools will be hurt the most if Maine’s schools fall from some of the best in the nation to some of the worst, like in Colorado.

What’s more, TABOR would force the Community College and University of Maine systems to raise tuition, making out-of-state schools more attractive. This would hurt the Maine economy by reducing our investment in a skilled workforce and future job growth.

Faster than you think, TABOR will go too far and hurt Maine families. If passed, TABOR will soon begin to hurt all Maine families by cutting funding for health care, public safety programs, road maintenance, libraries, and vital public services like police and fire protection.

And worst of all, TABOR fails to protect our most vulnerable citizens—children, the disabled and the elderly—by putting at risk the important programs they depend upon, like childhood
immunizations, home health care and Meals on Wheels, to name just a few.

Let’s not forget, taxes are the way we pay for things together that we have decided our community needs, but which most of us can’t afford on our own.

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TABOR is a one-size-fits-all formula that takes away local control.
It would create a chaotic mess for many communities, forcing numerous and costly local referendums for even minor increases in fees or expenditures. Good Maine common sense tells us this isn’t how we run government.

TABOR makes it difficult for our elected officials to make
important decisions quickly and easily because it requires a cumbersome budget referendum process.

When Maine is hit by floods, ice storms, hurricanes, and other
emergencies, our state and local governments will be unable to
respond to the urgent needs of our neighbors and communities.

And on top of making it harder for government to act quickly, local police, fire chiefs and crisis response people have said they believe TABOR will erode their ability to respond to emergencies. And that’s under normal circumstances!

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Maine People’s Alliance—Organizing for a Better Maine!

565 Congress St., Suite 200, Portland, Maine 04101; (207) 797-0967; mpa@mainepeoplesalliance.org
27 State Street, Suite 44, Bangor, Maine 04401; (207) 990-0672; jesse@mainepeoples alliance.org
145 Lisbon Street, Suite 200, Lewiston, Maine 04240; (207) 782-7876; kate@mainepeoplesalliance.org