News

Citizens deliver message: limit spending
TABOR petitions arrive at Secretary of State
By Elizabeth Prata

Gray---So what's it like to traverse the state of Maine over the course of a year helping to gather 54,000 signatures? What's it like to have to move from your hometown because you can't afford the property taxes any more? What's it like to be part of a group asked to leave an air show even though you'd already been approved for signature gathering? Ask Gray residents Gary Foster and Jack Wibby, they've been though it all, two of those in the inner circle helping to make Maine Taxpayer Bill of Rights a reality for Maine citizens. Right, Mary Adams delivers the tubs of verified petitions to the Secretary of State. Gary Foster photo

The horse race began on October 21, 2004. The mission, to gather over 50,519 valid signatures that would place this citizen initiative on the 2006 November ballot. The petition circulators, as they are called, had one year to the minute to gather, verify, and deliver the required number of signatures to the Secretary of State's office in Augusta. That was the beginning.
The initiative, known as the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, or TABOR, was modeled after Colorado's TABOR, which the Maine TABOR committee reports has returned over 3.2 billion to Colorado taxpayers in the last decade.

Any successful initiative needs a leader, and no matter who you speak to in the group, they all credit Mary Adams of Garland as the unflagging, unfailing, and inspiring even-in-the-dark-days leader. Thirty years ago, Ms. Adams led the signature effort to put the state property tax repeal on the ballot in Maine. The initiative was successful, on December, 1977 Maine voters repealed the State property tax.

"From concept to signatures"

Mr. Foster said that it has been a busy year for everyone, and he was careful to credit all those across the State of Maine who helped, including the Citizens Alliance, the grassroots organization Ms. Adams said was critical in helping to get the TABOR signatures over the hump. Left, Jack Wibby of Citizens Alliance handing out bumper stickers at the press conference in Augusta. The Monument: Prata photo

Citizen initiatives in Maine have a high hurdle to reach in the amount of signatures to gather for any particular issue, and only a year to do it or they all expire, but, as Mr. Wibby said, "It's a good process. I'm not knocking it, but it is hard. Chasing down petitions over the state…Gary [Foster] worked hard, Pem [Schaeffer of Brunswick,] Mary Adams, many others."

For example, at fairs like the Brunswick Air Show, petitioners seek permission to be on property, set up tables, work all day in the sun and encounter rejection about as often as a successful signature penned down. But a blow came when after one successful day at the show, where TABOR volunteers gathered over 1,000 signatures, they were asked to leave. "The Commander got a complaint from a local Democrat legislator. We were too political, I think the complaint was. The Commander was nice about it, but since he got the complaint then he said he had to ask us to leave." Mr. Foster shook his head, continuing, "A group protesting the military had planned to be there as well, but I did not hear of any problems. If that's not political…"

Working to get the message out

Gathering signatures is only one part of an initiative process, getting the message out is another. What TABOR is about, how it is different from Carol Palesky's tax cap (TABOR limits spending, not forces cuts like Palesky's initiative, which failed at the polls last year). Citizens Alliance along with the TABOR group hosted meetings across the state. One meeting was held this past April in Windham. Billed as the 2nd great American Tea Party, complete with tricorn hats, muskets and cannon stuffed with tax bills, attendees first heard a presentation about TABOR and had an opportunity to ask questions.

Above, Dee from Lyn's Spring Service in New Gloucester asking questions at the Windham meeting. Photo from TABOR website.

Sigs gathered, work continues

When the 50,519 signatures are gathered, with a buffer to spare, volunteers spend time verifying them. This used to be part of the Secretary of State's duties, but several aspects of the verification process now fall to the citizen initiative petitioners, of whom Mr. Foster and Mr. Wibby were two. At the 'Along the Lakes Cottages' in Pittsfield on October 15th, Mr. Foster, Mary Thatcher and her husband and Joyce Perry worked for about 9 hours scrutinizing thousands of petitions, adjusting counts, checking to see the petitions were notarized, checking to see if notary public seal had not expired, looking over the petition circulator's signatures.

As Mr. Foster described the exacting work, "It was like an author who locks himself into a cabin to write a book and doesn't come out until he's done." Left, Dover-Foxcroft Selectman Joyce Perry on the left, and Thatcher Adams on the right. They, and Gary Foster and Mary Adams, spent Saturday, October 15 sorting and verifying the petitions in preparation for the deadline of delivery to the Secretary of State's office on Friday, October 21. The Secretary of State used to verify, but that task now falls on the citizen initiators. Photo by Gary Foster.

After that, the petitions must be brought to the registrar of the town where the signatures were collected and ask to have them verified. The Registrar will fill out and sign the Registrar's Certification certificate on the petition. And then the circulator must return at a later date to pick them up.

The big day

A year had passed and the drop deadline was approaching. Mary Adams had invited all who participated, and all who cared to come, to arrive at the Cross Building next door to the Capitol Building in Augusta to view the actual delivery of 54,000 petitions to the Secretary of State.

About 60 people were on hand, including several broadcast media and several daily and weekly newspapers. Ms. Adams held a press conference and with all due pomp, the truck arrived bearing tubs of petitions organized and arranged by town and parked opportunely under the rotunda. The crowd was variously dressed in TABOR tee-shirts, Citizens Alliance garb, Revolutionary War tricorn hats, and some wore the TABOR sticker on their hat, jacket, face. The crowd turned to a parade as they squeezed into narrow hallways and elevators, and approached the Secretary of State's office, where the petitions' final destination lay. Left, Wibby and Foster bring the last of the petitions to Augusta. The Monument: Prata photo

Ms. Adams leaned into the glass reception desk, and said, "Well, it's been a year, and we're back." This evoked applause, and then the hard-won petitions were loaded onto a dolly and dragged through the double door and that was not that.

The real work begins

Both Mr. Wibby and Mr. Foster said that all the work in getting the signatures will pale in comparison to the battle to get the initiative passed. "It's impossible to tabulate the number of hours of all the volunteers across the state," Mr. Foster said. "But all this work will pale compared to the fight ahead of us if all the signatures are verified and this is on the ballot. We'll actually be fighting against our own government, and they'll be using our own tax dollars against us."

Mr. Foster's interest stemmed from prior to the time he was elected Councilor in Gray. "I was one of a group of citizens who initiated the TABOR effort, and was not an elected official at the time. Though I was elected to office between the time we were approved by the Secretary of State to circulate TABOR petitions and the time they were delivered, I had a sense of commitment to follow through. Also I am one of the five signers of the application to the Secretary of State, and my election to local office doesn't change that. Finally, though I am now an elected official, I did not forfeit my rights as a citizen of the State of Maine. " Mr. Foster said he felt strongly about the issue and worked to effect a change.

Mr. Wibby's interest stemmed from his travails in Yarmouth, where he still has a home, but does not live in. "Two years ago our taxes doubled and soon they will double again pending the revaluation. We're phasing out of our home and the kids will take it over and rent it out. We can't afford to live there.' Mr. Wibby continued, "The Town of Yarmouth doesn't care, I tried hard to change that. But I've given that up." Now, Mr. Wibby, from his home in Gray, works on the Citizens Alliance. He said he will try to find every person in Maine, through the grassroots internet opportunities, to get "people to vote, and vote smart." For TABOR, of course.

FMI on TABOR Maine, go to taxpayerbillofrights.com, or write or call Mary Adams, lead petitoner, P O BOX 10, Garland ME 04939 or e-mail Mary at mga@tdstelme.net or call 207-924-3835.

[L-R] (back row) Gary Foster, Gray Councilman; Rep Richard Cebra; Rep Bruce Hanley, Front row Jack Wibby, Senator Lois Snowe-Mello, Mary Adams TABOR petition chair, Rep Scott Lansley at the April Windham meeting. Photo from TABOR website.