If it were possible to design the perfect tax plan, someone would still be passing around petition forms the day after it became law to repeal it.

That's what is happening with the new tax reform law, which is probably not perfect, and is now under the threat of a people's veto campaign.

Opponents, at the direction of leaders of the Maine Republican Party, are out to kill the new law before it has any chance to either soar with the eagles or flop with the turkeys.

While many Republicans are not opposed to the new law – and it enjoys wide support among Democrats, who led the effort to enact it – it contains a feature that repels many in Maine.

That is, it hikes taxes.

Yes, the law's backers say, we increased meals and lodging taxes and we broadened the reach of the sales tax to cover products and services that have been historically exempt.

But the flip side, they say, is that it will lower income taxes for most Maine taxpayers, which is expected not only to keep the bill revenue-neutral (keeping state revenues level overall) but to "export" some of the service and sales tax burden to tourists.

Since taxes on tourist activities are also high in other states, the law's backers say that visitors won't be discouraged, so the amount of money they add to state coffers will rise with the new rates.

Still, there's no question that a new law hiking even a limited number of taxes in a recession, no matter the law's counterbalancing features, is a hard thing for many Mainers – and not just Republicans – to swallow. And there's also the fact the bill offers relief in a curiously backhanded fashion.

That is, if you make a lot of money but spend little, you may do very well under the new law. But, as backers are quick to note, overall tax cuts were set aside to instead expand the pond in which the state fishes for money.

That is intended to keep state revenues from rising and falling as the business cycle goes from hot to cold and back again. If it works, government won't have to trim so much in bad times and can thus count on keeping programs in place or even expanding them in good times.

But that doesn't address a widely held belief by many Mainers that they are overtaxed now. That belief has helped put two tax-limiting measures on the November ballot already – one to require a vote on tax hikes beyond a limit (TABOR II) and one to slash the auto excise tax that communities rely on, but which can add several hundred dollars to the cost of a new car.

However, those referendums have to stand or fall on their own merits, and they shouldn't be linked to a law whose intent was never to reduce overall taxes in the first place.

The backers of tax reform have made some substantial promises for its effectiveness in lowering income taxes for most Mainers while exporting sales taxes to tourists.

We'll never know if they were right unless we give the new law a chance to work as promised – and to see if lowering the top income tax rate from 8.5 percent to 6.5 percent really does attract new enterprises to the state.

Let's evaluate what happens, and let future lawmakers adjust from there.

If it's going to work, it would be wrong to halt it now. And if it doesn't, we can fix it later.