As the proud owner of a 2005 Toyota Tacoma pickup, I decided that this week would be as good a time as any to find out how much I'll save if Question 2 – An Act to Decrease the Automobile Excise Tax and Promote Energy – passes on Nov. 3.

And the answer is

Zippo.

Nada.

Not one thin dime.

And I'm far from alone. If you are among the 68 percent of Maine vehicle owners who, like me, drive vehicles built in 2005 or earlier, Question 2 is, pardon the expression, a nonstarter.

Here's why:

The excise-tax proposal, a brainchild of the not-so-deep conservative think tank Maine Leads, is anything but the across-the-board reduction that many Mainers think it is.

Rather, it would cut the excise tax (take a deep breath) from $24 to $12 per $1,000 of a new vehicle's manufacturer's suggested retail price in the first year, from $17.50 to $8 per $1,000 in the second year, from $13.50 to $4 per $1,000 in the third year, from $10 to $4 per $1,000 in the fourth year, and from $6.50 to $4 per $1,000 in the fifth year.

After that, the tax would stay at $4 per $1,000 annually – the same as it is now – until the wrecker comes and hauls your rusting relic away.

That means that under the current excise-tax law, I'll pay $98.85 come registration time next year.

And if Question 2 passes? I'll still pay $98.85.

What a deal.

But wait! There's more!

According to Bob Libby, a selectman in my hometown of Buxton, passage of the proposal would cost our town about $250,000 next year in lost excise-tax revenue on newer vehicles. About $125,000 of that, Libby said, would end up in the pockets of the relatively few Buxtonites who just went out and bought brand-new wheels.

Put more simply, Libby said, "5 percent of the people get 50 percent of the revenue from this bill."

Hmmm sounds like a tax break for people who, dare I say, need it the least?

"That's exactly what it is," Libby agreed.

And how, pray tell, will the town make up for that tax break?

Well, Libby replied, some town employees in Buxton have already gone on four-day weeks. And the local police recently agreed to shave 1 percent off a 2.5 percent raise in their contract.

"We've done what we could without getting into the notion of laying people off," Libby said.

That said, he added, "the quick and easy thing to do would be to (increase) the property tax."

Wow. So I could vote for the excise-tax cut next month, get no excise-tax cut whatsoever and, as an added bonus, end up with a higher property-tax bill. And this saves me money how?

"I suspect a bunch of them got together at a think tank in Portland and came up with this," Libby said.

There is, of course, another element to the excise-tax referendum: If you buy a new hybrid or hydrogen-fueled vehicle (don't see a lot of those in Buxton), you get a three-year pass on the excise tax along with a complete sales-tax waiver.

None of which impresses Selectman Libby.

"They just came out with a Cadillac Escalade hybrid that will cost what, $85,000?" Libby said. For those who could afford it, he noted, "you could buy one of those and trade it in every three years and never pay any excise tax."

Contacted Tuesday in his car (which, to be fair, is a 2002 Buick Rendezvous with an odometer that just cleared 116,000 miles), Maine Leads Executive Director Roy Lenardson said Question 2 is about a lot more than who gets a tax break and who doesn't.

Lenardson said it's about sending a message that, with state spending down, state aid for education up and federal stimulus money flowing into local highway-improvement projects, it's high time municipal leaders carried their share of the load in reducing Maine's tax burden.

In other words, if Question 2 passes, my selectmen should simply...