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Facing state cutbacks in education aid, do we need to put more limits on local budgets?

PETER EGLINTON and KATE SNYDER October 29, 2009

PORTLAND — Education is at stake in Maine. We are less than a week away from Election Day and a crucial decision is at hand on Question 4, which is also known as TABOR II.

Voters will go to the polls to decide whether they will vote for a hopeful future or one that would, without a doubt, negatively affect Maine schools.

Question 4 would establish a spending limit system for state government. At first glance, the measure might sound appealing, but with each action comes a consequence. You have to look a bit below the surface to see what TABOR II would do.

Question 4 would have lasting consequences for our school system, at the very time we are dealing with deep cuts in state funding. In many towns and cities around the state, there is a long tradition of town meeting. In other cities, like Portland, voters elect school board members and city councilors to carefully analyze and weigh spending priorities.

If TABOR II were to pass, these traditions would be superseded by an expensive referendum in order for local town budgets to increase beyond a certain level. The state, in effect, would be telling the towns how to do business.

Furthermore, TABOR II would lock the state into the current depressed spending levels caused by the recession, jeopardizing state educational funding and leading to higher local property taxes or declines in educational support.

In Portland last year, we delivered a budget that actually reduced reliance on local taxes. We recently saw our first student enrollment increase in years. However, we face potential curtailments of state funding of about $3 million this year and perhaps as much as $6 million next year.

We will face difficult decisions. At the same time, we must focus on maintaining a strong school system for the sake of our students and broader community. Our ability to do so would be far more difficult if we experience additional funding cuts and if TABOR II creates barriers to education funding recovery.

More than 100 organizations, towns and cities have formally supported resolutions opposing Question 4. Among them, the Cape Elizabeth Town Council cited numerous concerns about the impacts of the referendum question.

The councilors reminded voters of the steps the state has already taken to control spending and property taxes, and predict higher state and local spending if a system of budgeting by referendum should pass.

Furthermore, they say that TABOR II would "limit the flexibility of both the state and its local governments to react to changing conditions, community needs, and economic conditions and undermine the authority of elected officials to make budgetary and service decisions based on information and a depth of analysis unlikely to be undertaken by the average voter."

Finally, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has published several studies on Colorado's experience with TABOR, suggesting that the measure has hampered the state's economic growth and severely reduced funding for education.

It was the Colorado business community that in 2005 invested $7 million to repeal portions of TABOR because of the effect in Colorado.

That is hardly a success story. Don't let Maine tell the same story on Nov. 3.