enlarge 2009 Press Herald file

Mark McAuliffe, a managing partner of Apothecary by Design in Portland, says TABOR will attract economic development.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tarren Bragdon is chief executive officer of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a free-market public policy think-tank located in Portland (www.mainepolicy.org).

PORTLAND — The Maine Sunday Telegram encouraged a "no" vote on Question 4 Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) in its Oct. 25 editorial, saying the initiative would "take away the ability of our representative government to function." Since the The Maine Heritage Policy Center drafted the initiative, what do you think?

The editorial got it wrong. TABOR does not replace elected leaders or the important work they do. It says to policy makers that they are free to run the state as they see fit, but if they exceed reasonable spending increase thresholds or want to raise taxes, they have to ask the voters for permission. That's it.

So TABOR doesn't mean replacing "representative democracy" with "government by referendum," as the Sunday Telegram suggests?

Not at all. TABOR creates a partnership between the voters and elected officials, so everyone in Maine can work together to solve the huge budgetary gaps and fiscal challenges caused by decades of overspending.

Right now, those decisions are too often made in last-minute, closed-door meetings between the politicians and special interests in Augusta. The passage of TABOR means that Maine voters will finally have the chance to participate on major spending and tax increases.

The Sunday Telegram said that TABOR would "freeze" the state budget at its current level. What about that?

Not true. Government spending will still grow every year. What's new is that with TABOR, voters get to decide whether the politicians can increase their spending faster than our paychecks.

With the economic downturn, we're being told that this is the wrong time for TABOR. What do you say?

This is exactly the right time for TABOR. Maine people are struggling to get by in this economy and thousands of Mainers have lost their jobs. The state claims to be controlling their own spending habits, but the new 2009 Piglet Book shows tax dollars being wasted on all kinds of things. For example, in 2008 the state spent $315,000 on out-of-state travel, $750,000 on "entertainment and caterer services," and an astonishing $127 million on "miscellaneous" spending that they didn't even know how to describe!

Health care, energy, food and housing costs are increasing for every Maine family, and we are changing our own priorities to match our current incomes (not what we used to earn, or how much we wished we earned). Why should Augusta be immunized from facing the same reality?

Isn't it true that we already have a kind of TABOR provision in place for school budgets anyway?

Absolutely, and it's a great idea! A couple of years ago, the Legislature passed a law requiring that all school budgets be approved by voters. In spite of the threats, look what happens when Maine people make these decisions: school budgets are fine, children have the resources they need and nobody has turned off the school furnace in February!

The Sunday Telegram seems to be saying that the status quo is just fine. Do you agree?

Far from it. Over the last 15 years, Mainers' paychecks have stayed near the bottom of the nation, but total state spending has more than doubled.

Augusta has been trying to tax and spend our way to prosperity for years and it just isn't working. There are 13,000 fewer people working at private companies in Maine today than there were 10 years ago, yet government has added 3,400 jobs. This is an economy in reverse!

So you're saying we need a change?

There's no question we need to change. The path we've been on, with more government spending and higher taxes, takes dollars away from the people who want to start businesses or expand their companies, which is why job growth has stagnated here in Maine.

Question 4 is all about taking a new approach. It puts Maine people in charge of how much money they will allow Augusta to take from their paychecks and spend somewhere else. Question 4 makes the politicians we elect...