TABOR 2 Campaign Lodges Complaint Over City of South Portland Mailer

Make them tell how much they have spent.

Fine them for not filing.

P-Lease! Educating their constituents about the affects these two initiatives will have on the property tax payers is a violation. What next? Man oh man the elites will stop at nothing to protect their self interested tax breaks for their expensive hybrid saabs and audis.

It'd be interesting to see the flyer. Seems to me that there's a fine line between educating constituents and trying to influence a ballot measure.

I'd guess the later, given TM's response. Looks like the governing "elite" will stop at nothing to justify and perpetuate their ability to spend OPM.

Anyone want to compare excise tax in Maine with the same tax in Florida? I would if I had access to it.

As for Tabor, some towns are in control, but some are not and the people feel helpless as taxes eat away at their homesteads.

Every other group that spends money to influence elections must report how much they spent to the Ethics Commission. All that is being asked that the City of South Portland obey the law.

"O-pee-em" and "O-pi-um"

Both are addictive and lead to flights of euphoria, where inhibitions vanish.

"Seems to me that there's a fine line between educating constituents and trying to influence a ballot measure."

The voters of South Portland approved a municipal budget
that includes an item entitled "educating constituents"????

Calvin you hit the nail on the head....why should the entire state be subject to a law if some towns are in control of their spending. One size never fits all! If your living in a town where the people feel helpless...get involved...don't try to make everyone else suffer if things are working fine in their own towns.

The World According to TM - "Laws Are Good When I Like the Agenda. Laws are Stupid When I Don't Like the Agenda."

Municipalities are creatures of the state. All our tax laws are one size fits all. Property taxes have to be assessed and collected the same way on every town. The excise tax is the same, including the same mill rates, in every town. I could go on and on.

Town Manager, since when is biased propoganda education? Education would be pointing out where the electorate can find information on both sides to make an educated decision.....

That would be against the MMA cult rules that all municipal officials swear to follow when initiation takes place.

I was referring to the second part of Calvin's post....TABOR. We don't need a state law to control spending at the LOCAL level. That is what you elect people to do or in most towns in Maine...do at Town Meeting. All TABOR does is add more bureaucracy and expensive referendum voting.

JM...can you produce a copy of the materials so the rest of us can see how "biased propoganda" the information is?

The time has passed on Town Meetings. They are not an effective way of governing. A very small percentage of people attend and many of them have vested interests at stake. A referendum vote is a much better check on spending. Most towns today have the polls open for elections right around the time that they hold Town Meeting. If a vote needs to be held to override the TABOR limits, the only thing that needs to be done is to add a question to the ballot.

The only towns that will have a real added expense will be those that still elect officials from the floor at Town Meeting. That practice should be outlawed anyway, IMO.

I have a pdf of the South Portland flyer. I can e-mail to anyone that knows how to post a PDF to AMG.

It should be noted that the issue for the Ethics Commission is not the content of the flyer. Any spending on referendums must be reported if the $5K reporting thresehold is reached. Cities and towns simply need to play by the rules like the rest of us.

The flyer Dan referred to. Hopefully this is readable.

Steven Scharf
SCSMedia@aol.com

Very legible, thank you Dan and Steve.

IMO, the flyer would be more ethical if it omitted the line regarding the council "opposing" the measures.

However, as Dan stated, the real issue is that if the city is going to act as a PAC, they need to register and make reports.

I have to give South Portland credit, they have a link to TABOR on their website.

Too bad they omitted the web address from the flyer. That would have been a more fair way of addressing the issues.

Other cities and towns have made statements that are more inflammatory and loaded than this one from South Portland.

The reason for the complaint to the Ethics Commission is that the cost of this communication, combined with staff time that has been spent on the issues, likely exceeds the threshold for reporting and no reporting was done.

What's the plural of referendum?
What was blacked out under the line "Please take the time to learn..." ?

"Referendums," I do believe. I could be wrong. If we'd like to be fancy, we could try "referenda," but I don't think so.

Meanwhile, nice attempt at backpedaling from TM, but no ceegar, Senor.

P-Lease! Educating their constituents about the affects these two initiatives will have on the property tax payers is a violation. What next? Man oh man the elites will stop at nothing to protect their self interested tax breaks for their expensive hybrid saabs and audis.

You wrote this, and then try to say your comments were only directed at TABOR, and that the city did nothing wrong by issuing the flyer without registering as a PAC? Nice attempt at deflection, but no sale.

No Naran, my SECOND response was in regards to Calvin's post regarding TABOR not his comment about Excise.

NOTHING in the flyer is in violation of the law. The council stated their position on an issue and informed the voters what the impact would be to their City. I can't believe all you people on AMG and your belief in open government and when the government opens up you still complain. Too funny. I love the way the system works only when it is in favor of your own beliefs.

Try reading more slowly, TM. Nobody said the flyer itself was in violation of the law. THE CITY is in violation of the laws, for not registering as a PAC if they've spent more than $5,000 in materials and staff time to produce the flyer, and to advocate against the referendum measures.

Sheesh. Does the MMA provide any remedial classes?

Town Manager is intentionally setting up straw men to try to distract us from the substance of the complaint.

The complaint does not concern the substance of the flyer. The complaint concerns the failure of the City to report the expenditure as required by State law.

State law requires reporting of contributions and expenditures "for the purpose of initiating, promoting, defeating or influencing in any way a ballot question." The reference to the Council's vote to oppose the questions removes any doubt that the flyer was done for the purpose of defeating or influencing the ballot question.

The only question is whether the City's expenditures exceeded the $5K threshold for reporting.

Let's open it up a little more.

We're told our roads will crumble if the excise tax (which supports our beautiful roads) is reduced.

South Portland budgets $1,723,000 for Streets and Sidewalks.
They take in $4,400,000 in excise tax.
They say they will lose $1,900,000 in excise tax revenue.
That will leave $2,500,000 for their $1,723,000 streets and sidewalks budget.

Not to mention the revenue stream will likely equalize within several years, since more people will buy newer cars if they don't have to pay the current onerous excise tax rates.

since more people will buy newer cars

Most people do not have the money to buy new cars.