A "P.S." to Yesterday's Posting re: QUESTION 4

There is soooo much information out and about re: this question, and much of it is erroneous, but I feel some facts should be presented as examples WHY I believe passage of Question 4 will be beneficial for all taxpayers in Maine.

You may never have heard of the Government Facilities Authority (GFA) but it was created by the Maine Legislature in 1997 so that lawmakers could BORROW MONEY for government building projects without voter approval to borrow the money. In the same piece of legislation that created the GFA, the legislators borrowed $143 MILLION creating a public debt that the taxpayers never approved.*

During the 2000-2001 biennium, Maine taxpayers paid $7.2 MILLION in interest to service GFA debt. We will pay $39.4 MILLION during the current biennium, an increase in debt service spending of more than 440 percent - for debt we never approved. Is it any wonder the state government needs to continually increase taxes and fees to cover the cost of state government when they incur state debt the voters never approved in the first place. Approving Question 4 will stop this kind of activity and put the GFA out of business.*

On the other hand, in 2005, the Maine Legislature created a government oversight and accountability office called the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability (OPEGA). This office is non-partisan and works with the Legislature to provide government accountability.*

OPEGA has from its beginning pointed out areas of waste, inefficiency and poor management of funds. OPEGA's studies often led to a recommendation that some state program, commission or project be reduced or eliminated.*

So, in the summer of 2007, the 123rd legislature reduced the staffing by three key positions and funding of OPEGA by more than $300,000 and set up a legislative committee to review OPEGA to make sure OPEGA was effective and efficient.* Now isn't that something like sending in the fox to watch the chickens????? You don't suppose OPEGA upset some special interest groups by any chance do you?

Now, last but not least - a new television ad from the "No on Four" campaign - with the town of Hermon in the background. The message: That Town Meetings and local people are better able to run their local financial affairs and would lose the right to set their budget needs under TABOR because of some "format."

First of all, as far as the Town of Eddington is concerned, out of 1600 registered voters, there are less than 120 who show up at the Annual Town Meeting to actually vote on the Town's Budget and less than 50 who show up at either the Public Hearings for the Towns' proposed budget or the proposed school budget. There are probably less than 100 from Eddington who ever vote for the school budget. So nobody can tell me that the voters in Eddington didn't opt out of being active decision makers in the local budgetary process a long time ago, as depressing as that is.

AND, should Eddington voters ever want to become more involved in the process, as long as Eddington's Charter allows for the voters to submit a referendum or petition for a re-vote of the Town's Budget - or any portion of it, there are ample provisions under Question 4's proposed legislation that will allow for that. (Read yesterday's posting where I printed out the ENTIRE proposed legislation. One of the last sections identifies Municipalities which is where the issue is addressed.) BTW, after reading the entire proposed legislation, I didn't see anything about any format. There is a criteria based on inflation rate and population growth for any STATE increase. I saw nothing regarding local municipalities deciding for themselves how they wanted to spend their money.

Bottom Line: Vote YES on Question 4. It is the only way Maine will be able to get out of the debt state government has put us in to. Otherwise, we might just as well put this state up for sale because state government will tax us all in to bankruptcy.

* The information on GFA and OPEGA comes from The Piglet Book, researched and produced by the Maine Heritage Policy Center.