York Town News
Officials: TABOR is anything but grassroots
By Jennifer L. Saunders
YORK - With the Nov. 7 election now less than a month away, local officials have been taking a close look at the effort to get the citizen-petitioned Taxpayer Bill of Rights on the ballot, and what they've found is a New York City billionaire.The School Committee and the Board of Selectmen have come out in opposition to the TABOR proposal, citing such factors as the loss of local control through York's Home Rule Charter and the potential for major cuts to town and school services.
Last week, however, members of the School Committee discussed the money behind TABOR - and based on research into media reports and websites from across the nation, found that it has been funded at least in part by real estate mogul Howard S. Rich.
"The funds come from this billionaire New York City real estate developer who is a Libertarian in the Ayn Rand tradition of no government, and he's been funding these grassroots initiatives," School Committee Chairwoman Patty Hymanson told her fellow board members on Wednesday, Oct. 4. "They're not really grassroots. They're just 'come and use my money if you're a small group of people and you'll take my bull by the horns and bring it to your state.' … When you look at it that way, it's everything the state of Maine has tried to resist."
Rich's Americans for Limited Government website, in fact, links to Maine's TABOR website as one of its state partners.
School Committee member Tim Fitzgerald pointed out that in 2006 alone Rich has reportedly funneled about $7 million into state TABOR initiatives like the one on the ballot next month here in Maine.
"That could build us a whole arts wing, plus," Hymanson said, referring to the price of $5.8 million for the York High School expansion project proposed earlier this year.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Henry Scipione confirmed that had TABOR been in place in the past budgetary cycle, a decrease in enrollment of about 40 students would have resulted in the loss of 14 teachers.
"On Oct. 11 I'll be doing a presentation to the combination of the Village and CRES parents groups," Scipione said, followed by an Oct. 17 information presentation at the York Senior Center.
Scipione and Town Manager Rob Yandow will offer a community-wide presentation next Wednesday, Oct. 18, at the York Public Library from 6 to 7 p.m. The event will be televised on channel 3.
For more on TABOR, local candidates seeking office on the ballot, proposed zoning and Comprehensive Plan amendments and more, see The Independent's election edition next Wednesday, Oct. 18.
