York-Ogunquit Election News
Voters to decide Nov. 7 on candidate races and state, local questions
By Jennifer L. Saunders
YORK - Less than one week remains before decision day on everything from local zoning to the governor's race to the Taxpayer Bill of Rights.It has been zoning and Comprehensive Plan amendments and TABOR that have generated the most discussions among residents and town officials, and there are also several races to be decided for county, state and federal posts.
Local officials are urging voters to take a close look at TABOR before they cast their votes in this year's election. At the most recent York Budget Committee meeting on Oct. 19, members of the town's Tax Task Force weighed in on TABOR.
"We've been doing for two years the things that TABOR does, and I think the town of York has shown its capability of taking care of its own affairs," Tom Carnicelli of the Tax Task Force told the Budget Committee after he and Terry O'Rourke shared the task force's proposal on a two-cap spending plan to address both operating and capital expenditures at the local level. "TABOR will make it all moot."
Both the School Committee and the Board of Selectmen have come out in opposition to TABOR, along with the majority of candidates for the state legislature. The Budget Committee has not taken a formal position. Others, including Maine House of Representatives candidate Windol Weaver and Selectman Mike Estes, have voiced support for TABOR.
Town Manager Rob Yandow and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Henry Scipione recently described local implications at a public forum where members of the audience pointed to the work of the Tax Task Force as preferable to TABOR.
"The upside is the fact that the voters of York have, in essence, line item authority over the budget," Scipione said. "The concern I think, generally, is many communities don't have that option."
Yandow explained that York's efforts to slow growth will mean reductions in funding through TABOR, unless a two-thirds override provision is enacted by the voters. In 2004, for example, TABOR would have required a cut of $750,000 from the voter-approved municipal budget. On the school side, a decrease in enrollment of 1.71 percent or 36 students in a recent year, when subtracted from the cost of living increase of 3.39 percent as required by TABOR's school formula, would mean a cut of almost $713,000 from the voter-approved school budget, the equivalent of 14 teaching positions.
"The issue for us is TABOR is not the way to approach this. It's not tax reform," Yandow said, adding it is potentially crippling to some Maine communities while it will have no impact at all on others. "The one-size-fits-all formula throughout the state is not going to work for us, and TABOR is not the answer."
York voters will head to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 7, or vote by absentee ballot. All absentee ballots are due at Town Hall during regular business hours or may be returned to the polls at York High School before they close at 8 p.m.
