Down to the count
A petition calling for the state to tax bottled water pumped out of Maine wells – aimed largely at bottler Poland Springs – fell short of the 50,519 valid signatures needed to put it on next November’s ballot.
Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap announced Monday that 7,100 of the 56,287 signatures on petitions gathered by the group H20 for ME are invalid, making the effort 1,419 signatures shy of the required number. The proposal called for putting a 19-cent tax on every gallon of water pumped by bottlers.
The group says it will appeal the Secretary of State’s decision and could ask the Legislature to consider the tax. If all of that fails, the group will start gathering signatures again.
The Secretary of State’s office now will turn its attention to counting signatures gathered by those supporting a Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR). It would tie the amount of taxes and fees local governments and the state Legislature can spend to the rate of inflation and population growth. Any overrides of the cap would have to go out to the public for a vote.
Mary Adams, who led the TABOR petition drive that collected 55,000 signatures, had no comment on the water-tax count as she awaits her turn before the signature-counters.
Election law requires petitioners gather signatures from registered voters totaling 10 percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election, or 50,519 based on the November 2002 count.
Curley eyes Congress
Rep. Darlene Curley, R-Scarborough, whose name was floated earlier this year as a possible Republican candidate for governor, says she’s keeping all her options open, including a possible run against Democratic Congressman Tom Allen in the First Congressional District.
Allen is up for re-election next year as is Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe and Democratic Congressman Mike Michaud in the Second Congressional District.
“I’m just exploring all my options for public service and working on behalf of my constituents,” said Curley, who is in her second term in the House and now serves on the influential Appropriations Committee.
If Allen runs against Snowe, or for Snowe’s vacant seat should she decide not to seek re-election, a lot more politicians, including a number of Democrats, would jump into the First District race.
Among them is Sen. Mike Brennan, D-Cumberland, who announced earlier this year he is not running for re-election to the Senate next year.
While Brennan said he won’t run against Allen, he said he was “looking at what opportunities there may be at the congressional level.” Rep. Joe Brannigan, D-Portland, is running for Brennan’s Senate seat. Brannigan is co-chair of Appropriations.
-Victoria Wallack, Statehouse News Service
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