After spending more than $1.5 million dollars, and with the help of thousands of volunteer hours, the Citizens Unified for Maine's Future crushed the third attempt in five years to pass a Taxpayer Bill of Rights spending cap. A diverse coalition of educators, business leaders, construction firms, municipal associations and union organizations combined their efforts to send the iniative down.

"We're very concerned about the impact on education, both K-12 education, our community colleges and our university. We were very concerned about the cutbacks on public safety, fire and police," says Mark Gray, Executive Director of the Maine Education Association. Gray says placing caps on government budgets -- especially those with baselines established during a time of recession -- would devastate Maine's schools and have a drastic impact on road maintenance and public safety.

John O'Dea, Executive Director of the Associated General Contractors of America, says his members opposed TABOR because they thought it would postpone improvements to the state's transportation system, improvements that are already overdue.

O'Dea says TABOR would have also required the state to return money to taxpayers that would otherwise be dedicated to bridge and highway repairs from the gasoline tax. "Our Highway Fund right now is about $50 million short of where it was last year and what TABOR would have done is lock in -- or bake in -- that lower level and it would have taken us years to get back to where we were last year."

"Our hope was that Question 4 would pass, and that we would have permanent fiscal sanity here in Maine and an ultimate check and balance with the taxpayer. Unfortunately, a majority of Maine people today are not supporting Question 4," says Tarren Bragdon, the CEO of the conservative think tank known as the Maine Heritage Policy Center.

Bragdon says his organization was outspent 12 to 1 by opponents. And while he still believes Mainers want reduced government spending, he says that those who derive their living off tax dollars are a formidable force.

Bragdon wouldn't speculate on whether his group would launch another TABOR effort, but he made it clear that TABOR supporters weren't going anywhere. "For us the campaign for Question 4 ends today, but our permanent campaign for fiscal responsibility in Augusta and in city halls across Maine continues because we're committed to making Maine a better state, a better state for our kids and a better state for our grandkids."

In addition to TABOR volunteers, Bragdon's concession event was visited by at least three declared Republican candidates for governor. Bruce Poliquin, a Georgetown businessman, says he believed in TABOR so much, he started a PAC for the ballot question with $100,000 of his own money.

"We have 1.3 million people in our state, many of whom are really struggling, and this was a fabulous opportunity to introduce a new fiscal tool that can better manage our state," Poliquin says.

In addition to Poliquin, Waterville Mayor Paul LePage and Cumberland businessman Matt Jacobsen rounded out the trio of GOP gubernatorial candidates at TABOR headquarters in South Portland.