As they lined up on the steps of the State House, about 30 proponents of the TABOR 2 cap on state, county and local government spending cheered while copies were circulated of what they claim is "The Book Augusta Doesn't Want You to Read."
"The 2009 Piglet Book is published for one reason: to educate the public about waste, mismanagement and ineffeciency in state government."
Tarren Bragdon, CEO of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a conservative think thank, held a copy of the 2009 Maine Piglet Book that he says lays out about $2 billion in wasteful government spending in Maine over the last five years.
Then he began to list some examples: "$102,000 from three paintings at a rest stop in Kennebunkport, not even done by a Maine artist; $82,000 in bottled water, just for last year alone; $30,000 for a walkway at an expo building in Springfield, Massachusetts; and $20,000 to support the new production of My Fair Lady. What's fair about that?" Bragdon said.
Bragdon says the report's findings, compiled in coordination with the Washington, D.C.-based organization known as Citizens Against Government Waste, should energize the Yes On Question 4 campaign that seeks to impose tax caps under a plan known as TABOR 2.
"When the practical, frugal and hardworking people of Maine see the wasteful, inefficient use of their tax dollars, support for Question 4, I believe, will surge beyond the 60 percent support already noted in the most recent public poll."
David Williams, of Citizens against Government Waste, says Maine outpaces many states when it comes to overspending. "Well, these are taxpayers who are concerned about where their money is being spent, and when they pick up the 2009 Maine Piglet Book, they're going to be -- maybe not shocked -- because everyone always has the idea that their money is being wasted, but this really goes through line-by-line where the money is being spent."
But Ryan Low, Gov. John Baldacci's chief of financial policy, says the Piglet Book's conclusions are flawed. "I think there are a few examples that you can find in there where the information is just completely false," he says.
Low says there are a number of spending projects targeted in the Piglet Book that were never funded.
"The specific example on the front page that talks about $45,000 for playgrounds for instance. We have a statutory requirement, every two years as part of the budget bill, that we're to go out and survey state agencies, the community college, the university -- and ask them about their capital needs. We put those in the budget book and they serve, essentially, as a reminder to legislators that these are the capital needs that we have. It doesn't mean because we put it in the front of the budget book that it's funded," he says.
And at the Maine Center for Economic Policy, Executive Director Christopher St. John, says the Piglet Book's criticism of costs associated with state employees fails to recognize the expansive geography of the state, which results higher travel costs.
"We have costs that are more expensive than other states, but it's not because of highly paid employees -- that's just erroneous," St. John says.
The online version of the Piglet Book can be viewed at mainepolicy.org.