The Citizen’s Alliance of Maine, a grassroots tax reform organization with ties to the Lakes Region, is getting ready to stoke the fire of tax revolt this Saturday with the second Great American Tea Party.

The Tea Party, to be held at the Windham Veteran’s Center at 9 a.m., is part forum, part protest and part petition drive for the Taxpayers Bill of Rights, a citizen’s initiative to rein in local and state government spending.

The event also pays tribute to the first great “tea party”, the historic Boston Tea Party of 1773 when, in protest of a new tea tax, a group of American colonists snuck onboard a British ship and dumped its shipment of tea into the Boston Harbor.

“In my opinion, the tea tax was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” says Lane Hiltunen, leader of the Alliance’s Sebago Region chapter. “The connection is that, with the way Maine taxes are progressing ever higher, people are just getting more and more frustrated.”

Like the original Boston Tea Party, the Alliance’s tea party will have its fair share of bravado. Excerpts will be read from the Declaration of Independence and “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.” There will be men wielding muskets and dressed as revolutionary soldiers, a public burning of tax bills, and a cannon to give the protest that extra bang.

This Tea Party protest comes at a time when Maine has the highest state and local tax burden per income in the nation. The state’s new L.D. 1 legislation – the Legislature’s attempt to curb rising property taxes by raising state aid for schools and putting a limit on town government spending – has been criticized by the alliance for not forcing both town and state government to control their expenses.

“L.D. 1 is a toothless tiger as far as I’m concerned,” says State Rep. Richard Cebra of Naples who has endorsed the Tea Party. “It put in restrictions without sufficient safeguards.”

Cebra, who owns Steamboat Landing Mini-Golf in Naples, says local small business is being “taxed to death” because of government spending. Cebra’s own taxes have doubled from five years ago forcing him to open two smaller businesses, an arcade and an ice cream parlor, to keep afloat.

“Small business is the backbone of our economy,” Cebra said. “If we make it so hard for a person to start a small business, you cut off the whole economy at the feet.”

L.D. 1 doesn’t got far enough to force “self-control,” Cebra said. And so he supports the proposed Taxpayers Bill of Rights, a constitutional amendment that would limit government spending at all levels to inflation and population growth. He hopes the bill can “put a lid” on government spending until the taxpayers and business owners can catch up.

At the Tea Party, the Alliance will take a survey as to whether people feel that the L.D. 1 legislation has given taxpayers the relief they deserve or not.

If not, the Alliance has another solution on hand: the Taxpayers Bill.

“It’s the first step is to get some fiscal sanity back in the state of Maine,” says Mary Adams who is spearheading the petition drive for the Taxpayers Bill.

For almost a year now, Adams has been collecting signatures for the initiative through a network of volunteers around the state. If 50,000 signatures are collected and verified by an October 21 deadline, then the Taxpayers Bill will be put on the November 2006 ballot.

Adams says the Taxpayers Bill is intended to put a “bit” in the mouth of government and the “reins” in the hands of the people, like a jockey riding a horse.

In addition to limiting local and state spending to inflation and growth, Taxpayers Bill would also mandate that 80 percent of state surplus be returned to resident taxpayers. The remaining money could be put aside in the state’s “stabilization account,” as is traditionally done.

If local and state governments need to spend more money than allowed, Adams said, then they must get approval from the taxpayers by way of a public vote.

Adams is excited for the Saturday’s Tea Party because she says it reminds her of the glory days fighting to repeal Maine’s state property tax. Back in 1977, she and the “Freedom Fighters” were successful in putting state property tax on the ballot where the public voted to be repeal the tax.

Michael Starn, communications director at the Maine Municipal Association, says the association, which informs and advocates for town governments, has not yet “made up its mind” about the Taxpayers Bill.

“One could argue that if we need to give (L.D. 1) a chance to work before we replace it with another one,” Starn said.

He said he believes the association will likely come out against Taxpayers Bill if it gets on the ballot because the bill’s mandates are “anti-local control.”

“It’s the people’s money and they certainly have the right to do with it what they might,” Starn said. “And my opinion is that each community should be able to make that decision on their own.”

Adams argues that the “bit” and “reins” of the Taxpayers Bill are “local control” because they puts control of government spending in the hands of taxpayers.

“What is important is that people realize is that the American Revolution began but never really ended,” Adams said. “So it’s important that each of us in our lifetime to uphold whatever’s most important to us and continue that revolution. If you don’t keep it up, you’re going to go back to somebody telling you what to do and taking your money to do it.”

Adams, or “General Adams” as the Alliance fondly calls her, will be speaking to this continuation of the Revolution at the Tea Party on Saturday. Though many Republicans have come out in support of Taxpayers Bill, Hiltunen said both Democrats and Republicans are signing the petition and hopes that the Tea Party will draw a mixed crowd.

“We want to remain non-partisan. As long as you believe in tax reform, come join us,” Hiltunen said. “If we band together, we can do something to change Maine’s overbearing tax burden.”

This cannon aims to give an extra bang to the second Great American Tea Party, a tax reform protest to be held this Saturday at the Windham Veteran’s Center.