People’s Veto

Previous coverage: Fed up with taxes advertises in beer aisle; Fed up with Taxes: PAC report highlights; Fed up with taxes coalition launches signature campaign; Health Coverage for Maine launches campaign; The opponents to the people’s veto: PAC report highlights

Fed Up with Taxes, the group urging a People’s Veto of the recently passed beer, wine and soda taxes, turned in 90,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office today.

This is far more than the 55,087 signatures needed for the veto. Newell Auger, chairman of the group, said municipal clerks have validated 80 percent of the signatures.

The signatures were turned in two days before the July 17 deadline.

Members of the Portland League of Young Voters don’t care if the cost of booze goes up a few pennies.

League leaders sent out an e-mail Thursday urging their members not to sign the people’s veto petitions that will be circulated by the Fed Up with Taxes coalition.

The coalition is headed by Chamber of Commerce members and is supported by out of state beer and soda corporations. Members include the Maine Restaurant Association, the Maine Grocers Association and the Maine Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association.

Recently Maine caved in to the federal government, implementing legislation taking steps to comply with the federal Real ID act. State officials did so hesitantly, offering the minimum to be in compliance, thus getting an extension to meet further requirements.

Donna Bendiksen of Portland and Kathleen McGee of Bowdoinham have both submitted people’s veto applications to repeal the act, saying that the law represents the first step toward guaranteed full compliance with the law.

They have submitted separate applications, but are working together. They need to gather 55,087 signatures before the veto can move forward.

They did this independently, but the Maine Civil Liberties Union has their back.

The law, designed to increase the security of driver’s licenses, requires proof of legal residency – a means to keep illegal immigrants from getting licenses. The bill passed with much opposition in the Legislature last month.

Without this extension, Mainers’ driver’s licenses would not have been good at airports and federal buildings, and residents would have had to undergo extra security checks.