Gop Shuns `Veto' Drive Against Tax Increases ; State House: Republican Leaders Say Voters Should Not Be Asked to Overturn Tax Hikes Passed by the Legislature.

Summary

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Republican legislative leaders who supported an earlier "people's veto" campaign to undo part of the new state budget want nothing to do with a new drive to repeal a cigarette-tax hike and other aspects of the same budget at the ballot box. Top Republican lawmakers said Wednesday Stavros Mendros of Lewiston, a onetime Republican state representative, has a right to challenge the Legislature's decision to raise taxes and fees. But they do not agree that voters should be asked to repeal tax hikes, which they described as a misguided but legal budget-balancing tool.

The skepticism surfaced after Mendros took out an application to start the process of collecting 50,519 voters' signatures. If he succeeds in doing so by Sept. 16, the state will schedule a "people's veto" referendum in June 2006, according to Melissa Packard, the director of elections in the Office of the Secretary of State.

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Gop Shuns `Veto' Drive Against Tax Increases ; State House: Republican Leaders Say Voters Should Not Be Asked to Overturn Tax Hikes Passed by the Legislature.

GOP leaders backed an earlier "people's veto" campaign to force a referendum on a controversial $450 million borrowing scheme that the Democratic majority in the ...

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