Seal of Maine Maine

Maine has a statutory tax and expenditure limit passed by legislative referendum in 2005, Title 5 Section 1534 as enacted by Public Laws 2005, and amended in 2015; Public Laws 2015 Chapter 267, Part L, Section 7. The growth limitation factor is the average personal income growth (as amended in 2015), but allows for several exemptions including catastrophic events, unfunded or underfunded state or federal mandates, citizens initiatives and other referenda, court orders or decrees, or loss of federal funding. Because this is a statutory TEL, it can be overridden by a simple majority vote.

 
The base year represents the year the hypothetical Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) would have been enacted. Selecting a base year changes how the state’s TABOR is calculated because the annual growth rates of inflation and population change depending on when TABOR is enacted.
  • Year Inflation-adjusted Actual Spending
    1992 4,769,100,000
    1993 4,441,530,000
    1994 4,497,500,000
    1995 4,679,760,000
    1996 4,527,930,000
    1997 4,401,420,000
    1998 4,523,390,000
    1999 4,839,560,000
    2000 5,028,000,000
    2001 5,522,600,000
    2002 5,804,640,000
    2003 5,735,880,000
    2004 5,758,110,000
    2005 5,982,340,000
    2006 6,065,920,000
    2007 6,256,250,000
    2008 6,294,000,000
    2009 6,429,940,000
    2010 6,188,000,000
    2011 6,065,100,000
    2012 6,166,410,000
    2013 5,678,980,000
    2014 5,876,190,000
    2015 5,785,720,000
    2016 5,943,240,000
    2017 5,984,340,000
    2018 5,885,420,000
    2019 6,076,160,000
    2020 6,361,000,000
*All spending figures are in inflation-adjusted 2020 dollars.