South Portland Mayor James Soule earned himself the position as the butt of many jokes mere minutes after taking the largely ceremonial job on Monday afternoon when he laid out his agenda for the coming term. Top on that list of things to do was secede from the state of Maine. Mayors in South Portland are little more than city council chairman – able to set agendas and manage meetings. But the term “mayor” confers certain symbolic meaning that goes beyond the role of chairman. Yes they handle a fair number of silver-plated shovels and oversized scissors but those who chose, as former Mayor Claude Morgan did, also use the office as a bully pulpit.
It is fair to say Soule will be such a mayor.
As a former councilor and mayor, Soule is well versed in the powers and limitations of his position. His call to South Portlanders to “unite against our common oppressive enemy – the State of Maine,” goes well beyond those powers enumerated in the city’s charter, into bully pulpit territory and perhaps beyond –  into the history books.
While he defended himself against being termed a “wacko,” some have done just that. Gov. John Baldacci and his spokesman David Farmer dropped any diplomatic niceties in their public reactions to Soule’s comments – Farmer called it “ridiculous.”
That right there may show South Portland’s new mayor is on to something.
Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards often speaks of “two Americas” where the boundary is socio-economic. The oft-spoke concept of “two Maines” is much more literal with a geographic boundary roughly following the state’s congressional districts. For Edwards the distinction is the haves and the have-nots. For Soule and many others in the first district it is the givers and the receivers – wealth is redistributed from south to north and the state’s heavy reliance on the regressive property tax ensures it is not just the rich of southern Maine getting soaked but working class folks and retirees as well.
It is interesting that Soule is not the first to propose a two-state solution for Maine. In 2005 a legislator in Aroostook County proposed it as a way to protect what many in the second district perceive to be the “real” Maine.
While people point fingers north and south, according to Washington-based research group The Tax Foundation, we are all receivers. According to its statistics, in 2004 (the last year data is available) Mainers received $1.40 in federal spending for every $1 paid in federal taxes. New Hampshire, a donor state, which according to the Tax Foundation only received 67 cents for every $1 it gave that year, might want us to secede from the union altogether.
Soule is right in his frustration, though he may not like some of the alternatives to secession, including allowing local municipalities to institute their own sales tax targeted at tourists and other big spenders. Other options include the state funding 55 percent of every child’s education – not 80 percent of one child’s education and 15 percent of another’s. So far the Legislature has rebuffed those plans, but if enough people gather around Soule’s gauntlet, they could sound much more reasonable.
Maybe the new mayor is crazy – like a fox.