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.