State and local government in Maine spends about $10 billion a year on public services from Medicaid to road maintenance, yet there is no easy way to determine whether what people pay for through taxes and fees is worth the money.

That premise was the basis for a day-long gathering of economists, advocates, politicians and business people, who came together Monday at the invitation of the Maine Public Spending Research Group, a new, Portland-based nonprofit, self-described as non-partisan.

The group is devising a set of measurements to help residents better understand public spending, with the goal of moving Maine from the unenviable position as one of the most taxed states in the nation to somewhere in the middle of the pack.

That mission didn’t sit well with everyone at the conference, held in Hallowell, where some said Maine’s willingness to take care of its citizens is what makes the state special.

“You say you’re nonprofit and non-partisan. It’s too bad you’re not non-prejudiced,” said Rep. Joe Brannigan, D-Portland, who was on a panel as co-chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Brannigan also runs a social service agency – Shalom House in Portland, for people with severe mental illness – and took issue with the group’s focus on the state’s tax burden.

Earlier in the day, Brannigan and others questioned why the group was comparing Maine to New Hampshire in its spending charts. Maine, for example, is No. 1 in the nation in terms of the percentage of its population on Medicaid and New Hampshire is 49th. In per-pupil spending, Maine was seventh highest and New Hampshire 12th. Maine spends 5.3 percent of its gross state product on health care and New Hampshire spends 2.8 percent.

“Why did you choose New Hampshire?” Brannigan asked, “To make us look bad?”

David Flanagan, the former head of Central Maine Power and president of the new research group, said his organization’s mission is to help Mainers make more informed choices about how their money is spent.

“Are we delivering public services as efficiently as we could?” he asked, and on the right things? “If you don’t know that you can’t make decisions.”

A panel of economists talked about the need to measure the outcome of $10 billion in public spending, which includes all state, local and federal dollars spent in Maine by state and local government. Roughly half of that comes from state and local taxes and the rest from other fees and charges and the federal government.

“We need to link them to some sort of outcome,” said Charles Lawton of Planning Decision about public dollars spent in the state. He suggested, as an example, per pupil spending measured in “accumulated test scores per dollar.”

Charlie Colgan of the Muskie School of Public Service and a member of the state revenue forecasting committee, said policy makers have been talking about performance-based budgeting for the last 50 years, but it has never been adopted because it is hard to do and politically unpopular.

“The process of performance measurement changes power structures and it changes power structures in uncomfortable ways,” he said. “There is no way to change Maine’s tax burden without changing expenses. There is no cheap, easy, free-lunch way to lower the tax burden.”

Legislators, who were on panels in the afternoon, talked about the need for the public to understand how much of the money the state collects goes back to cities and towns.

Brannigan said if people want their 500 individual municipal governments and 285 school districts, their taxes are going to pay for it.

“Quit bitching about taxes,” he said. “It costs money.”

Rep. Sawin Millett, R-Waterford, a former state finance director and current member of the Appropriations Committee, said the state’s increased investment in education is not paying off with reduced property taxes at the local level, and that is part of the frustration.

“We have not seen the commensurate reduction in property tax burden that we should have,” Millett said. “I don’t think we’re going to see it because we’re not asking,” despite promises from the administration that 90 percent of increased aid to education would translate into local tax relief.

Rep. Dick Woodbury, an independent from Yarmouth and chairman of the Taxation Committee, praised the Maine Public Spending Research Group for trying to take a comprehensive view on spending and taxes.

The state’s tax burden has been rated No. 1 for the past 10 years, he said, and “you just can’t sidestep that,” because it is affecting the state’s ability to be competitive in terms of attracting people and businesses.

“The tax burden, we all agree, is too high,” he said, yet “There’s an awful lot of different places where these budget decisions are getting made.”

Because 60 percent of the state and local taxes collected are being spent at the local level – 40 percent on K-12 education and 20 percent on municipal services – close to 800 different boards are voting on how that money is spent.

“Finding a way to think more collectively” is essential to making changes, he said.