South Portland Mayor Jim Soule’s call for secession from the state of Maine caught many officials in southern Maine by surprise this week.

Soule made the call for secession a central theme of his inaugural address Monday night, when he called the state an “oppressive regime” and said it was using South Portland as a “cash cow.” He argued the state’s revenue sharing was unfair to communities like South Portland that are property tax rich because of commercial properties like the Maine Mall.

Soule’s premise is correct. The fairness of the way the state shares revenue with communities that are property rich and poor has been a source of debate in this state for years. It is a topic that has historically divided legislators from the north and south. However, if Soule thinks he is going to unite Mainers in the south around the idea of secession, he is mistaken.

Officials in Westbrook this week said they were open to hearing what Soule had to say, but didn’t seem to eager to join Soule’s move to secede. “Secession really is not on our agenda,” said City Council President Brendan Rielly.

Officials from other southern Maine communities had a hard time believing Soule wasn’t joking when he suggested York, Cumberland and Sagadahoc counties form a 51st state.

However, considering Soule notified the media of his plan to call for secession in his inaugural address and outlined just how he felt communities could move forward with the proposal in an interview after the address, we can conclude only that he was quite serious.

It’s clear a secession would have little support, from either municipal officials or legislators. Such a proposal would need not only the support of both groups, but also of the public.

The only town official who expressed much support for Soule, of those contacted by this newspaper, was Scarborough Town Council Chairman Jeff Messer, who stopped well short of endorsing a plan for secession. “I agree with him to a point, that the state funding is way out of whack, especially with the financing of schools,” said Messer.

Messer said he believes every community should get at least 40 percent of its school funding from the state. Some northern Maine districts are getting 90 percent of their school budget paid by the state.

Messer discussed this with Soule last week, when Soule apparently made a round of phone calls to local officials. To those officials he reached – neither Rielly nor Westbrook Mayor Bruce Chuluda nor Gorham Town Manager David Cole had spoken to him – perhaps, his announcement didn’t come as much of a surprise. But to the rest of us, it comes out of nowhere.

Now that he has everyone’s attention, Soule and other officials from southern Maine should focus on the topic that actually has widespread support in southern Maine – making the state’s revenue-sharing formula fair. Anyone backing a move for secession isn’t going to be taken seriously by anyone in Augusta.

Brendan Moran, editor