Legislators could impose a rule on themselves requiring a two-thirds vote to override spending limits adopted last session – a proposal they also will consider putting into law for municipalities and school districts.

“It’s appropriate and fair if the same standards hold true across all of government,” said Rep. Patrick Flood, R-Winthrop, who is proposing the Legislature adopt a rule change requiring the two-thirds vote. Flood and others have bills in that would put the two-thirds requirement into statute at the local level.

Right now there is nothing to prevent a simple majority of the Legislature from spending over the limits adopted last session under Gov. John Baldacci’s tax reform package known as LD1. Those limits were designed to decrease the state’s tax burden and move it from one of the highest in the nation to somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Municipalities and school districts also can override LD 1 spending limits with a simple majority of the governing body, except in those instances where budgets for regional school districts already were being put on the ballot.

While statute can be imposed at the local level, rule changes are the most direct route for reining in the Legislature.

Sen. Peter Mills, R-Somerset County, also would like to see a two-thirds requirement in the Legislature, but not just for overriding the spending cap. He wants a rule change requiring a two-thirds vote for any tax-supported obligation like government facilities bonds or unfunded liabilities like increases in retiree health benefits for state workers and teachers.

The rule changes are being proposed for the Legislature because otherwise it would take a constitutional amendment, something that has not had the needed two-thirds support in the past. Rule changes are only good for the two-year session in which they are adopted, but it could be politically difficult for the next Legislature to amend them.

Flood and Mills made their proposals Tuesday to the Joint Rules Committee, which will decide later this week which rules to recommend to the full Legislature.

Sen. John Martin, D-Aroostook County, also proposed a rule change outlawing text messages to legislators during committee hearings and on the House and Senate floor.

“It’s highly improper for lobbyists to be text messaging to a legislator and then have the legislator asking the question,” on behalf of a lobbyist in a hearing, said Martin, who told his colleagues he has witnessed such behavior.