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.

When officials from other southern Maine communities heard news of Soule’s proposal this week, many thought he must be joking. “I have a hard time believing that he did not say this as a tongue-in-cheek comment, or in jest,” said Cape Elizabeth Town Council Chairwoman Mary Ann Lynch.

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 proposal to form a 51st state comprising York, Cumberland and Sagadahoc counties 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 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 who he reached – Lynch had been playing phone tag with 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 should focus on the topic that actually has widespread support in southern Maine – making the state’s revenue-sharing formula fair. Further talk of secession is only going to convince state officials that South Portland’s complaints shouldn’t be taken seriously.

Brendan Moran, editor