Mary G. Adams is a tax activist who successfully led the effort to repeal Maine's statewide property tax in the mid-1970s. She recently led a failed 2006 referendum effort to enact a Taxpayer Bill of Rights

Taxpayer Bill of Rights

The Taxpayer Bill of Rights is a concept advocated by conservative and free market libertarian groups, primarily in the United States, as a way of limiting the growth of government...

 in Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

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In the mid-1970s, Adams challenged Maine's educational establishment and through her grass roots "Freedom Fighters" successfully repealed Maine's statewide property tax and prevented the state from reducing local control of public schools in Maine. In both 1996 and 1997, Adams and her "Common Sense" grass roots effort defeated the $8 million campaign backed by environmentalists to expand the regulation of private forest land in Maine.

Adams is a Maine native who, following the repeal, was appointed to the Maine State Board of Education by Maine's first independent Governor, James B. Longley

James B. Longley

James Bernard Longley, Sr. was an American politician. He served as the 69th Governor of Maine from 1975 to 1979, and was the first Independent to hold the office. In 1949, he married the former Helen Angela Walsh, who died on September 13, 2005. They had five children, including former Republican...

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External links

• "Adams Report" website Source of most of this article