Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine used the first attack ads of her reelection campaign last week to jab her Democratic opponent, former Senate President Troy Jackson, on affordability.
It’s a salient place to attack. Mainers said in a joint New York Times/Press Herald/Siena poll this summer that the economy and cost of living were among their top considerations heading into Election Day on Nov. 3, and the Trump administration’s continuing trade war with Canada has stretched Maine pockets thinner. Jackson and aligned groups have attacked Collins on affordability, too.
Collins’ new ads targeted Jackson’s record on property taxes. And, echoing another focus of her ads, Collins said in an extended Politico interview released last week that Jackson had overseen a massive rise in electricity prices.
But 30-second spots and quick claims in interviews rarely capture the full picture. Some of the claims in Collins’ ads are misleading.
“Susan Collins can’t defend her own record, so she and her billionaire backers are lying about Troy’s record instead,” Jackson campaign spokesperson David Farmer said. “Voters know that Collins has voted with (President Donald) Trump 96% of the time, she confirmed the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, and gave Trump and (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) a blank check for $70 billion while green-lighting his disastrous cuts to Medicaid. No matter what they say about Troy, Mainers know that Collins has made their lives harder.”
Jackson’s campaign hasn’t been free from misleading attacks, either. For instance, Jackson has often claimed that Collins supported the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — the centerpiece legislation Trump signed last July. That bill contained the Medicaid cuts that Farmer referenced in his statement. Collins voted to advance the bill to the floor, but voted against its enactment.
Let’s look at the broader context of Collins’ affordability attacks on Jackson.
‘Troy raised property taxes on seniors’
This was a primary claim of one of Collins’ first ads.
The spot, which first aired Sept. 1 and has about $160,000 behind it so far, according to AdImpact, cites two pieces of legislation from 2023, when Jackson was the Maine Senate president.
Lawmakers approved one of the bills, LD 258, on July 6, 2023. It wasn’t just any bill — it was the two-year $800 million state budget. And it was approved with a 22-9 vote in the Senate, with two Republicans joining Democrats.
That state budget, among many other provisions, removed a property tax stabilization program for seniors that capped property taxes at existing levels, with the state reimbursing municipalities for lost income. The program had just been implemented one year prior with little debate and broad bipartisan support, and supporters said the popular program helped seniors on fixed incomes stay in their homes.
But by the summer of 2023, municipalities were struggling under the weight of paperwork. More than 100,000 applications flooded in during the first year. Cost estimates for the state rose from an initial $21 million to $46 million.
The program allowed applications from anyone over the age of 65, regardless of income. Critics pointed out the largest tax breaks went to wealthy homeowners, since there was no test for financial need. Adding income eligibility requirements was daunting for some municipalities, which would only have more forms to process.
The budget committee decided to replace the senior stabilization program by boosting two other property tax relief initiatives in the 2023 state budget.
One program, the senior property tax deferral program, allows people 65 and older to stop paying their property taxes until they die, move or sell their home. The state reimburses municipalities for lost revenue and places a lien on the home, allowing the town to recoup the unpaid taxes plus interest when the home is sold.
The property tax fairness credit, the second initiative, provides a tax credit for income-eligible Maine residents who paid more than 4% of their income on property taxes or more than 26.67% of their income on rent. People over 65 get enhanced credits.
Republican Sen. Trey Stewart, who introduced the original stabilization program, was one of two GOP senators who voted in favor of the budget that repealed it.
LR 2779, also cited in the ad, was a subsequent effort by Sen. Russell Black, R-Franklin, to revive the stabilization program, with new eligibility requirements for financial need.
That effort was shot down by legislative leaders, including Jackson, later that year, and it never saw the floor of the Legislature.
‘Mainers paid more on property taxes than any other state’
This is another central claim of Collins’ attack ads.
This ad, which started airing this month, cites the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, which studies property taxes around the country. In 2020 and 2021, no state paid more personal income toward property taxes than Maine, the Lincoln Institute found.
Data provided to the Legislature’s Real Estate Property Tax Relief Task Force in October shows Maine is no longer at the top of the list, but still ranked among the top five in 2023. WalletHub’s latest analysis has Maine in fifth place for property tax burden, with the average household paying almost 4% of their income on local taxes.
Collins’ ad attributes Maine’s high ranking to “Troy Jackson’s failed leadership in Augusta.” The Lincoln Institute, in testimony to the Legislature, suggested it was more specifically due to a combination of infrequent property revaluations, reliance on local property tax and caps on values.
Others, including Republican gubernatorial nominee Bobby Charles, have said lawmakers have put too many unfunded mandates on municipalities and counties, leaving local leaders no recourse but to raise property taxes.
‘Under Troy Jackson’s leadership in Augusta, electric rates have skyrocketed’
Consumer spending on electricity has indeed increased significantly since 2019, the first year Jackson was the Maine Senate president.
Mainers were spending about 40% more per kilowatt hour when Jackson left office in 2024 than they were in 2019, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows.
The claim that Maine’s electricity bills went up the highest in the nation came from a federal report compiled by Axios that showed Maine’s electricity costs had gone up 36% between May 2024 and May 2025.
But Maine’s Public Advocate, Heather Sanborn, was unable last year to reproduce that analysis using state-level numbers, which use actual bills. The federal calculation that Axios reported was instead based on utility revenue and the amount of electricity provided.
Electricity rates are a complicated combination of supply, delivery and public policy costs, and those rates are regulated by the three-member, governor-appointed Maine Public Utilities Commission.
While bills had climbed — the highest being 20.7% in Central Maine Power territory between 2024 and 2025 — costs did not increase by 36%.
‘And when Jackson could have made electric bills more affordable …’
The ad continues railing against Jackson on electricity prices, saying he “killed” a Public Advocate-supported bill that would have lowered costs by about $275.
Collins repeated this claim in an extended interview with Politico that was released last week, saying “he voted against a bill, recommended by the independent Public Advocate, that would’ve helped to lower rates.”
The Maine Public Advocate, who, at the time, was William Harwood, testified to the Legislature in April 2023 on a bill that would have eliminated Maine’s controversial Net Energy Billing programs — initiatives that refund local renewable energy projects using other consumers’ bills. The programs are seen by environmentalists as important in Maine’s renewable energy transition and in fighting climate change, but are looked on skeptically by some because of how they’re funded.
Harwood estimated that the Net Energy Billing program would, in two years, cost $275 per year for each consumer — not that the bill would directly lower costs by $275. Harwood also specified that he was testifying neither for nor against the bill.
And, later in his testimony, Harwood said that, while “something should be done” about the program, he had “reservations about ending the program altogether.”
Jackson voted against considering the bill, and it died.
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