AUGUSTA — The submission of three petitions to the Secretary of State’s office Monday means Maine voters will have as many as four citizen-led initiatives to decide upon when they go to the polls in November 2009.

That’s a historically high number, said Kenneth T. Palmer, a University of Maine semi-retired political science professor who studies Maine’s government.

The conservative groups Maine Leads and The Maine Heritage Policy Center delivered some 200,000 signatures to the Secretary of State on Monday. Each of the three initiatives carries with it a proposed law, which the Legislature must either enact or send to voters.

One of the initiatives is a so-called “taxpayer bill of rights,” which would impose expenditure limits on state and local governments and require voter approval for certain tax increases. Revenues in excess of the expenditure limits would be used for a budget stabilization fund or direct tax relief. Approximately 61,000 signatures were gathered for this initiative, said Tarren Bragdon, chief operating officer for the Maine Heritage Policy Center. Maine law requires 55,087 certified signatures to advance a citizen initiative.

The second of the initiatives submitted Monday would cut motor vehicle excise taxes by 50 percent in the first year, followed by deeper cuts in the second and third years. For cars four years old and older, the rate would be $4 per $1,000 of the vehicle’s value. In addition, this item would exempt excise taxes for the first three model years of hybrid or alternative-fuel vehicles, or those with highway fuel economies of 40 or more miles per gallon. Fuel-efficient vehicles also would be exempt from the motor vehicle sales tax. This initiative attracted about 63,000 signatures, said Mr. Bragdon.

The third initiative would allow out-of-state health insurers to sell coverage to Maine citizens and create the “Comprehensive Guaranteed Access Health Insurance Association,” which would spread the cost of individuals without insurance across all health insurers. The law also would enact a range of new provisions that affect taxes on hospitals and insurance companies, as well as requirements for businesses that provide health insurance for employees. It would repeal the savings offset payment, which funds the Dirigo Choice state health insurance program. About 59,000 people signed the petition for this item, said Mr. Bragdon.

Maine Leads, an Augusta-based citizen group that advocates for lower taxes and government transparency, spearheaded the signature collection with the help of numerous volunteers. The Maine Heritage Policy Center, a think tank in Portland that promotes free markets and reforms in taxation, education, health care and government transparency, wrote the three initiatives.

Mr. Bragdon said his group has advocated for these programs through the Legislature, but was unsuccessful.

“We needed to take these proposals directly to the Maine people,” he said. “What we’re hoping is that voters will have a final say on tax increases.”

These petitions, if validated, would join another on the 2009 ballot, which was submitted earlier this month. That measure calls for the repeal of the school consolidation law.

Mr. Palmer, who taught political science at University of Maine until his semi-retirement in 2004, said the use of citizen petitions in Maine began with a change to the state’s constitution in 1911. It was used only seven times prior to 1970, when a citizen group failed in an effort to repeal the state’s two-year-old income tax.

Since 1971, there have been more than 40 citizen-led ballot initiatives, about 30 percent of which were successful.