AUGUSTA (AP) — Maine’s nonprofit organizations say that Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s tax plan may force them to cut jobs.

Scott Schnapp, executive director of the Maine Association of Nonprofits, told the Maine Public Broadcasting Network that most nonprofits would have to lay off employees to deal with new expenses under the $6.3 billion proposed budget.

LePage wants municipalities to be able to tax nonprofits. The proposal is designed to help cities and towns cope with the proposed elimination of revenue sharing.

Darlene Trew Crist of the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay said the proposal would cost her organization up to $165,000 a year. She said the laboratory would have to find a way to bear the “unreasonable burden” because it doesn’t have any way to recoup that money.