This citizen-initiated legislation makes a number of changes to the Maine Clean Election Act and other provisions of Maine’s campaign finance laws.

The initiative would amend the Maine Clean Election Act to:

*increase the amount of the initial distribution of public funds to gubernatorial and legislative candidates, with different amounts specified depending on whether the candidate is in a contested or uncontested primary, and a contested or uncontested general election;

*allow qualifying candidates to obtain additional public funds during the campaign by collecting $5 contributions from more registered voters within their districts, up to a specified cap;

*increase the maximum amount of seed money that a legislative candidate may raise in donations up to $100 per donor while the candidate is seeking to qualify for public funding;

*eliminate the requirement that a candidate for Governor collect at least $40,000 in seed money contributions in order to qualify for public funding; and

*increase from two million to three million dollars the amount of funding that must be transferred into the Maine Clean Election Fund each year and require that this revenue be generated by reducing tax expenditures. "Tax expenditures" are losses of state revenue attributed to laws that provide special exclusions, exemptions or deductions, or allow special credits, preferential rates of tax or deferral of tax liability.

The Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Taxation would be directed to report out legislation recommending the permanent elimination of six million dollars of corporate tax expenditures in each biennium, placing a priority on eliminating the tax expenditures that have been determined by the Legislature’s Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability to produce "little or no demonstrated economic development benefit."The legislation does not define what constitutes a "corporate" tax expenditure.

The initiated legislation also includes two new disclosure provisions. First, any organization or "entity" that acts independently of a candidate and funds political advertisements or other communications expressly advocating for or against a candidate on broadcast or cable television, broadcast radio, Internet audio programming, newspapers, magazines or direct mail, would have to identify in the communication the top three donors who gave the entity $1,000 or more during the election cycle. Second, any committee formed to collect donations to fund activities related to the inauguration of a new Governor and the transition to a new administration would have to register with the Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices and file financial disclosure statements listing the names, addresses, occupations and employers of each donor who contributes more than $50, and all expenditures made by the committee. Lobbyists and those who employ a lobbyist would be prohibited from making donations to this type of committee during a regular or special session of the Legislature.

The initiative would increase both the baseline and maximum penalties for violations of existing campaign finance laws, including violations for failure to file and for late filing of campaign finance reports by candidates, party committees and political action committees, and for failure to maintain records of campaign donations and expenditures. It also would authorize the Commission to impose enhanced penalties for violations that occur less than 28 days before an election.

The Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices would be responsible for administering the provisions of this proposed law and would be authorized to adopt rules to implement it.

If approved, this citizen initiated legislation would take effect 30 days after the Governor proclaims the official results of the election.

A "YES" vote is to enact the initiated legislation

A "NO" vote opposes the initiated legislation