A proposed bill that would attach fiscal impact statements to citizen-led initiative questions is being championed by its sponsor as a move toward transparency, but opponents said it would create an unfair disadvantage.
Rep. Emily Cain (D-Orono), is sponsoring “An Act to Modify the Citizen Initiative Process,” which would require the Office of Fiscal and Program Review to generate a fiscal note for citizen-led legislation.
The bill would also require an initiative’s sponsors to identify how their measure would be funded, and all of that information would be printed on ballots.
Citizen initiatives are triggered when a group drafts a bill and circulates it to gather at least 10 percent of the number of voters who participated in the previous gubernatorial election. That number is currently 55,087.
“I am a fan of the citizen initiative process, but I think we can do it better,” Cain said last week to the Legal and Veteran’s Affairs Committee. “Voters need to understand (what an initiative) is going to cost.”
But Dan Billings, a Republican activist who is part of the group Maine Leads, which was involved in efforts to bring three questions to next November’s ballot, said Cain’s bill is unfair and possibly unconstitutional.
“It would be inappropriate to put that information on the ballot,” Billings said. “(The fiscal note) is just someone’s opinion that might not be totally objective. I don’t think we want to go down the path of arguing the merits of the question on the ballot.”
Billings said he prefers for that information to be debated in the public realm prior to a referendum.
“That’s what campaigns are for,” he said. “I have a concern about possibly biased information appearing on the ballot.”
Sen. Nancy Sullivan (D-Biddeford), who chairs the Legal and Veterans’ Affairs Committee, questioned how Cain’s bill would be any different from ballot questions about bonds, which already include a fiscal statement with them.
“I don’t see the difference,” Sullivan said. Billings responded by saying that bond questions come from the Legislature and that citizen initiatives might in fact target government offices or agencies involved in generating the fiscal note.
Ruth Gabey of West Gardiner, who represents the Maine Green Independent Party, opposed the bill on the grounds that it would make the citizen initiative process more difficult.
“Once again, there is an apparent move to change the citizen initiative process,” Gabey said. “Any time the people want to do something, they get picked on. It’s unfair.”
Fiscal impact statements about citizen initiatives are already published in newspapers and displayed on posters that are required to hang in voting locations, said Julie Flynn, the deputy secretary of state in charge of elections.
She said each referendum costs approximately $173,500, an expense that would rise if the text of ballot questions and fiscal statements couldn’t be contained on a single sheet.
“This information may well be useful, but it does have a cost,” Flynn said.
Cain said the high cost is worth it, especially considering the impact some citizen-led initiatives have.
“This is simply about providing the voters with a complete picture of any issue that comes before them on the ballot,” she said. “By providing more transparency as to how a ballot initiative will fiscally impact the state, voters can make an informed decision.”
The committee has not yet scheduled further discussion on this bill.
(Statehouse News Service)
