Citizens in Charge

AUGUSTA (Feb 26): 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 unfairly put people or groups who bring such questions to the ballot box at a 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,” said Cain last week to the Legal and Veterans 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…. (READ MORE)