An Act To Conform the Clean Election Financing Laws to the Judicially Determined Procedures
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 21-A MRSA §1125, sub-§13-B is enacted to read:
13-B. Financial order not required for distributions from fund in excess of current year allocations. Notwithstanding Title 5, sections 1667 and 1667-B and any other provision of law to the contrary, the commission may, without obtaining a financial order approved by the Governor, expend revenues from the fund in excess of the current year allocations solely for the purpose of making distributions to certified candidates required by this section. For the purposes of this subsection, "revenues from the fund" includes all revenues received pursuant to section 1124, subsection 2, interest credited to the fund under section 1124, subsection 1 and any unused fund revenues and interest carried over from previous years under section 1124, subsection 1. The executive director of the commission shall notify the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, Bureau of the Budget and the Office of Fiscal and Program Review in writing whenever the commission makes distributions in excess of current year allocations under this subsection.
summary
This bill codifies the decision of the Superior Court in Maine Citizens for Clean Elections v. LePage, No. CV-18-112, 2018 (Me. Super. Ct., Ken. Cty., August 2, 2018). The bill authorizes the Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices to expend existing revenues from the Maine Clean Election Fund in excess of the current year allocations without first obtaining a financial order approved by the Governor, solely for the purpose of making distributions required by the Maine Clean Election Act to certified candidates.