Jim Cohen Discusses “No Blank Checks” Citizen Initiative Before Maine Legislative Committee

Verrill Partner Jim Cohen was recently quoted in a Spectrum News article “Maine Ballot Initiative To Require Voter Approval For $1B Borrowing Gets Broad Support.” Maine LD 1772 is a citizen-initiated ballot question being advanced by a group called No Blank Checks that would require voter approval of any quasi-state authority borrowing over $1 billion. Although broadly worded, the initiative is mostly focused on a separate initiative question proposing to form a state authority called “Pine Tree Power” that would be required to borrow billions of dollars to acquire the assets of Maine’s two largest investor-owned electric utilities. Speaking on behalf of No Blank Checks, Cohen told the Maine Legislature’s State and Local Government Committee on May 18, 2023: “Getting voter approval for borrowing over $1 billion is ‘a common-sense proposal’ to address something that’s never happened in state history. Very simply, the voters who signed the petition felt they should have a say whenever that amount of borrowing occurred in the state of Maine.”

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