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This amendment
will transfer $3,000,000 from the Maine Clean Election Fund (MCEF) within the
Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices to the
unappropriated surplus of the General Fund within 10 days of the effective
date of this bill. (This fiscal note assumes that will occur early in fiscal
year 2018-19.) It is anticipated that this will leave a cash balance of
approximately $1,300,000 in the MCEF. This amendment also reverses this
transaction later in fiscal year 2018-19 by restoring, on or before January
1, 2019, the transfer of $3,000,000 from the General Fund back to the MCEF,
in accordance with the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 21-A, section 1124,
subsection 2, paragraph B. The amendment also reduces the Other Special
Revenue Funds allocation in the bill in fiscal year 2018-19 from $3,976,470
to $2,310,665, a reduction of $1,665,805. This one-time allocation had been
included in the bill to correct an error in PL 2017, Chapter 284, Part
ZZZZZZ, Section 19 that resulted in a negative allocation in fiscal year
2018-19 of $1,010,665. The net allocation after this amendment will be
$1,300,000, which will allow expenditure of the anticipated cash balance
after the first transfer described above. As amended, this bill does not
provide allocation to allow expenditure of the $3,000,000 to be transferred
back to the MCEF on or before January 1, 2019. That allocation will need to
be provided either by additional legislative action or by financial order. |