Our fast information to Query 3 on Maine’s poll — and CMP’s push to cease it
The very best-profile of the eight questions on Maine’s Nov. 7 poll is the push to interchange Maine’s two largest electrical utilities with a brand new one ruled by an elected board.
Query 3 goals to try this, whereas a type of utilities is selling Query 1 as a possible car to cease the takeover. Right here’s what it is advisable know.
Query 3: Utility takeover
The query: Do you need to create a brand new energy firm ruled by an elected board to amass and function current for-profit electrical energy transmission and distribution services in Maine?
What your vote does: A sure vote would exchange Central Maine Energy Co. and Versant Energy with the brand new Pine Tree Energy Co., ruled by an elected board first tasked with shopping for out the utilities and hiring an operator to handle them. A no vote retains the established order by which CMP and Versant are accountable for electrical transmission and distribution in most of Maine.
Key context: A 2020 research performed for the state discovered {that a} comparable takeover would increase electrical charges within the brief time period and decrease them over time, largely as a result of the brand new utility may borrow cash at decrease charges than the incumbent utilities.
Supporters amplify that argument by saying the utility may put extra into operations with out a revenue motive. They word that CMP and Versant have fared poorly in buyer approval and that an elected utility board can be extra accountable to Mainers, though Public Advocate William Harwood has stated customer support, reliability and local weather advantages are all unknowns.
The utilities have run an costly however easy marketing campaign specializing in the upfront price of shopping for out the utilities and the uncertainty of placing elected officers answerable for the system. CMP and Versant say it could price $13.5 billion to purchase them out, however their guide values are far decrease. The final word complete will possible be determined by the courts over a interval of 5 to 10 years.
Our protection: The BDN has gone deep on a number of parts of this far-reaching referendum, together with how elections would form utilities and classes from Nebraska, the one state totally served by consumer-owned utilities. Current advertisements have stretched the reality on Query 3, whereas CMP and Versant have run a big affect marketing campaign that includes politicians of all stripes.
Query 1: Placing borrowing to votes
The query: Do you need to bar some quasi-governmental entities and all consumer-owned electrical utilities from taking over greater than $1 billion in debt except they get statewide voter approval?
What your vote does: A sure vote on Query 1 would topic a number of sorts of public companies to voter approval in the event that they plan to borrow greater than $1 billion. It’s geared toward subjecting the borrowing required to finish the utility takeover underneath Query 3 to yet one more vote. A no vote would enable that query to undergo with out one other layer of approval.
Key context: It is a CMP-backed effort that makes an attempt to jam up the borrowing required underneath Query 3. Whereas either side of that marketing campaign disagree on the general buy value, they agree that will probably be within the billions. That cash can be borrowed towards future income, so it could not increase taxes however would signify a significant monetary dedication.
This query would apply to different entities, together with Maine’s college and group schools and native consumer-owned utilities. Nevertheless, they hardly ever ever search to borrow this a lot, so the Legislature’s fiscal workplace has stated Mainers ought to anticipate solely uncommon votes if this passes.
Our protection: Questions 1 and three could be primarily learn as competing questions. Each side have been locked in a behind-the-scenes battle in 2021 to attempt to weaken one another’s merchandise within the drafting levels. Language in every query now goals to trump the opposite, which means that Maine might be headed for a authorized standoff if each of them one way or the other go.
Examine Query 2 — Ban on international electioneering
Examine Query 4 — ‘Proper to restore’
Examine Questions 5, 6, 7 and eight — Constitutional amendments
