The Maine Ethics Commission decided Wednesday that it would not be taking action against the Cape Elizabeth School Department for its alleged mishandling of communications surrounding a local ballot initiative this past November.
This finding came in response to a complaint filed by Larry Benoit and Mary Ann Lynch, Cape Elizabeth residents who alleged that Superintendent Chris Record allowed for more than $5,000 in taxpayers’ dollars to be spent on advertisements in the Cape Courier supporting a $95 million school construction bond ahead of the November 2024 election.
Record has said previously that the only $4,940.44 was spent across five payments to the Cape Courier for advertising between August and November of 2024 and refuted claims that advertisements were intended to influence voters. The amount of the expenditure matters because of a spending threshold.
At issue is the question of whether public money is being spent on an effort to persuade voters to support to nearly $100 million bond to refurbish and build a new school for the tony town just south of Portland.
Executive Director of the Commission John Wayne reportedly said that Commission staff will now be advising that municipalities and municipal entities are not subject to the state’s ballot question committee reporting law.
“If we were dealing with the State of Maine here, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation,” Commissioner David Hastings said, according to the Portland Press Herald.
[RELATED: Cape Elizabeth Voters Narrowly Reject Proposal to Construct New Middle School]
Under Maine State Law, anyone spending more than $5,000 to initiate or influence the outcome of a ballot question must register as an official Ballot Question Committee (BQC).
Benoit and Lynch have also raised concerns over whether or not any taxpayer money should have been spent on the advertisements in the first place.
“I’m concerned that there is a complete lack of accountability and transparency on this issue with respect to the spending of tax revenue for political advertising,” Lynch reportedly said.
Cape Elizabeth Superintendent Record pushed back, however, asserting that the ads were intended only to provide voters with information so that they could make an informed decision at the polls.
“It’s been our effort, and of the school district historically, to try and educate and inform our public about important topics like the budget or a school referendum,” Record said in an interview with the Portland Press Herald. “That’s been our intent all along.”
The intention behind these advertisements was ultimately central to this case given the Commission’s precedent concerning campaigning by municipalities.
In 2009, the City of South Portland had mailed flyers alongside residents’ property tax bills encouraging opposition to a statewide referendum. The Commission ruled at the time that the City would have been obligated to register as a BQC if it had spent above the $5,000 threshold, which it did not.
Despite the apparent similarities, Commissioner Hastings explained that the situation in Cape Elizabeth is fundamentally different because the Cape Elizabeth School Department was sharing information about its own project, as opposed to advocating for or against a state referendum.
“It’s totally understandable that it’s speaking about it in a positive way,” Hastings said. “And I understand that it has an obligation to do so.”
Lynch expressed disagreement with this interpretation, arguing that “to suggest that advertisements that are informative are not intended to influence is absurd.”
“While citizens opposing the bonds are held to strict requirements for campaign finance disclosure,” Lynch and Benoit said in a statement shared with the Maine Wire Wednesday, “the commission adopted a double standard and has given local governments and school districts a free pass to use unlimited tax dollars, without disclosure and identification, to sway voters in support of the general obligation bonds, free of any reporting or accountability under Maine election law.”
“It is troubling, indeed, that the Commission adopted a lesser standard of accountability for those entrusted with spending tax dollars. The School Board’s rationalization that there is a difference between providing information and influencing an election does not pass the straight face test,” they wrote.
Cape Elizabeth voters rejected the $95 million proposed bond at the ballot box in November of 2024, sending town officials back to the drawing board to produce a new proposal for replacing the middle school and updating infrastructure at the elementary and high school.
Earlier this summer, residents approved an updated proposal that was more than $8 million less expensive.
According to an impact table provided on the Cape Elizabeth School Department website, the bond will result in a 12.3 percent property tax hike over the course of several years, with residents expecting anywhere between a 1.3 and 2.8 percent increase in a given year.
For a home valued at $750,000 this could range from a $72 to $154 increase at any one time, with no changes scheduled for 2026 or 2033.
