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Beverage tax foes fined $10,000

By Susan M. Cover November 24, 2008 10:12 AM

The Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices voted 4-0 today to fine Fed Up With Taxes $10,000 for filing campaign finance reports late.

The political action committee, which formed to support Question 1 on the Nov. 4 ballot, filed two reports two days late toward the end of the campaign. Maine law requires campaigns to report expenditures within 24-hours over the final 13 days before an election so the public and the opposition knows how much money is being spent.

One of the reports filed late showed an expenditure of $2,403 and the other was for 11 expenditures totaling $748,628.

Fed Up With Taxes spent more than $3.5 million on the campaign to overturn taxes on beer, wine and soda put in place by lawmakers to support Dirigo Health. Voters repealed the taxes by a wide margin.