AUGUSTA – The Maine Heritage Policy Center played a very public role in the campaign supporting the Taxpayer Bill of Rights referendum question earlier this year.

On Wednesday, the state’s ethics commission ruled that election law requires the Portland-based think tank to report any money it spent or any contributions it received regarding its work on TABOR.

The ruling followed a complaint filed in October by Carl Lindemann. Lindemann accused the center of essentially taking over the media relations role of the pro-TABOR campaign without properly disclosing the source of its funding or its spending.

Lindemann maintained the center had evolved into a political action committee, which was required to report every dollar in and out during the campaign.

The Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, which held a hearing on the matter Wednesday, disagreed. Instead, commissioners found that the center should be required to file a less complete financial disclosure under a section of election law called 1056-B.

“This was an extremely disappointing outcome today,” said John Branson, a lawyer for Lindemann. “Publicly, the Mane Heritage Policy Center might be fighting a 1056-B requirement, but secretly it’s the best outcome they could have hoped for. That’s a Christmas gift to them.”

Branson and Lindemann indicated Wednesday that they intend to appeal the decision and continue to fight for broader disclosure of the center’s donors and political activities.

“The Maine people lost today. People interested in transparent government lost today,” Branson said.

From the beginning, the MHPC has argued that its activities, which it said fell short of direct advocacy, require no reporting.

“I think there’s a reasonable argument that can be made,” said Bill Becker, MHPC’s president and executive director about the newly imposed reporting requirement on his group.

The fundamental issue, he said, is that the law is too broad and open to too many different interpretations.

“We will do this under protest,” Becker said.

No decision has been made on an appeal, Becker said.

In correspondence to the ethics commission and in testimony at a hearing on Oct. 31, MHPC and its attorney, Dan Billings, appeared to offer evidence that was later contradicted.

First, they denied accepting contributions for their work on TABOR and denied spending any money “directly advocating” for the measure.

A friend of Lindemann’s from Colorado then sent MHPC a donation with notations referring to TABOR. The think tank accepted the contribution and sent a thank-you letter that appeared to call into question its previous statements.

Commissioner Jean Ginn Marvin recused herself from the hearing. She serves as the treasurer to the Maine Heritage Policy Center.

The commission gave the Maine Heritage Policy Center 30 days to file its disclosure report.