AUGUSTA — The Maine ethics commission ruled Thursday that the group Maine Leads is required to file campaign finance reports going back to late 2007 because of fundraising and spending efforts related to a referendum question on the November ballot.

Maine Leads successfully worked to put the citizen initiative that would cut the municipal excise tax on the fall ballot, but lawyer Dan Billings argued that wasn’t the group’s “major purpose,” the burden necessary to qualify it as a political action committee.

The original complaint filed against the group by former Democratic lawmaker Deborah Hutton was that the group should be registered as a PAC and file periodic financial reports with the state.

But members of the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices agreed with Billings and voted against requiring Maine Leads to register as a PAC.

“Invariably, organizations will take more significant roles in various different issues, but that’s not going to convert them into that PAC,” Commissioner Walter McKee said.

Commission Chairman Michael Friedman said someone might look at the spending by Maine Leads in 2007 and 2008 and conclude it was acting as a PAC.

“But I don’t think you can actually determine that an organization is a PAC until you have somewhat of a history,” he said.

Instead of ruling it a PAC, the panel voted 4-1 in favor of requiring the group to file reports as a ballot question committee. According to Maine law, anyone who receives contributions or spends more than $5,000 to initiate, promote, defeat or influence a ballot question is considered a ballot question committee and must file reports with the state.

Billings, representing Maine Leads, said he expected the group could file the necessary reports, going back to late 2007, within a week, but the commission granted two weeks.

In addition to having to file the paperwork accounting for fundraising and expenditures, penalties for the late filings are likely to be assessed, according to commission staff.

“I anticipate that the commission will be considering penalties in the November meeting,” said Jonathan Wayne, the executive director of the ethics commission. Commission staff likely will send Maine Leads a letter describing preliminary penalty amounts; it will have a chance to request waivers of the fees before the commission meets again on Nov. 19.

Benjamin K. Grant, a lawyer representing Hutton, said he was satisfied with the commission’s ruling.

“From the beginning, this endeavor has been made with only one goal in mind: compel disclosure of information that every other political actor in Maine must disclose,” Grant said.

Billings said most of the information that would be disclosed by the reports was already part of the public record.

“Really, the only issue is the names of two of the three funders. Despite what some have suggested, keeping those names secret has never really been the issue for my client,” he said.

“It’s very much a huge issue being deemed to be a political action committee, which was suggested in the initial complaint,” Billings said. “If an organization is deemed to be a political action committee, all its finances, every dollar it raises, every dollar it spends has to be publicly disclosed. That is a very significant requirement and something I don’t think any organization would take lightly.”

The ballot question reporting is much more limited, he said.

In another matter brought before the commission, two other groups were required to file as ballot question committees. The complaint was brought forward by David Crocker of the group TABOR NOW and resulted in the commission finding that the Maine People’s Resource Center and the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities did not file on time as ballot question committees. They have since filed their paperwork and no penalties were assessed.

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