Nancy Pelosi once famously said of the Affordable Care Act that the U.S. Congress had “to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it.”

The same could be said by Southern Maine voters who last month voted to pass Question 1, which drastically increased the amount of state funding going into the Maine Clean Elections Act.

Just like Obamacare, we are now getting an idea of what a fiscal disaster this will be for years to come.

First, let’s take a look at exactly how much taxpayer money will now be diverted from critical services to pay for political campaigns.

Heading into the 2016 elections, the Maine Clean Elections Fund currently has $1.57 million in its coffers. Thanks to the passage of Question 1, the State Controller is preparing to transfer up to another $3 million from the state’s General Fund into the Maine Clean Elections Program by the end of this year.

But there’s a good chance that won’t be nearly enough money to pay for this and we’re surely headed for another massive budget shortfall.

In 2014, 149 House candidates and 50 Senate candidates ran as a “clean elections” candidates. Odds are we’ll see those numbers drastically increase as many of the candidates who were hoping to raise their own money will now be forced to take state dollars in order to have a realistic chance to win.

But if we get lucky, and the same number of candidates use the “clean elections” program, taxpayers could be on the hook for nearly $6 million. That’s the bad news. Even worse is the fact that number will more than likely be much higher than that in 2016 and two years down the road, when gubernatorial candidates will be eligible for up to $3 million apiece, we can expect this to cause a sinkhole to open up in the middle of the state budget.

Think about how easy it would be to abuse this system. Each candidate running for governor who collects 6,400 seed contributions at $5 apiece qualifies for $1 million in taxpayer-funded “clean elections” money with a chance at another $2 million if they win a primary.

But someone looking to abuse this system doesn’t care about winning a primary. They can simply pay a friend $50,000 to collect the seed contributions for them, and why not? That $50,000 comes out of the $1 million ta-xfree gift they’re getting compliments of Maine taxpayers.

They can then pay their spouse, kids or friends absurdly high salaries to work on their “campaign.” It’s like winning the lottery and you’re guaranteed to keep winning that lottery every four years. I bet we’re all glad we got the big evil money out of Maine politics and replaced it with public tax dollars.

And don’t count on the members of the Legislature being able to find all the money to pay for this mess by eliminating phantom “non-performing corporate tax loopholes.”

The state’s fiscal watchdog agency, OPEGA, has already tried unsuccessfully to find them and they don’t exist. No, the framers of this train wreck have wined and dined the Maine taxpayers and now they’ve all one by one left the table and you’re stuck holding the check.

I have a simple question for those of you who support this initiative.

As a member of the Appropriations Committee, where would you like to see us take the millions of dollars it will inevitably take to fill the massive shortfall we’re going to face now that we’ve injected steroids into the “clean elections” fund?

Should we take the money from our schools? The University of Maine System? Maine’s Community Colleges? Municipal revenue sharing? It’s got to come from somewhere.

It should bother all of us that here in Maine, the parents of a 40-year-old with Down’s syndrome who are desperate for in-home care will once again be told the state can’t afford it.

Meanwhile, the activists and special-interest groups who perpetrated this fraud on the Maine people will be staring at those of us on the Appropriations Committee, demanding that we start looking under every couch cushion in the Maine State House to find more money to give to politicians.

No matter how you spin it, that is just wrong.

Jeff Timberlake is the state Representative for House District 75, which includes Minot and Turner, Leeds and part of Livermore. He currently serves on the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee