Backers of a casino proposal for York County, Maine that was defeated by a lopsided margin in November have sued the state Ethics and Election Practices commission to try to reverse the $500,000 fine it levied on them.
They were fined for improperly filing campaign finance statements that left out information on where significant amounts of campaign funds came from.
Lisa Scott, sister of the casino proposal’s proponent, Shawn Scott, filed the petition for review in Kennebec County Superior Court. The petition describes the fine as “excessive” and claims that the ethics commission “inaccurately determined that the reports filed by the petitioners did not substantially conform to the statute’s reporting requirements.”
The five-member panel imposed the fine last November. The fine was a record amount, ten times any previous penalty, but under law it could have imposed almost $5 million for the improperly filed documents.
If Scott’s initiative had succeeded, only he would have been legally allowed to operate a casino in York County, something that industry experts said was worth about $200 million. However, the measure was defeated by an overwhelming margin, largely as a result of the big publicity that he received, and much of it for leaving out sources of funding for the campaign.
The suit, filed on behalf of Lisa Scott, Horse Racing Jobs Fairness LLC, International Development Concepts LLC, and Miami Development Concepts, LLC, asserts that the “penalties imposed by the final determination amount to an unconstitutionally excessive fine.”
