PO BOX 17766 PORTLAND, MAINE 04112 207.358.

7000 AUTHORIZED BY THE CANDIDATE AND PAID FOR BY CUTLER FOR MAINE



Eliots answers to MANPs Candidate Questionnaire


1. Please describe your personal and professional experiences with nonprofit
organizations.

I have been involved with nonprofits at all levels throughout my life. I am currently
President of the Lerner Foundation which promotes civil discourse and civic responsibility
and supports organizations and projects in Maine that seek to improve and strengthen
civic life, and I founded OneMaine, a community service organization that also promotes
nonpartisan civic dialogue. I also served for two years on the board of directors of the Gulf
of Maine Research Institute and I am a member and former chair of the Board of
Visitors of the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine. In
2012, I served as the co-chairman for Angus Kings campaign for the United States Senate.
I am also a member of many nonprofit organizations including the Friends of Casco Bay,
Crabtree Neck Land Trust, the Maine Farmland Trust, Maine Audubon, the Maine
Sportsman's Alliance and the Nature Conservancy.

2. Please provide specific ways in which, if elected, you would partner with and
strengthen the nonprofit sector to achieve the goals of your campaign.

As governor, I will partner with nonprofits to alleviate surging property taxes that place
growing pressure on towns and cities to seek revenue from nonprofits, reactivate the pool
bond program to facilitate lower cost financing for nonprofits, and increase economic
activity to achieve a sustainable balance between the private and nonprofit sectors. (1) As
municipalities grapple with their own budgets to provide essential services, higher
property taxes make it more difficult for the Legislature to resist limiting the exemption
for nonprofits. My Property Tax Relief Plan, http://www.cutlerformaine.com/taxes,
lowers property taxes by 20% to 40% for the average Maine homeowner and makes
available each year an additional $100 million for Maines municipalities. (2) I will
immediately reactivate the 20 year-old pool bond program for nonprofit hospitals,
colleges, community charities, and other nonprofits known as the Maine Health & Higher
Education Facilities Authority that Governor LePage effectively shut down in 2011.




PO BOX 17766 PORTLAND, MAINE 04112 207.358.7000 AUTHORIZED BY THE CANDIDATE AND PAID FOR BY CUTLER FOR MAINE

(3) My plan for growth in the Maine economy with more jobs and higher incomes will
create a sustainable balance between the private and nonprofit sectors and promote
greater opportunity in all corners of the state. For example, my strategy for developing an
umbrella Maine brand, http://www.cutlerformaine.com/branding, promotes the growth of
good jobs in the private sector and creates demand for services of nonprofits engaged in
important cultural, recreational and farm-to-table activities statewide.

3. In 2013, the Maine Legislature passed a budget which included a $27,500 cap on
itemized deductions, including the deduction for Charitable Giving, retroactive to
January 1, 2013. A compromise bill passed in the Spring of 2014 which will lift the cap
on charitable deductions by tax year 2017. Conservative estimates peg losses to
Maines charities at over 25,000,000 per year.

Will you support legislation which will restore full deductibility for Tax Year 2015?

I understand that the cap on itemized deductions for charitable contributions has unduly
constrained charitable giving in Maine. The limitation sets Maine apart from other states
and does not conform to the federal tax code. As part of the agenda for my first year as
governor, I intend to pursue first my proposed Property Tax Relief Plan and then broad,
omnibus reform to comprehensively address all broad-based taxes and expenditures,
including both personal deductions (such as lifting the cap on charitable giving) and
corporate tax breaks.

4. What is your position on the property tax exemption for Maine nonprofit property
owners?

As long as we reform municipal revenue sharing as I have proposed in my Property Tax
Relief Plan, I support the current property tax exemption for Maine nonprofit property
owners. Municipal revenue sharing has declined under both republican and democratic
governors, leaving our towns and cities, particularly our service center communities,
squeezed between continued demand for services and the need to make up for the loss of
revenue coming from the state. My proposed Property Tax Relief Plan addresses this
issue, in part, but we also need to ensure the consistency of payment for services used by
nonprofits, such as fire and police protection and road maintenance, so our towns and
cities can get by without harming our nonprofit property owners.