The applicant behind an effort to overturn Maine’s new supplemental state budget via a people’s veto said Tuesday that he is no longer pursuing putting the measure before voters.

The Maine Department of the Secretary of State released language for what’s known as a people’s veto of the budget in a press release Tuesday afternoon. A people’s veto is a constitutional provision that allows voters to repeal legislation via referendum.

The secretary of state writes the question to appear on the ballot after receiving and approving an application from a voter.

The question released by the secretary of state’s office is: “Do you want to stop additional funding for state programs and services, more funding for schools, and tax changes by rejecting the state’s 2026 supplemental budget?”

Dov Sacks, a Durham attorney who filed the application for the people’s veto, said later Tuesday that he is no longer pursuing the effort. In order to make the ballot, Sacks and supporters of the people’s veto would need to gather 67,682 signatures from voters by 5 p.m. on July 28.

The budget, which was approved by lawmakers and signed by Gov. Janet Mills last month, includes $300 relief checks expected to be sent to more than 500,000 Mainers and a new millionaires’ tax for people earning over $1 million annually, along with other spending.

“We’re not in a position to be spending $500 million when we have all the fraud we have and when the rainy day fund was raided to do it,” Sacks said. “There were a lot of problems with (the budget). Those are still strong, but the reasons we are not proceeding are more strategic.”

Sacks said it can be time-consuming and expensive to gather signatures, and said he has decided to go in a different direction “to stop wasteful and fraudulent Democratic spending.”

He also criticized the wording of the question released by the secretary of state’s office, saying it’s another example of Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, manipulating the language of ballot questions to influence the outcome. Republicans have recently pushed back on Bellows’ wording of ballot questions on voter identification and the rights of transgender athletes in school sports.

State lawmaker Rep. Gary Drinkwater, R-Milford, led an effort last year to try and overturn the state budget, but did not end up gathering enough signatures to make the ballot.