A group opposed to the creation of a consumer-owned utility turned in signatures Tuesday in support of a 2023 ballot question that would ask voters to approve any government debt over $1 billion.

The effort is in response to the Pine Tree Power proposal that would create a consumer-owned utility to replace Central Maine Power and Versant Power.

The group No Blank Checks turned in more than 93,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office in hopes of getting on the November ballot.

“No Blank Checks is about as commonsense as it gets,” Willy Ritch, executive director of the campaign, said. “If we are going to be on the hook for billions of dollars in government debt, voters should get the final say on whether to take that on.”

In late October, Our Power turned in signatures to put a question on the 2023 ballot to create a consumer-owned utility.

Our Power estimates that the takeover would cost $9 billion, while No Blank Checks puts the cost at $13.5 billion.

No Blank Checks reported just over $1 million in contributions as part of its ballot question campaign, almost all of which came from Avangrid Management Co., the parent company of CMP.

On the other side, Our Power reported $543,401, with the top donor listed as Susan Bartovics, an environmentalist living on North Haven who gave $56,000, according to reports filed with the Maine Ethics Commission.

Earlier this month, both CMP and Versant ranked near the bottom on a nationwide residential customer satisfaction survey by J.D. Power.

Out of 145 utilities, CMP was second from bottom and Versant came in third from last, just above CMP.

The Secretary of State’s Office now has 30 days to verify the signatures.