👊 A (more) drama-free budget?

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By Michael Shepherd - April 4, 2022
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What we're watching today

Legislative Republicans are drawing no hard lines on the governor's spending package, potentially setting up an easier debate. Just under three weeks are left in Maine's election-year legislative session and there are major issues still awaiting final action. The biggest is Gov. Janet Mills' nearly $1.2 billion spending proposal featuring $850 relief checks that makes use of a giant state surplus attributable mostly to a raft of federal pandemic aid.
Budget issues have been fraught during the governor's tenure. She and majority Democrats pushed through a two-year budget in 2021 along party lines for the first time in Maine since 2005, although minority Republicans joined Democrats in passing a revised version of that document this past summer. The surplus has loomed over most other issues in Augusta since the fall.
The spending document is beginning to take shape in the budget committee, where top lawmakers continue to take unanimous votes on pieces of Mills' proposal. Highlights from last week included the approval of nearly $60 million in state and federal supplemental payments to hospitals, nursing homes and other embattled providers.
Mills gave a notable shoutout to Republicans when she unveiled her spending plan in February, when it included a smaller version of the relief check proposal in accordance with the minority party's stance that half the surplus should be given back to taxpayers.
Some leading conservatives, including former Gov. Paul LePage, who is running against Mills in 2022, have derided the idea as a gimmick and favor income tax cuts, but legislative Republicans are still backing the idea while trying to get the state to speed up the planned payments. While they released a list of suggestions for the final package last week that included a sales tax holiday, Republicans' top goal is defending the $850 payment to most Mainers.
“Nothing we have is a line drawn in the sand,” said Senate Minority Leader Jeff Timberlake, R-Turner, said last week. “The only line we have is the $850 [checks]. Reducing that, we won’t support.”
The agreement between Mills and Republicans on the relief checks likely locks them into an ultimate budget deal, even though the payments have also been criticized by those on the left who think aid should be targeted to lower-income Mainers. Scores of bills initially approved by the Democratic-led Legislature are also awaiting a scant amount of funding left over under the governor's proposal. Virtually all of them are on track to die if negotiations stay on this track.
Some tension among Democrats could mark the final stage of budget negotiations. While there is time for Republicans to demand more, they look unwilling to hold much up as they like the national environment they are set to run in later this year. There is a lot for lawmakers to figure out, but there are also fewer incentives to fight about this particular package.

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What we're reading

— A contractor and his partners are making a huge and unusual bet on Maine's housing market in the western Maine vacation town of Rangeley, gradually building out 150 home lots in the town of 1,200 people. They are building on spec, with six homes sold to date and five more under construction.
— Veteran lawyer Bob Cummins resigned from the state commission overseeing the indigent legal service system last week, citing an "I just don’t give a damn attitude" from policymakers on the system being sued for allegedly violating constitutional rights of defendants. More from the Maine Monitor here.
— Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, are leading Senate negotiations on reducing insulin prices. Their plan includes a cap on out-of-pocket costs and barring rebates to intermediaries who negotiate prices with insurers. Kaiser Health News has more here.

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Follow along today

10:15 a.m. The State and Local Government Committee will meet to prioritize measures on the appropriations table. Watch here.
10:30 a.m. The judiciary panel will hold confirmation hearings for two Mills nominees for District Court judgeships: Andrew Robinson, the district attorney for Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin counties, and Bangor probate judge Amy Faircloth. Watch here.
11 a.m. Former Maine Sen. William Cohen, also the former U.S. defense secretary, will headline this year's version of the University of Maine lecture series named for him alongside retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis, also a former defense secretary, and retired Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle Carpenter, a Medal of Honor recipient. The topic this year is "the important of American leadership in a dangerous world." (Registration is now closed for the in-person event.)
2 p.m. The budget committee will continue work on Mills' spending package. Watch here.

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📷 Lead photo: Maine Senate Minority Leader Jeff Timberlake, R-Turner, is pictured in the Senate chamber on June 30, 2021.

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