AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine Democrats who control the Legislature approved early Thursday morning an addition to the two-year budget that continued the recent trend of not receiving any Republican support to take effect immediately.
But the hours of debates were not without moments of bipartisan agreement over criticism of Gov. Janet Mills and her threat to veto the plan if lawmakers changed it, which they almost did.
After each chamber initially passed the budget addition Wednesday night, the drama increased in the Senate when various members on both sides of the aisle united around an amendment and rebuked Mills by combining winter storm relief with higher pay for educational technicians, veteran home reimbursem*nts and investments in other areas.
The House of Representatives stuck with its version that only includes the storm relief funding, however, and the Senate ultimately agreed with the House and gave the plan final passage at 5:10 a.m. Thursday. The addition brings Maine’s two-year budget to more than $10.4 billion, with highlights including various housing investments and funding for mental health initiatives in the wake of the mass shooting in Lewiston.
Mills said she was “pleased” with the Legislature’s decision and will sign the budget into law.
The House initially passed it 77-67 around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, with Rep. Bruce White, D-Waterville, the lone Democrat to oppose it. The Senate then voted 20-13 along party lines to pass the addition, which required at least two-thirds support to take effect as soon as Mills signs it rather than 90 days later.
That first Senate vote, however, was only the start of a drawn-out set of moves traced back to Mills feuding this week with Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash. The governor warned Jackson’s gambit to tack on unrelated spending to her separate $60 million storm relief bill could blow a hole in the budget and demanded lawmakers pass a “clean” bill with only storm relief.
After various motions, the Senate voted 17-16 to adopt an amendment from Sen. Nicole Grohoski, D-Ellsworth, featuring $60 million for infrastructure and businesses damaged in December and January storms and additions that Mills opposed, such as higher minimum pay for school staff and payments to improve state employee recruitment and retention.
The amendment brought together lawmakers in both parties who do not often agree. Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, said Mills’ demand to not amend the budget read “like a letter from Vladimir Putin.” Jackson became emotional while speaking in support of it, alluding to his dispute with Mills without naming her and how this is his last term after about 20 years in the Legislature.
“I’m a proud Democrat, but if voting for these things today makes me a Republican, then I’m a proud Republican,” Jackson said.
But the House did not include Grohoski’s amendment, though the approved budget still includes aspects of that plan, such as setting minimum pay for school support staff and educational technicians at 115 percent and 125 percent of the state’s minimum hourly wage, respectively.
The budget features $76 million for affordable housing, rental assistance and mobile home programs, $12.9 million for child care providers, $26 million for nursing homes and $14.1 million to fund an Medicare Savings Program eligibility expansion after Mills initially left out money for the initiative that helps older Mainers.
It also honors the budget committee’s Monday decision to reverse its initial moves that sought to give the panel authority over the transportation budget, move $60 million annually from the transportation fund to the General Fund, scale back a pension tax exemption and include a smaller boost in milk prices under a state relief program for dairy farmers.
The budget addition has $19.6 million for mental health initiatives Mills and House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, proposed in the wake of Maine’s deadliest-ever mass shooting that left 18 dead and 13 injured in Lewiston. Those investments, for example, will build two crisis receiving centers in Aroostook and Penobscot counties.
“Like all good compromises, it’s not the perfect budget any one person would like to see, but it is solid and balanced,” Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, said.
Bennett, her fellow budget committee member, said he felt “like I’m living in a parallel universe” before blasting the plan and Mills administration.
“While there is a lot of common ground, this budget is an abject failure in my view to deal with the substantive issues facing this state,” Bennett said, criticizing one-fund funding and how it “codifies [the] destruction of rural Maine.”
The plan has $9 million to repair damage from severe winter storms that hammered Maine and offer resiliency grants to towns as they rebuild. That is separate from the additional $60 million in infrastructure repairs that Mills proposed. The budget also has $6 million to fill a federal funding gap for Maine’s crime victim advocates.
House Republicans argued the budget lacks enough money for nursing homes and rural law enforcement patrols, among other areas. They also bemoaned not feeling like they could support it after the Legislature before 2022 had passed budgets for years with bipartisan majorities.
