Maine lawmakers to take up 80 spending proposals in addition to vetoes

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The Maine Legislature is ready to dispatch unfinished business that extends well beyond several vetoed bill. Lawmakers are also voting Friday on 80 late spending proposals that the governor warned could push the budget “to the breaking point.”

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills chided the budget committee this week for advancing additional spending proposals after she urged the Democratic-controlled Legislature to show restraint and set aside money ahead of anticipated flat revenues.

A spokesperson for the governor issued a statement accusing the committee of employing “budget gimmicks like stripping fiscal notes, delaying effective dates, and raiding other special revenue accounts to spend more, which the governor previously warned them not to do and which will push the state budget to the breaking point.”

The Legislature’s Republican leaders issued a statement accusing Democrats of recklessness in spending. “In a few short years, Democrats will turn a record-breaking surplus into a deficit,” said John Bott, spokesperson for House Republicans.

The governor’s eight vetoes this year include bills to end a three-strikes law for petty theft, create a minimum wage for farm workers, establish a new top rate for income taxes, and ban so-called bump stocks on guns.

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The new bills to be considered would provide more money for free health clinics, African American and Wabanaki studies in schools and the establishment of a civil rights unit in the attorney general’s office. Other initiatives would provide one-time relief for blueberry growers and provide free entry to state parks to indigenous people, among other things.

The governor’s original budget set aside about $100 million to offset flat revenues that are anticipated to create an austere budget environment. But lawmakers ended up spending much of that.

The proposed new spending is about $12 million but the total impact is more than $33 million, according to the Department of Administrative and Financial Services. The bills would reduce the general fund and transfer money from special revenue accounts such as the Fund for Healthy Maine and Bureau of Insurance, the department said.