AUGUSTA – Over 579,000 Maine families will see a tax decrease, some employers will have an easier time finding skilled workers, cities and towns will retain state aid, welfare recipients will have an incentive to find work and school districts will receive more funding, thanks to the 127th Legislature.
On top of all that, depending on Gov. Paul LePage, Mainers may soon be able to carry a concealed handgun without obtaining a permit.
Those are some of the policies enacted in a long, sometimes combative legislative session in which the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-controlled House reviewed more than 1,450 bills. Most pieces of legislation did not survive, including proposals to increase the minimum wage, increase Medicaid health coverage for low-income Mainers, remake the welfare system, and clarify the status of legal non-citizens so that they can receive General Assistance. Dozens of others will die at the end of the session, while others will be carried over into the second session, which begins in January.
Many bills, including LePage’s sweeping welfare overhaul, were defeated by partisan wrangling and gamesmanship typical of divided government. In other words, high-profile bills that became politicized – notably a proposal that would have closed a loophole in a controversial tax credit program – had little chance.
The first session still isn’t over. LePage, who has vowed to veto all bills for the remainder of his term, still has more than 70 bills sitting on his desk. Lawmakers, who were supposed to adjourn June 17, will return around July 15 to vote on the governor’s vetoes.
It seems unlikely that the concealed weapons bill will fall victim to the governor’s veto pen. The proposal, backed by the National Rifle Association, will allow Mainers to carry a concealed handgun without a permit. The governor has repeated his veto vow in various forums and statements, including a June 17 handwritten note to Senate President Mike Thibodeau in which he says the veto initiative will proceed to the end of his second term. However, rejecting the gun bill, L.D. 652, would rile an active gun rights constituency and further alienate LePage from his core of supporters.
PARTISAN DIVIDE
LePage’s veto bonanza has prompted lawmakers to unite and overturn him. Nonetheless, the two parties were divided on a number of big-ticket bills. Democrats were unable to pass a bill that would have raised the minimum wage. Bills that would have tightened rules that allow parents to opt out of vaccinations for their children also fell into the partisan divide.
A bevy of Republican attempts to tighten restrictions on welfare benefits were often defeated, even though some Democrats offered similar bills.
Thibodeau, in a written statement, said he was disappointed that several welfare bills did not pass, including one that would have prohibited those who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits from using their electronic benefits transfer cards at locations outside of Maine or to use them at smoke shops, liquor stores and casinos.
“The Republican-controlled Senate was able to pass meaningful welfare reform legislation, but the Democrat-controlled House blocked it from becoming law,” he said. “I think that is very unfortunate because the people of Maine made it clear that they want meaningful welfare reform.”
House Speaker Mark Eves countered that Democrats were ready to work with Republicans on changes to the welfare system but did not find a willing partner in negotiations. Eves said the welfare bills fell victim to politics, adding that some Republicans did not want to compromise and risk losing a valuable cudgel for legislative elections.
BUDGET TOUTED
Eves noted that the state’s $6.7 billion, two-year budget includes what he described as a meaningful change to the welfare system. The initiative seeks to address the so-called welfare cliff, which strips benefits from low-income Mainers who earn even $1 more than the income threshold required to receive assistance. The cliff, Republicans and Democrats argue, is a disincentive for struggling Mainers to take a job that may ultimately lead them out of poverty.
Eves and Thibodeau both touted elements of the budget, a bipartisan spending plan that the Legislature passed over the objections of LePage. Both leaders noted the $80 million increase in public education spending and a tax initiative that will reduce income taxes for a majority of Mainers, including middle-income earners.
Eves said the income tax cut in the budget is a departure from the tax reduction enacted by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2011.
“They are miles apart from each other,” he said. “We think this time the way we did it represents how you should grow the economy, and that is not by giving a tax cut to the rich and buying into the failed trickle-down theory of economics. We strongly rejected that. We were able to craft a tax proposal that strongly benefits the middle class.”
The budget became the focus of the session beginning with LePage’s controversial proposal released Jan. 9. As many of the governor’s initiatives were jettisoned, the spending plan – and the deadline to pass it – became the focus of both parties as Republicans and Democrats sought to insert policy priorities.
PARTIES AT ODDS
The result was a spending plan that increased funding for nursing homes by $16 million and the community college and University of Maine systems by $28 million, while also doubling the homestead property tax exemption for homeowners. Republicans and Democrats also protected municipal revenue sharing, which the governor had proposed to eliminate.
Critics of the budget have noted that it increased state spending – from $6.5 billion over the last biennium to $6.7 billion over the next two years. LePage has called the spending plan “business as usual,” although his proposal also increased spending, from $6.5 billion to $6.67 billion.
Despite the bipartisan budget, the two parties remain sharply at odds on a number of issues likely to resurface during the second session. The governor and Republicans remain committed to making Maine a right-to-work state, a divisive initiative that Republicans argue draws business investment but one also designed to reduce the political influence of labor unions.
Meanwhile, proposals to legalize marijuana and expand gambling continue to struggle, as in previous sessions. Lawmakers have also not determined a final solution for the governance and funding of county jails, an issue that has dogged the Legislature for many years.
When it ends next month, the first session of the 127th Legislature will have produced what divided government often does: lots of ambitious bills, but few that will pass.
“We got what we could,” Eves said. “I feel very good about some of the successes that we were able to have. … There were some big disappointments for us. We will be back trying to make sure that we’re successful.”
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