There’s a fevered pitch to the activity in the Legislature right now — almost desperation — as Gov. Paul LePage and his Republican majorities in the House and Senate try to jam through a number of highly controversial proposals before the legislative session ends and the fall campaign begins.
As it gets closer to time for lawmakers to go home — especially in an election year — the action gets fast and furious. And the casual observer of Augusta’s many ups and downs can be excused for losing track as all the activity blurs together.
After a while, the budget shortfalls, mistakes and excuses all start to sound alike.
Unfortunately, it’s during this time of year when major changes in state law often get enacted without public scrutiny, public input and with very little public discussion.
While there are usually late bills, this year seems different, more rushed than normal.
Unsure of the prospects for maintaining control of the Legislature, Gov. LePage seems to be trying to fill the boxes on a legislative check list, even if some of the ideas he’s presenting aren’t ready for prime time. He’s pushing hard because he might not get another chance.
And legislators, many of them overwhelmed, aren’t paying close enough attention to the details of proposals that could have long-lasting consequences for the state.
We saw this last year when Republicans forced through a major rewrite of the state’s health insurance regulations. The bill has required numerous fixes and has failed to live up to its billing. Instead of lower costs, it’s actually driven premiums up for many small businesses and families, particularly in rural areas of Maine.
In what is scheduled to be the last days of the legislative session, lawmakers are still dealing with two major budget rewrites. One proposes massive cost shifts onto property taxpayers, major program changes and tax cuts that aren’t paid for, while the other is stalled because the Department of Health and Human Services still hasn’t been able to identify the depth and breadth of a major computer foul-up that has cast doubt on a budget that cruelly eliminated 14,000 from health care coverage.
Other hot button issues still waiting for resolution include legislation that would undermine collective bargaining for public sector unions, a rewrite of the regulations around unemployment insurance that would punish people who lose their jobs unnecessarily, new loopholes in Maine’s public access laws, major changes in public education and a Franken-TABOR bill that will set state revenue on a fiscal death spiral, creating permanent and lasting structural shortfalls.
It’s nearly impossible to do intellectual justice to everything that remains at stake in the Legislature. And that’s a real problem.
Meanwhile, the basics of running government aren’t getting done.
The LePage administration on Tuesday revealed another major mistake that underestimated state revenue by millions of dollars.
While important government services are on the chopping block, state revenue has been artificially underestimated. In this case, the mistake may actually be a blessing and provide beleaguered Appropriations Commitee members the breathing room they need to reach agreement on balancing the state budget.
Even though the pressure on lawmakers to act — and act fast — continues to build, the Republican alliance between the governor and the Legislature has started to show some cracks.
Late last week, Gov. LePage unleashed a blistering attack on the Republican-led Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee.
Despite dealing with some of the toughest policy areas in the state, the Energy Committee has a history of working in bipartisan way to craft policy for the state. This year, the governor handed them bad policy that would have undermined locally produced power while benefiting a massive, foreign-owned energy company.
The policy experts on the committee changed the governor’s approach, making it far more reasonable — and more likely to be successful. For their efforts, they were broadsided.
Additionally, the governor suffered his first veto override. He vetoed a Republican-sponsored bill that would have created a working group to work on MaineCare funding for schools. It was not controversial and passed unanimously in the House and Senate.
This time — the first time in 17 vetoes — the Legislature stood up.
With elections looming, Republicans may feel that they need a little space from the governor to be re-elected. Meanwhile, with his control of the Legislature in jeopardy, Gov. LePage appears to be going for broke.
The danger is that the dysfunction will leave Maine to overcome bad policy rushed through at the last minute.
David Farmer is a political and media consultant. He was formerly deputy chief of staff and communications director for Gov. John E. Baldacci and a longtime journalist. His clients include Engage Maine. You can reach him at dfarmer14@hotmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @dfarmer14.
David you forgot a big one, the last minute introduction of changes to State Mining Law introduced at the last minute by Rep John Martin, Democrat. Smooth move by a “wiley” old legislator by introducing it towards the end of a session. And to quote you “legislators, many of them overwhelmed, aren’t paying close enough
attention to the details of proposals that could have long-lasting
consequences for the state. It’s nearly impossible to do intellectual justice to everything that
remains at stake in the Legislature. And that’s a real problem.”
Stress? This is nothing like the stress in a White House meeting discussing Obamacare and the Supreme Court.
LOL, great non-point. Just change the subject when you have nothing substantive to add.
So exactly what is your point? You do have one that’s on topic don’t you? Or perhaps you are just as guilty as I, but I have a better sense of humor.
Guber knows he, ALEC, MHPC, Koch’s and the Teatards may NEVER get another shot at it so they go for broke. Pretty well sums it up, yep. With any luck this election cycle may well be the death knell of the Reptilian Party. They are going to war on any and everything, women, children, poor, helpless, gay, fill in the blank. Of course the rich need not worry, as the Governor would say they don’t have to kiss my butt…….. we kiss theirs. MMMMMMMMuh
John, you truly are a poet. Keep them coming!
This goofy governor’s grand old goofball goobers are GONE come November.
Like it or not, sitting Republican legisators will all be painted with the LePage brush in the next election.
And the outcome will be a sharp swing left with the reestablishment of the Democratic party and we as a state can finally begin to move forward!
yeah this state was doing so well just two years ago when the democrats were in charge. i guess you define ‘moving forward’ differently than the dictionary.
while you may not agree with everything republicans and lepage have done, it is patently false to pretend that dems were finding solutions to our problems with job creation, healthcare costs, poverty, etc.
democrats are extremely effective in demonizing lepage and convincing uninformed voters that he wanted to become elected governor solely for the privilege of spending four years getting accused of being the anti-christ while he destroyed everything good in the state…they are much less effective actually addressing difficult problems themselves.
More right wing talking points. Democrats solve problems without being ridiculous bullies and without foisting national right wing agendas on us that are carbon copied from the ALEC/Heritage Foundation playbook. Come November, the voters of Maine are going to send the TeaNuts packing and restore some reason and Maine values to the legislature.
How have Democrats “solved” anything given that they held majorities for decades as Maine’s problems developed? There is no magic wand and the state government is certainly limited in its ability to address issues within the context of global and national circumstances; however, complacency was the modus operandi for Democratic leaders.
Our state saw the decline of traditional industries, youth left for better opportunity and the population became the oldest, on average, in the country. It takes a strong economy with younger workers to sustain the safety nets that protect the elderly and the disadvantaged, as well as fund our schools, maintain our roadways, and pay our public employees.
Democrats never led on a strategy to improve Maine’s economic climate. However, in order to appear the friend of the little guy they expanded state services to receive larger matching federal funds, always knowing that the future loss of these federal monies would leave the burden of these enlarged programs, and their employees and recipients, on state taxpayers.
To Democrats this risk to Maine wasn’t a risk for their political futures. It was a political win-win. Once a public employee is hired or a social program is in place, any attempt by Republicans to balance future budgets and provide relief for strained taxpayers and increase economic growth would be lambasted as “punishing the poor” or “attacking public employees.”
Just like you need to use boogeymen such as ALEC/Heritage Foundation to avoid a substantive discussion about the policy, Democrats can never have an honest discussion about correcting past mistakes but instead use shameless accusations to maintain votes.
Of course LePage is pissed. If he could ever walk into a meeting with Democratic leadership and know that they wouldn’t accuse him of being evil when he proposed difficult budget decisions, perhaps he wouldn’t be justifiably upset.
Think about it. If he really thought he could avoid all these difficult fights, the damage to his reputation, and also move Maine forward he would, and he would. He would then probably get re-elected easily.
What politician doesn’t want to cut taxes and throw money at all social programs in order to get everyone’s support. Unfortunately it isn’t that simple.
Farmer always seems to forget what the Democrats did for the last 40 years….maybe that’s because he’s paid by numerous progressive groups to come to the BDN and spread their message through these extremely partisan op-eds.
Yes.its going to take a lot of hard work to straighten out what the Dems. screwed up for the last 40 years.
Must you be rreminded again that the computer at DHHS was put in place by the Dems and the previous administration, who you worked for.
It didnt work right from day one.
Yes, in September. Three months before Lepage took office. Any kinks at the start would be chaulked up to the newness. Two year later and after canning the people who knew how things worked…..
David Farmer has done it again. Although I think his columns are very valuable additions to the Bangor Daily News, he still cannot shed his attitude to one of the major blunders of the Baldacci administration. His Thursday column contains the following words: “…the governor handed them (the legislators) bad (sic) policy that would have undermined locally produced power while bennefiting a massive foreign-owned energy company.”
Mr. Farmer is attacking the idea that hydro power from Quebec would benefit Maine consumers. Vermont last year concluded a 26 year contract with HydroQuebec for power costing six cents per kWh. It costs a combination of American taxpayers, Maine ratepayers, and private investors about 22 cents per kWh just to produce wind power. And they must pay many millions more to build and transport wind power on the new unneeded transmission lines. Germany is losing companies in droves because its present government last year decided to close its nuclear plants and to rely on increased quantities of wind power. The Maine Legislature and Farmer’s Baldacci Administration have mandated that Maine’s struggling consumers must consume increased quantities of wind generated power annually for years to come. They even declared that hydro from Quebec is not a renewable energy source! Yet Mr. Farmer continues to celebrate a dishonestly state of affairs as good news.
Hack article.
Republicans who want to get re-elected should run, not walk, to LePage. Mr. Farmer needs to get out of his normal element and get a sense of what’s going on in Maine. The momentum is still with those who were fed up with liberal policies–the same people who elected a Republican majority in 2010. People in Maine want change.
Here is one piece of evidence: For the first time in a long time, Republicans will field candidates in all legislative districts. Republicans are energized. They don’t want to see the 2010 gains slip away.
Please, advise all your candidates to run to LePage. They should have photo ops with him at every turn. And then get ready for Democrats to assume control with at least two-thirds majorities in each house of the legislature. I love it.