AUGUSTA, Maine — A top Democrat’s Monday maneuver to force Gov. Paul LePage to issue a voter-approved senior housing bond passed the Maine House of Representatives, but Republican opposition could bode badly for the effort.
The $15 million bond was backed by 69 percent of voters in November 2015, but LePage’s office says he’s delaying it to develop a plan around affordable senior housing in Maine. It has created another standoff on bonds between legislators and LePage after a dispute last year over conservation bonds.
Maine is the nation’s oldest state, and a study from the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition said a shortage of nearly 9,000 affordable housing units for low-income people age 55 and older may balloon to 15,000 by 2022.
On Monday, Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves’ order to direct a legislative committee to recommend a bill compelling LePage to issue the bond passed the House in an 80-63 vote.
It could encounter resistance in the Republican-led Senate: Just three House Republicans — Carol McElwee of Caribou, William Tuell of East Machias and Kevin Battle of South Portland — voted for it.
The bond would be matched by $22.6 million in private and other funds to build more than 200 new housing units and weatherize more than 100 homes for low-income seniors. LePage has opposed the idea since Eves introduced it last year, but he missed his 10-day veto deadline after it passed the Legislature.
At a Monday news conference, Eves called the order “extremely necessary” given LePage’s history. LePage held back $11.5 million in Land for Maine’s Future bonds for much of 2015 before agreeing to issue $5 million in December and revive $6.5 million in January.
“This bond isn’t going to solve all of our problems,” Eves said, “but not to do it is a failure of leadership and stands in the way of what 69 percent of Maine voters said they wanted to have happen.”
By law, LePage has five years to issue bonds. Earlier this month, he said he wants the private sector to pay for housing units, using bond money to create telemedicine units at each project.
LePage spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett said the bond includes “no plan” on how to spend the money and that the administration is working with the Maine State Housing Authority to address the needs of seniors, homeless people and veterans.
But Bennett didn’t say if that plan would come from the housing authority, in a LePage bill or a proposed change to the bond, saying details are being worked out.
The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn April 20 and committee work is supposed to have ended. Eves said before then, legislators need to force LePage to act. But House Minority Leader Ken Fredette, R-Newport, said on the floor that the governor should be allowed to manage bonds and legislators should wrap up business.
“Folks, the end of session is here,” he said, “or it should be.”