AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Legislature’s budget-writing committee may return to Augusta as soon as next week, a sign that Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives could be fixing to put aside certain differences on a gridlocked spending package.
Those differences, however, haven’t been officially set aside. Lawmakers ended their regular 2018 session in early May with lots of bipartisan priorities tied up in the dispute, including raises for direct care workers, a $100 million transportation bond and funding for county jails.
Democrats have insisted that start-up funding for voter-approved Medicaid expansion be part of any spending deal and they have proposed a $10.4 million bill to fund more than 100 state jobs related to expansion. House Republicans would like to slow a voter-approved minimum wage increase and the session ended after they rejected bids to extend the legislative session.
There are new — if small — signs of movement. The Legislature’s Appropriations Committee will likely return to Augusta next week, though no day has been determined. That is a first step toward bringing the full Legislature back to consider passing a spending package before the next fiscal year begins on July 1.
Rep. Drew Gattine, D-Westbrook, the co-chair of the panel, said Thursday that lawmakers will “pick up where we left off.” Rep. Tom Winsor of Norway, the top House Republican on the committee, said he was “really optimistic” that a deal could be reached.
That will likely rely on Democrats and Republicans edging away from their respective demands. Gattine said that he was “not at all” ready to cede the Medicaid expansion issue or count other items in or out of the package, which he said can get in the way of legislative work.
“I’m not coming in with any strings attached on anything,” Gattine said. “We’ve been away from each other for a couple of weeks. Maybe that’s giving people some time to be thoughtful.”
But Winsor said if the two sides stand down on that, a deal will “go through,” that lawmakers “just have to sit down and relax” and “the goal is to find agreement.”
House Republicans have released a list of bills that they have said they would support if they were run as standalone measures — making them subject to Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s veto pen. Democrats have resisted leaving Medicaid expansion funding up to him so far.
Senate Republicans, a more moderate group than their House counterparts, have been mostly on the sidelines during the fight between House Democrats and Republicans, but they stood with Democrats in earlier votes to keep the session going.
Senate President Mike Thibodeau, R-Winterport, said the budget committee’s return is a key step toward getting the full Legislature back “shortly.”
“I think the sooner we can get back in and take care of the people’s business, the better it is for a whole bunch of people,” he said.
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