Maine’s governor will deliver her first State of the State address at 7 p.m. tonight. In one of the last firsts for Gov. Janet Mills more than a year after taking office, the Democrat will address the Maine Legislature in the House chamber on Tuesday night in her first State of the State address. (Her similarly timed 2019 speech was technically a budget address.)
Expect a relatively tight focus from Mills, who told Maine Public this week that “major reforms” won’t be accomplished in a short legislative session in an election year, also saying some lawmakers won’t want “to come to the middle, but we’ll make things happen” in 2020.
Among her 2020 legislative priorities are a bill that would merge individual and small-group health insurance markets while giving Maine more control over its Affordable Care Act exchange. She may flesh out a supplemental budget proposal that she has only teased so far and may include more money for child welfare workers and the Maine State Police.
Minority Republicans still upset about the level of spending in the two-year budget passed in 2019 — which figures to be a campaign issue this year — have already signaled that they’ll be watching spending closely in 2020. We’ll see if Mills floats much of it tonight.