AUGUSTA, Maine — Democrats on the Legislature’s budget committee agreed Monday to reverse controversial changes they pushed through earlier this month by restoring transportation funding, maintaining a pension tax break and boosting milk prices for Maine dairy farmers.
The Monday afternoon votes still featured dissent from Republicans frustrated over Democrats’ original late night vote to approve the initial changes. Democratic leaders not on the committee also expressed concerns after that early morning meeting.
Over the weekend, Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, described “consensus” fixes to the addition to Maine’s two-year budget in a news release, though other Democrats, such as House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, and Gov. Janet Mills, were not mentioned or included in Jackson’s statement.
Still, Monday’s budget committee vote to approve the supplemental budget along party lines reversed several moves suddenly made by budget panel co-chair Rep. Melanie Sachs, D-Freeport, this month during a long and contentious hearing.
Those initially approved motions included shifting $60 million a year from the transportation budget to the broader General Fund, giving the appropriations panel — rather than the Transportation Committee — authority over the transportation budget and scaling back a pension tax break for retirees.
The decisions quickly drew criticism from Mills, a Democrat who had lauded last year’s bipartisan compromise to dedicate $200 million annually to the Highway Fund, along with Transportation Commissioner Bruce Van Note, Republicans and state workers, among others.
The plan also restores the pension tax break approved last year that raised it from $30,000 to $35,000 this year before continuing to increase it annually to the equivalent of the maximum Social Security benefit.
Lawmakers also increased milk prices under a state relief program to at least 25 percent of the updated costs of production — a plan that Mills, the Legislature’s agriculture committee and dairy farmers supported before Democrats on the budget panel voted April 3 to instead cover about 10 percent of the gap along with a one-time payment of $7 million.
Mills and Talbot Ross each said they appreciate Monday’s changes, but the governor added she is concerned additional spending “may not be fiscally sustainable in the long term.” Still, Mills will not veto the budget unless lawmakers amend it further “in any significant way,” spokesperson Ben Goodman said.
Rep. Dan Ankeles, D-Brunswick, told budget committee colleagues Monday he still thinks the transportation funding system deserves scrutiny in the future. Sachs highlighted investments in the proposed budget addition without speaking directly to her initial decisions on April 6, while Rep. Jack Ducharme, R-Madison, repeatedly asked why Democratic members thought it was “a good idea” to make early-morning moves.
The budget addition requires a two-thirds majority to take effect immediately rather than 90 days after lawmakers adjourn. With the Legislature facing a statutory adjournment date of Wednesday, Mills “has no intention of calling a special session to extend the legislative session,” spokesperson Scott Ogden said Monday.
The budget committee also approved language Monday to ensure York Hospital does not lose current funding and pay more taxes as a side effect of MaineCare reimbursement rate reforms included in the governor’s budget changes, and legislators will vote on a new compensation and classification system aimed at closing the state employee pay gap amid widespread vacancies.
The Senate also approved Friday a disaster relief bill amendment from Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, that includes a plan from Rep. Ed Crockett, D-Portland, to raise educational technician pay to 125 percent of the state minimum wage and other school support staff pay to 112.5 percent of the minimum wage. Those raises will cost about $7.72 million in fiscal year 2025 and about $7.95 million in fiscal year 2026.
That amendment also rolls in Jackson’s proposal to get $5 million more for Maine Veterans’ Homes, $30 million for crisis receiving centers, mobile mental health response units, medication management, suicide prevention and violence prevention initiatives proposed by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, and $31 million from the surplus for nursing homes struggling throughout Maine.
That spending was tacked onto the governor’s bill to take $50 million from the “rainy day fund” and use it to rebuild infrastructure damaged by severe storms in December and January, with an extra $10 million approved for businesses hurt by the storms.
Bennett’s amendment specifies no more than $30 million must be used for infrastructure projects related to wharves and piers that support commercial fishers and aquaculture businesses, with the rest going to non-coastal projects helping inland areas.
The veteran Republican got his amendment through the Democratic-led Senate in a 20-13 vote that was unusual in the sense that it passed without the support of most majority party members. The only Democrats in the 22-member caucus to back it were Sens. Mike Tipping of Orono, Tim Nangle of Windham, Craig Hickman of Winthrop, Nicole Grohoski of Ellsworth, Ben Chipman of Portland, Donna Bailey of Saco and Joe Baldacci of Bangor.
