AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Janet Mills said Tuesday she will not sign the 35 bills approved by lawmakers on Friday before they adjourned for the year, meaning proposals covering everything from megayachts to human remains are dead.
The Democratic-controlled Legislature was powerless after adjourning following a long, final day on Friday that saw lawmakers fail to override any of the governor’s vetoes and then wait for hours for the House to ultimately not take up a slew of additional measures that needed funding.
The dispute underscores major divides between the Democratic governor and the more progressive lawmakers in her party. Mills’ decision drew criticism Tuesday from members in both parties. Ahead of the decision, Darek Grant, the Senate secretary, told members that he was initially rejected twice Friday before presenting the bills to Mills.
Last week, the Legislature’s budget committee recommended passing 80 late bills with about $11 million in unspent money. Mills warned the additional funding would push the state budget “to the breaking point” and cost more than $37 million by 2026.
Although the House failed to take up the measures, more than 30 bills and several proposed studies only needed final approval from the Senate. The upper chamber ended up passing the bills, many of which flew under the radar this year amid debates on other, higher-profile issues.
Mills said the Legislature’s decision to pass dozens of additional bills on a veto day without having the support of at least two-thirds of members “appears to be without precedent in the history of the Maine Legislature.”
The governor noted the Legislature initially adjourned in mid-April after passing an addition to the two-year budget. Lawmakers never amended the adjournment statute nor voted with a two-thirds majority to extend the session, two options they had under state law, Mills added.
“My decision not to sign these bills is intended to protect this norm, to reject what would be a harmful precedent and to provide an institutional check that, while difficult in the short-term, is beneficial for the long-term conduct of business and the creation of public policy,” Mills wrote in a letter to lawmakers.
The bills the governor did not sign included everything from a proposal from Rep. Grayson Lookner, D-Portland, to make private megayachts pay a daily $10 fee while they are docked in Maine to an effort from House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, to create a board that would study and rename offensive names of places in the state and a measure from Rep. Valli Geiger, D-Rockland, to set up a statewide sexual assault kit tracking system.
Another bill from Rep. David Boyer, R-Poland, looked to address a backlog of unidentified human remains, while a proposal from Sen. Donna Bailey, D-Saco, sought to require insurance carriers to cover specialized risk screenings for first responders.
Numerous House Democrats were not in attendance Friday, a sign that they likely had heard by then that the governor would not support any of the bills. But Sen. Joe Baldacci, D-Bangor, said just before 2 p.m. Tuesday that Grant, the Senate secretary, indicated the governor’s office would reverse itself and formally consider the bills before her.
A little more than an hour later, however, Baldacci received the governor’s letter and described it in a social media post as “a lot of bad news.”
“The lack of political skill and the tone deafness is amazing,” Baldacci said.
Boyer called it “yet another glaring failure of Democratic leadership in Augusta, putting politics before good policy.”
In his letter to lawmakers, Grant said he tried to present Friday the enacted bills to Mills and her office but was rejected twice, calling that “a first” since he became secretary in 2018.
Hours after he met with Mills and her staff, it appeared the Legislature may adjourn. At that time, Grant said he received a text message from a sender he did not identify indicating the governor’s office would accept the enacted bills for consideration.
But Mills spokesperson Ben Goodman said the governor also told Democratic leaders they were “operating on legally questionable ground by considering and passing bills on such an unprecedented scale on veto day” and encouraged members to reconsider the bills next year.
Talbot Ross spokesperson Mary-Erin Casale said the letters from Mills and Grant “confirm that the only responsible option” for the House on Friday was to adjourn. In a statement, Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, Senate Majority Leader Eloise Vitelli, D-Arrowsic, and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, said Mills “owns” her move.
“To cast aspersions on the Legislature or claim that the Legislature acted inappropriately, is not only wrong but not for the chief executive to determine,” the Senate leaders said.
