AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Janet Mills told lawmakers Tuesday night to “join me in putting the people of Maine first” by passing a $11.6 billion budget that has drawn criticism from the right and left for mixing tax increases with cuts to certain health programs.
The Democratic governor also used her budget address to criticize a November referendum to create a “red flag” law in a budget address that came more than a year after the Lewiston mass shooting. Mills said that push from progressives would “directly undermine” Maine’s existing “yellow flag” law that removes guns from dangerous people.
Tuesday evening’s hourlong speech to lawmakers gathered inside the House chamber did not feature many new specifics from Mills, who is midway through her final term. But she doubled down on the “tough” decisions needed to balance the budget amid a $450 million spending gap, positioning herself as standing between legislative Democrats and Republicans on spending.
“It’s not been fun or easy to put this budget together, something you are beginning to understand,” Mills told lawmakers gathered in the House chamber for the speech.
The governor started her speech about 20 minutes behind schedule, with police officers keeping a noticeable presence in the State House amid a group of anti-Mills protesters directing taunts at the governor while standing in the hallway outside the House chamber.
Earlier this month, Mills unveiled her plan that features a $1 a pack increase to Maine’s $2 cigarette tax and cuts to Department of Health and Human Services programs. Republicans were quick to criticize the additional tax and fee increases Mills put in her plan, while Democrats and left-leaning groups expressed particular concern over cuts related to child care, food assistance and other DHHS programs.
It makes for the most difficult budget season for Mills since she took office in 2019, with the past few state budgets winning enough Democratic support but no Republican votes. Democrats lost several seats in the November election but still have majorities in each chamber.
Mills nodded to budget challenges nationwide while also saying Maine and its economy under her have still been in a better position. She acknowledged the proposed tax hikes and DHHS cuts while highlighting $156 million to continue the state’s 55 percent education funding levels, a 4 percent funding bump to universities and $561 million to maintain municipal revenue sharing.
The overarching theme of Tuesday’s speech was Mills telling lawmakers to work with her rather than only publicly criticize her ideas. She drew applause only twice from Republicans — while criticizing the red flag push and later while mentioning Newport native Cooper Flagg, the Duke University star who may be the No. 1 pick in next year’s NBA Draft.
“It is easy to stand in front of a TV camera and say ‘no.’ It is easy to fire off a social media post and to feel good as the ‘likes” roll in,” Mills said. “But it is harder to do the work of sitting around the table.”
Republicans who have already criticized the tax increases in the governor’s proposal stuck to their familiar line after Tuesday’s speech. Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle, said Mills “has lied to us,” alluding to her 2022 campaign promise to not raise taxes if reelected.
Democratic lawmakers credited Mills for parts of her speech while avoiding talk of the more controversial aspects. Assistant Majority Leader Lori Gramlich, D-Old Orchard Beach, said Mills “offered a thoughtful approach,” while Rep. Drew Gattine, D-Westbrook, who chairs the budget committee, told a reporter “this is still just the beginning of a very, very long process.”
Many members of Mills’ party sat silent when the governor defended the “yellow flag” law that she helped craft as Maine’s attorney general and has since tweaked after the October 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston that left 18 dead and 13 injured as “not a burden.”
The law, which police have used significantly more since the shooting, lets police take people deemed dangerous into custody before they receive a mental health assessment and a court hearing to temporarily lose access to guns, but proponents of a “red flag” law that removes a step by letting families directly petition a judge have collected enough signatures to put an initiative to voters in November.
Mills also urged lawmakers to pass her supplemental budget plan this year and her two-year proposal in order to close a $118 million MaineCare funding gap and protect the nearly 400,000 people who are enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program.
“No matter what, I ask this Legislature to join me in putting the people of Maine first,” Mills said.