AUGUSTA, Maine — Democratic lawmakers advanced a short-term 2025 budget Tuesday that fills a $118 million MaineCare funding gap, but the lack of Republican votes for the plan that several of their members negotiated means payments to health providers will be delayed.
Democrats who narrowly control the House of Representatives and Senate passed the supplemental budget along party lines Tuesday following tense speeches and attempted amendments from Republicans who wanted their peers to reinsert a provision that Gov. Janet Mills initially included to create an annual three-month limit on General Assistance per recipient.
Tuesday’s spending battle continued a theme in recent years of Democrats passing budgets without any Republican votes, and it foreshadows a contentious road ahead for lawmakers who must also pass a two-year budget by this summer to fund state government into 2027.
Mills, a Democrat, has proposed a $11.6 billion plan that fills a roughly $450 million shortfall but has already faced criticism from the right and left for mixing tax hikes with health-related cuts. Republicans are unlikely to vote for it, and the cuts have made Democratic lawmakers uneasy.
The supplemental budget faces further action in both chambers after the Tuesday vote. If Democrats cannot find Republican votes, the Legislature will have to technically adjourn so the budget will take effect in 90 days. A two-thirds majority was needed for the new spending to become available immediately.
Frustration was evident on both sides Tuesday, particularly as the Senate took up the plan in the afternoon after the House passed it. Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle, said his party was “strong-armed” and that no one had given him a firm date on when providers will start missing payments.
Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, who co-chairs the budget panel, reminded her colleagues that Republicans on the committee worked with Democrats to reach numerous compromises in the plan while pushing other items to two-year budget negotiations.
“I just have to say that no one was strong-armed,” Rotundo said.
The MaineCare funding gap resulted from growing enrollment in the state’s Medicaid program, increasing use of its health care services since the COVID-19 pandemic and other cost increases from inflation and workforce challenges, the Mills administration said.
The Legislature’s budget committee initially had bipartisan agreement on the short-term plan after removing additional spending the governor’s office wanted in it that related to housing assistance limits, paid leave premiums and disaster recovery. The committee indicated the additional money could go in the two-year budget and also axed Mills’ attempts to reduce funding for crisis receiving centers and mental health liaisons for police, among other areas.
But Rep. Ken Fredette, R-Newport, who missed last week’s budget committee vote while attending a high school basketball game with a family member, came out against it the following day and helped reveal internal Republican criticisms over why their appropriators went along with Democrats on the plan, which also includes $2 million to fight spruce budworm infestations.
Mills said she will work with lawmakers during two-year budget negotiations on a “much-needed” limit on General Assistance that is currently not capped annually but that Republicans “would be wise to support passage of the supplemental budget now.”
The Office of MaineCare Services emailed providers Monday to lay out the supplemental budget situation and how the state will need to temporarily withhold certain payments starting in March. The state’s health department has a plan to try to minimize pain for providers by capping certain payments at 70 percent their normal level, holding payments on claims that exceed $50,000, holding payments for large pharmacies and durable medical equipment suppliers and holding payments for out-of-state providers.
Maine Hospital Association lobbyist Jeff Austin said providers would not immediately get funding even if the supplemental budget passed with two-thirds support, as they are paid as they provide care. But Austin warned against not passing the plan, a sentiment echoed by the association of Maine nursing homes.
“That would be harmful to hospitals and unfair,” Austin said.