Politics
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AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov.-elect Hannah Pingree said Tuesday there will be “no easy solution” to the $1 billion gap in her first two-year budget, but she would not say whether new taxes or the state’s rainy day fund are on the table.
The Democrat spoke as she introduced the 22-member committee of volunteers that will help pick her Cabinet. It is led by Roger Katz, a former Republican state senator and Augusta mayor, and Maulian Bryant, the executive director of the Wabanaki Alliance.
The budget is their most urgent problem. Pingree must send lawmakers a balanced proposal by early February, weeks after her Jan. 6 inauguration. Democrats expanded their legislative majorities in last week’s wave election following outgoing Gov. Janet Mills’ passage of a millionaire tax and use of $155 million from the reserve fund for $300 relief checks.
Asked about income taxes, sales taxes or the rainy day fund, Pingree instead pointed to property taxes and federal cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.
“Mainers are hurting right now,” she said. “I’ve made a commitment to middle- and low-income Mainers that they are already paying too much.”
Pingree said she will meet soon with Elaine Clark, Mills’ outgoing budget commissioner. She wants her own pick to lead the Department of Administrative and Financial Services to be “ready on day one to help us advance a budget.”
Committee members include state Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, the outgoing chair of the Legislature’s budget committee, and former Senate Majority Leader Eloise Vitelli, D-Arrowsic. Katz, himself a former legislative leader and appropriator, said the committee would recruit talent “no matter how someone voted.”
Republicans have not responded to Pingree’s comments. After last week’s losses, the new House minority leader, Rep. Ken Fredette, R-Newport, said his party has to govern alongside Pingree and Democrats and can’t “just be the party of no.”
On Tuesday, Pingree said her Cabinet “could include independents and Republicans.” She aims to name every commissioner before she takes office, and she said transition committee members were picked with the understanding that they were not interested in a Cabinet job.