🎣 Big deals move forward

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By Michael Shepherd - March 17, 2022
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Good morning from Augusta.

What we're watching today

Maine lawmakers are bringing home some of the big compromises of 2022. There is still some peril. I told you on Tuesday it was the season for dealmaking and (this time) the prediction was correct. We did not know how fast some of the year's biggest bargains would come. By Wednesday's end, legislative committees advanced a sweeping tribal sovereignty bill, an offshoot sports betting compromise with tribes and a housing bill from House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford.
When I say "bargains," I don't mean lawmakers have totally solved these issues. Democrats who lead the Maine Legislature have some divides either among themselves or with Gov. Janet Mills on tribal issues. Most Republicans have looked either ambivalent or opposed to each of these causes, save for elements of the housing bill. Each one will be interesting to follow on the floors.
Democrats and liberal-leaning lawmakers backed the tribal bills in committee. Mills is in the driver's seat on that issue, unlikely to back the sweeping one in favor of the smaller one giving online sports betting to tribes. Some progressives are that unhappy Fecteau took the farthest-reaching items out of his bill, though it may not have passed if he did not.
The sports betting deal has come together relatively quickly, about a month after terms of an original compromise between Mills and tribes was made public. Casinos were originally cut out of the new sports betting market. They were added into the final version in different ways. Oxford Casino will be able to conduct betting in their casino. Hollywood Casino in Bangor will only be able to do it at its seasonal raceway, which led it to oppose the new deal in favor of an existing sports betting measure giving casinos a bigger share of business.
While Mills did not immediately throw her public support behind this version, she seems likely to eventually. The Bangor casino's opposition could hint at regional dissent over the proposal when it heads to the House and Senate floors, but it is clear that lawmakers got closer to a palatable deal on Wednesday. Progressives aligned with tribes could press Mills harder on full sovereignty this year or be happy with this for now.
As for affordable housing, Fecteau dropped controversial prohibitions on municipal growth caps and a state board that could have overridden local project decisions. The measure still takes on single-family zoning and makes it easier to build accessory units. The bill was supported by a wide coalition from the Maine State Chamber of Commerce to the progressive Maine People's Alliance. The latter group still supports it, but lamented the changes in a statement for showing "how deeply entrenched the power that protects the status quo is" in Maine politics.
Next up for the Legislature is ironing out Mills' $1 billion spending plan. We will see whether Republicans will try to alter the governor's relief-check proposal that began with a demand for relief from the minority party. Lawmakers are still considering an electric rate relief program from Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, and a $100 million fund to clean up so-called forever chemicals on agricultural land. It will be a busy month at the State House.

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What we're reading

— Nobody can remember the last time a Maine port turned away a foreign vessel trying to come to shore. But that is what happened in Eastport this week after the Russian-flagged cargo ship Fesco Uliss requested permission to dock after being barred from its original destination of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec.
— Sen. Angus King said the U.S. can increase military assistance to Ukraine without imposing a no-fly zone. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy redoubled his no-fly zone call in an address to Congress, but there is consensus here that establishing one could draw the U.S. and allies into war.
— Maine's geographic position makes it so we would see relatively small effects from a switch away from year-round daylight saving time. The change, which passed the U.S. Senate this week, would put some winter sunrises past 8 a.m. while pushing back sunsets an hour. I'm already tired. Here's your soundtrack.
— The state wants to hire an outside firm to study the market for food packaging solutions that do not contain forever chemicals. The review is expected to be done by the summer.

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Follow along today

9 a.m. The Legislature's agriculture committee is in for work on the $100 million "forever chemicals" fund. The panel will also work on its report back to the appropriations committee on Mills' supplemental budget. Watch here.
1 p.m. Bills aiming to bar discrimination based on hair texture or style and prohibit the recording calls between people in jails and prisons and their lawyers will get work sessions in the Judiciary Committee. Watch here.

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📷 Lead photo: Hollywood Casino in Bangor is pictured on July 7, 2020. (BDN photo by Josh Kaufmann)

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🎣 Big deals move forward

What we're watching today

What we're reading

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