By Michael Shepherd - Feb 16, 2022
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Good morning from Augusta.

What we're watching today

Silence from Republicans says a lot about where budget negotiations are headed after the governor unveiled her plan. The spending proposal teased by Gov. Janet Mills in her State of the State address last week was formally released on Tuesday. Dominated by a plan to send $500 relief checks to 800,000 people, it rings in at a total cost of $850 million. The vast majority of it is one-time expenses making use of a huge projected state surplus.

The items in Mills' plan cannot be read as particularly divisive on their own. The relief checks were legislative Republicans' idea right down to the full cost of the program. There is nothing all that controversial in the rest of the document. Other big-ticket items include a $100 million transfer for chronically underfunded roads and bridges, tens of millions for health care worker wages, and a free community college program for recent and upcoming graduates.

But the level of state government spending has been the main Republican attack line on Mills since she took office. Even when settled with her on a two-year budget in 2019 just under the $8 billion mark, they began warning that spending increases were not sustainable. But those doomsday projections have not come to bear during a COVID-19 pandemic in which federal aid saved states from crises and helped drive record revenue in Maine.

That underscores some awkwardness for Republicans. Mills is using their ideas to give back much of the surplus. In an election year, former Gov. Paul LePage, the party's standard bearer and the presumptive 2022 gubernatorial nominee, is slamming Mills' inclusion of the checks as a campaign gimmick. Top party lawmakers have not addressed the budget much so far. It does not seem likely that they will like the price tag on the package, which leaves only $12 million in undedicated revenue for the Legislature to consider.

Gaming all of this out, it is worth noting Democrats already passed a budget last year by a simple majority. In an election year, Republicans may decide that holding out on this one is the best path to sidestep being tied to the governor on spending. But then they will get less credit for their own ideas. It is a political pickle for now with the Mills-LePage showdown looming over everything.

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What we're reading

— Mainers are being shocked by the rising electric rates that are now hitting bills. One Bangor nurse saw her bill increase to $277 between December and January, which was $120 more than she paid in November. The Maine Public Utilities Commission’s consumer assistance division has gotten nearly 400 calls complaining of higher bills since Jan. 31. The rate increases came because bids to supply power have come in higher due to surging prices of natural gas and other fuels. The recent cold snap across the region exacerbated it as well.

— Tribes used an emotional legislative hearing to continue their push for expanded sovereignty. A sweeping measure that would expand tribes' rights to manage taxation, natural resources and other policy areas on their land drew more than 1,200 pieces of written testimony on Wednesday. Mills' office was among the few opponents as the governor offers a compromise measure that tribes look inclined to take. But Chief Kirk Francis of the Penobscot Nation told lawmakers it is no substitute for the full slate of rights the tribes seek.

— I have a guide to Mills' plan for the $500 relief checks, which would go to many more Mainers over a longer period of months later this year compared with the last round of checks.

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Follow along today

10 a.m. The House and Senate are scheduled to convene for the second of three days of floor sessions this month. Mostly minor bills are on the docket for final votes as the chambers mostly move through procedural work. Watch the House here and the Senate here.

11 a.m. Mills will hold a news conference at the University of Maine at Farmington alongside university and system officials to highlight pieces of recent spending plans addressing child care availability and wages.

11:30 a.m. LePage will walk with supporters from the area around the Blaine House in Augusta to the office building next to the State House before submitting signatures to qualify for the Republican gubernatorial primary. We expect remarks there. He will then join supporters at John Sullivan's Pub in Augusta, according to a Maine Republican Party notice.

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📷 Lead photo: Gov. Janet Mills delivers her State of the State Address at the Maine State House on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022, in Augusta. (Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald via AP)

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