By Michael Shepherd - March 31, 2023
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📷 Maine House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, speaks at a Thursday news conference at the State House in Augusta. He is flanked by Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle (right), and No. 2 Senate Republican Lisa Keim of Dixfield. (BDN photo by Michael Shepherd)

Good morning from Augusta. Legislative committees are back at work on Friday. Here's the meeting agenda, including a key revenue forecasting meeting happening this morning. Watch that.

What we're watching today

Over Republican opposition, Democrats used their majorities to ram a $9.9 billion budget through the Maine Legislature on Thursday, sending it to Gov. Janet Mills, who is expected to sign it on Friday.

It was the second state budget inked by a simple majority since 2021, setting aside the typical consensus process that has governed state spending for the last two decades. While Republicans set aside their anger to negotiate a revised budget after that, the path to consensus seems harder now.

Here's what I saw between the chambers on Thursday night.

Floor debate was rawer than it has been in years. House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, presided over a rocky floor debate, repeatedly admonishing Republican members for impugning other members. More than a dozen Republicans spoke.

They ran the gamut from a restrained argument for consensus from Rep. Sawin Millett of Waterford to a broadside from Rep. Laurel Libby of Auburn, who labeled the budget a "tyranny of the majority."

In a reaction to a remark from the Democratic side of the chamber, Libby paused to tell that member she had a few pages left in her speech. Assistant House Majority Leader Kristen Cloutier, D-Lewiston, left the chamber during Libby's speech, telling people she didn't want to hear it any longer.

Later on in the Senate, Minority Leader Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle, noted a fundraising email referencing the budget that had gone out minutes earlier from the Democratic campaign arm run by Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, directly referencing electoral politics in a way that is exceedingly rare on the chamber floors.

"We're going to beat you," Stewart said.

Democrats say more bipartisan talks are coming, but Republicans were cynical. The argument from the majority party centered on taking a state shutdown off the table by passing a pared-down version of Mills' initial budget proposal.

There will be at least $400 million in revenue and probably much more available to lawmakers by the end of the scheduled session in June. Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, has said Republicans' key demand for an income tax cut would be better discussed in the second part of the budget.

"This is about providing stability and governing responsibly," she said. "This will allow us to take the time necessary to try and reach a consensus on a part-two budget without the threat of a shutdown looming over us."

But Republicans responded on the floors by saying their top negotiators — Millett and Sen. Rick Bennett of Oxford — would never shut down government. They also predicted that Democrats would be no more likely to heed their input later this spring.

"If there was a true willingness to provide that sort of relief, then it would have been pretty easy to make that commitment in part one," House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, told reporters.

The dispute between the parties is infecting other business. Faulkingham is among the key figures in this year's Legislature, in part due to his leadership position but also due to his unique political positioning.

For example, he has been negotiating a tribal sovereignty deal with Talbot Ross, who would need House Republican votes to circumvent likely opposition from Mills. He told reporters that he votes on solid policy and not on personal politics, but he conceded that the budget vote could poison the atmosphere.

Later on in the night, Democrats needed Republican votes to advance a routine bill on environmental rules that was unanimously supported by lawmakers on a committee. House Republicans withheld their votes, bogging it down for now.

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News and notes

📷 Jill Biden speaks at a rally at the Thomas Hill Standpipe in Bangor on Oct. 27, 2020. (BDN photo by Linda Coan O'Kresik)

🛫 The first lady and education secretary come to Maine next week.

◉ Jill Biden, the wife of President Joe Biden, will visit Maine on Wednesday alongside Education Secretary Miguel Cardona as part of a national tour highlighting recent initiatives including the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan Act.

◉ Gov. Janet Mills will visit a community college with Jill Biden and Cardona, the governor's office told WCSH. The visit may focus on the effect of Maine's free community college program for recent high school graduates, which has won bipartisan support here since it passed as part of a state budget in 2021.

◉ It is the first visit to Maine for Jill Biden since the 2021, when she was dispatched to Cape Elizabeth to tout progress in recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. Cardona was here last year for a southern Maine swing with U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine's 1st District. The president has not visited Maine since a 2018 book tour took him to Portland.

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What we're reading

🚨 Donald Trump has been indicted. Rep. Jared Golden is urging restraint.

📰 The Portland Press Herald's owner considers selling his newspaper empire.

📨 After a two-year delay, Bangor will take applications for COVID-19 relief.

🤏 Houlton police seized almost as much drug money as state police in 2022.

👛 We rounded up Maine's best destination dining experiences under $150. Here's your soundtrack.

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