The Legislature's last day
Lawmakers upheld five Mills vetoes on their final day of work for 2022. The Maine Legislature was back in Augusta for what was likely its last day of the year. They were there mostly to deal with five vetoes from the governor, all of which were upheld after failing to win two-thirds votes in the House.
It was still a long day. Lawmakers left a sweeping tribal sovereignty bill opposed by Mills on the table after a prayer to open the Senate from Vice Chief Darrell Newell of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township, who said, "Tribal-state relations are broken and irreparable until ... the sacred, inherent, sovereign rights of the Wabanaki people are recognized first."
The Senate debated a hemp licensing bill that ended up dying after a tied vote aiming to rescue it. Around the same time, a bill fixing errors in state law was held up for a while on the House side because the body was three people short of a quorum. Leaders got the members they needed and passed it.
There was then a lighter side as some members finished their careers in public service. As the House was having trouble wrangling members, Senate Minority Leader Jeff Timberlake, R-Turner, joked that he may go down to the other chamber and impersonate his sister, Rep. Shelia Lyman, R-Livermore Falls. Here's your soundtrack.
Mills appeared in the chambers to thank lawmakers. In the Senate, she said members "listened to me on occasion" and that "felt good." In his regular roast of senators, term-limited Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, said as secretary of state, he revoked the driver's license of a high school-aged Sen. Brad Farrin, R-Norridgewock. The exiting Sen. Susan Deschambault, D-Biddeford, sang Frank Sinatra's "My Way." Business concluded in the early evening. |
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