By Michael Shepherd - Feb. 8, 2023
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📷 House Majority Leader Maureen Terry, D-Gorham, watches proceedings in the House chamber at the State House in Augusta on June 30, 2021. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

Good morning from Augusta. Legislative committees are in today. Hearings on the two-year budget begin at 10 a.m. Watch them. Here's the full agenda.

What we're watching today

Lawmakers want to rein in a hastily passed law freezing property taxes for seniors. It may be hard. The Maine Legislature generally does things slowly. Every now and then, something happens quickly. One of those exceptions was a program passed last year that freezes property tax payments for all Mainers 65 and older. It is just taking practical effect this year.

This idea began as a Republican bill introduced in 2021 that got little attention from anyone in Augusta. But it was revived last year at the very end of budget talks when legislative Republicans used their share of money left over in a bipartisan budget deal to fund start-up costs for the program. Democrats and Gov. Janet Mills, in the middle of campaigns, allowed it to go into law.

The sweeping law applies to all Mainers 65 and older who have gotten a homestead exemption for the past 10 years or more. They can apply every year to have property taxes frozen at the level of the previous year. The state pays cities and towns for the difference, meaning the size of the program will rise each year it is in place. No limits are placed on the program and your taxes can be frozen even if you move into a higher-priced community.

The real bill for the program is coming due. The Mills administration expects the cost to jump from $15 million in the first year to $31 million in the second year. The design of the program, which has been roundly criticized by the Maine Municipal Association and many local planners, has prompted a host of reform proposals in the new Legislature.

The association's key measure is being sponsored by House Majority Leader Maureen Terry, D-Gorham. Read it. The bill would replace the program with an extra homestead exemption of $25,000 for seniors making less than 80 percent of the regional median income and $15,000 for those between 80 percent and 100 percent, inserting strict means testing into a program with none.

Terry's case for the measure adds up to a legislative apology for the measure. She said it should not passed with such little legislative attention and said the current version pits "neighbor against neighbor." The changes would give more aid to Maine seniors who need it most, she said.

"I think we all, like, get into reality a little bit and know it will explode upon itself in the next few years because it will be too expensive to sustain," Terry said.

Terry is not the only one proposing reforms. Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, wants an even larger homestead exemption to replace the program, while the municipal association is also backing a bill from Sen. Matt Pouliot, R-Augusta, that would eliminate the requirement for people to apply each year.

Mills funded the tax-freeze program in her two-year budget proposal, but she looks to be open to changes. Ben Goodman, her spokesperson, said she thinks it is appropriate for lawmakers to consider whether the goal of keeping seniors in their homes is being accomplished in the most fiscally and administratively responsible manner.

But reining in the program could come with some political risks. Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle, said he backs some tweaks to the system, including one clarifying that couples with only one senior in the household are eligible. However, he said the state should implement the program and see how it works before smothering it.

"Let's see what the problems really are and not what people are speculating they might be and poking holes in things because it's a new thing they don't want to try," he said. "That's what it boils down to."

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News and notes

📷 President Joe Biden shakes hands with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California, as Vice President Kamala Harris watches after the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on Tuesday in Washington. (Pool photo by Jacquelyn Martin via AP)

📺 Maine politicians who are friendliest to the president praise his speech.

◉ President Joe Biden gave his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, mixing calls for bipartisanship and fiery exchanges with Republicans. Here's a CNN annotation and a breakdown of Biden's claims from FactCheck.org.

◉ The only statements in response to the speech came in Tuesday from Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, and Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from the 1st District. They vote with Biden effectively all the time in Congress, according to FiveThirtyEight data.

◉ "Tonight’s State of the Union address was a powerful reminder of what America can accomplish when we fight together for common values rather than against one another," King said. "Despite historic challenges, Congress and Maine people have united in pursuit of a brighter future."

◉ "President Biden spoke clearly about the immense economic progress we’ve made on his watch," Pingree said.

◉ Pingree's guest was Nirav Shah, the outgoing director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, who filmed an interview with her. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from the 2nd District, brought Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis, after aligning with tribes on their sovereignty push.

🔌 Foes of Maine's biggest utility sue the state over referendum signatures.

◉ On Monday, Bill Dunn, who works with Our Power, the group pushing a consumer-owned utility that would buy out the infrastructure of Maine's major electric utilities, sued Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, saying she was wrong to clear a rival referendum for the ballot.

◉ It escalated the battle between Central Maine Power Co. and its critics, who are locked in a war over their dueling 2023 referendum proposals. CMP's parent company is pushing a referendum that would subject the billions in borrowing needed to fund a utility buyout to another public vote.

◉ Bellows cleared the CMP proposal for the ballot last month, finding that it barely qualified by getting just over 1,100 more signatures from registered Maine voters than it needed. In his lawsuit filed in an Augusta court, Dunn says Bellows should have invalidated 3,200 more signatures. Read the suit.

◉ "The Secretary made this determination in violation of constitutional and statutory provisions, in excess of her statutory authority, upon an unlawful procedure, unsupported by substantial evidence on the whole record, and in a manner that was arbitrary, capricious and characterized by an abuse of discretion," Dunn's lawsuit reads.

◉ "It's remarkable what lengths the Pine Tree Power campaign will go to in order to keep Mainers from having the right to approve the $13 billion they want to borrow," said Willy Ritch, the Democratic operative running the referendum campaign for No Blank Checks, a group funded by CMP's parent.

Correction: Jillian Haggerty of Houlton is currently an intern in Collins' office. An item in Tuesday's Daily Brief was incorrect.

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What we're reading

💼 Maine's paid leave conversation kicked off with Republican opposition.

⚡ Here's what to do if your electric bill suddenly spikes.

🪞 Six-figure jobs are promised at a proposed Katahdin-area mine.

📚 The public was divided on LGBTQ books in a Maine school library.

☎️ A Bangor councilor waits for word on her Syrian family after a deadly quake.

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