By Michael Shepherd - April 20, 2022
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Good morning from Augusta. It is the last scheduled day of the legislative session. The Daily Brief will be off Thursday and Friday and return Monday.

What we're watching today

The Maine Senate is divided over when to leave Augusta, disrupting the timing of bills competing for relatively little money. Wednesday was always supposed to be the last day of the 2022 legislative session. That schedule is only on track because of a late-night Tuesday split in the Maine Senate, where Republicans withheld the two-thirds vote needed to pass a Democratic bid to give lawmakers two more days to complete work.

Assistant Senate Majority Leader Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, said nonpartisan staff need more time to draft a huge raft of amendments required for the budget committee to determine which bills out of a group of more than $1 billion awaiting funding will benefit from a relatively scant $12 million left over in the state budget.

Daughtry blamed this in part on a burst pipe in March that forced the bill-writing office to temporarily relocate. But Republicans were not having it on the heels of a relatively short day of work on Monday coinciding with Patriot's Day, a state holiday. Assistant Senate Minority Leader Matt Pouliot, R-Augusta, rose to say members have "had plenty of time to get our job done."

The practical effect could be that lawmakers will not be ready to fund the extra bills on Wednesday. But even if Republicans force an end to the legislative session, Gov. Janet Mills can call lawmakers back to finish work at any time. Democrats control the chambers, so they have the biggest incentive to return quickly to pass unfunded bills. Republicans would care less if all of them died. But Democrats are not going to let that happen one way or another.

Major measures are tied up in this dispute, including the governor's deal with tribes to give them control of the mobile sports betting market, which got through the Senate late Tuesday after it was changed to allow in-person betting at a Bangor casino that was initially shut out of the betting proposal.

The $12 million for these tabled bills is set to be split evenly between the four legislative caucuses. Republicans were ready on Tuesday to split the cost with Democrats of $1.2 million in initiatives aimed at strengthening an indigent legal services system facing a lawsuit alleging violations of constitutional rights. Democrats had not previewed their agenda as of Tuesday night.

The timing dispute led Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, to close the session by admonishing lawmakers after an episode earlier in the evening in which Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, forced a roll-call vote on what initially seemed like his half-joking request to allow members to knit at their desks on the Senate floor. It passed. Jackson said the chamber left Mainers "hanging."

"What we did do today was we allowed knitting," he said.

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What we're reading

— Mills' utility accountability measure is on the rocks in Augusta after Democrats in the House divided on two different versions. The split between Democrats aligned with the governor and those most zealously backing a consumer-owned utility threatens to kill the measure, the original version of which was opposed by both utilities and their biggest critics. (Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, a leader of that latter faction, announced a compromise offer today.)

— In overwhelming votes, lawmakers sent a $1.2 billion spending measure to Mills' desk on Tuesday. (She will sign the package highlighted by $850 relief checks to 857,000 Mainers today.)

— Mills signed a bill into law to investigate sexual abuse allegations within the Maine National Guard and expand oversight. It comes after a Bangor Daily News investigation exposed a predatory culture on the Army side of the organization.

— The first bidding wars for apartments in southern Maine's tight market are here. That phenomenon is old news in big and desirable cities including New York and Los Angeles, but they are just beginning here.

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Follow along today

10 a.m. The House and Senate are back. Since it is the last scheduled day of the session with some question of whether lawmakers or the governor will extend work, it is hard to predict what will come up in either chamber. It may be more illustrative to examine what is left to vote on.

The highest-profile bills awaiting House action are a proposed ban on flavored tobacco, a constitutional right to privacy and a ban on the use of certain restraints and chemical sprays on children in state prison. Watch here.

The Senate calendar is full of study bills to be reviewed by legislative leaders before advancing or dying. The biggest bill awaiting action is Mills' utility accountability measure, which was tabled late Tuesday. Watch here.

Backers of an expanded Good Samaritan bill that would shield more people who report drug overdoses hold a State House news conference urging Mills to sign it. She issued a veto threat on the current version on Tuesday that urged lawmakers to send her a watered-down version of the measure.

11:30 a.m. Tribal leaders and supporters hold a rally and news conference at the State House to hail the advances of key sovereignty measures.

1:30 p.m. Mills signs the supplemental budget at a news conference in the State House's Hall of Flags alongside lawmakers and department commissioners.

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📷 Lead photo: Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, conducts business at the State House on April 12, 2022, in Augusta, Maine. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty)

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