By Michael Shepherd - May 3, 2023
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📷 Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, speaks at a rally outside the State House in Augusta on June 30, 2021. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

Good morning from Augusta. The Legislature is in. Here are the House and Senate calendars and the committee agenda, which includes hearings on an initiative barring foreign government money in referendums and key Republican tax proposals.

What we're watching today

This slam-dunk referendum would probably sail through the Legislature, but it may not be able to. Proponents of the ballot initiative looking to bar foreign governments from spending on Maine referendums look to have one of the popular causes in the State House. They also have reason to be frustrated.

The group Protect Maine Elections, which is led in part by Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, released polling in March showing 82 percent support for the key piece of its initiative, which came about in response to spending from Hydro-Quebec on the 2021 referendum over the $1 billion hydropower corridor.

It has a wide coalition of supporters from U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine's 2nd District, to Republican legislative leaders. Supporters have qualified the question for the 2023 ballot, but they have been preparing a push for the Legislature to ratify the proposal itself, which would eschew a campaign.

But the referendum is the key one of the four tied up in what is now a legal dispute between legislative leaders and Gov. Janet Mills, who said the Legislature's procedural move to pass a budget and then adjourn to enact it means the questions are now slated for the ballot. In other words, the Democratic governor thinks lawmakers missed their chance to pass this.

Bennett disputes that, and top lawmakers are proposing to ask Maine's high court to settle the issue. For now, they are holding legally required hearings on all the measures, starting with the effort aimed at foreign money on Wednesday afternoon. Watch it at 1 p.m.

The legal questions at stake hold major implications for this initiative. While proponents have polling on their side, they also had spent virtually all of the $600,000 they raised by the end of April to get this on the ballot. They may not need much money to win their campaign, but the Legislature's maneuvering could have cost them a much cheaper shot at passage.

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News and notes

📷 House Minority Leader Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, bottom right, talks to people about how to testify at a hearing during anti-abortion events on April 4, 2023, at the State House in Augusta. (Kennebec Journal photo by Joe Phelan via AP)

🪙 Republicans get a chance to air income tax proposals.

◉ Wednesday's set of hearings in the tax committee give legislative Republicans another chance to push for the kinds of income tax cuts that Democrats rejected in negotiations that resulted in a partisan budget in March.

◉ At that time, Republicans led by House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham of Winter Harbor were trying to get Democrats to agree to $200 million in income tax relief. Their main framework was a bill from Rep. Jack Ducharme, R-Madison, that would reduce the lowest income tax rate from 5.8 percent to 4.5 percent, which will be one of the proposals aired on Wednesday.

◉ Republicans doubled their income tax cut demand to $400 million after recently forecasted surpluses gave lawmakers around $900 million more to spend from now through June 2025, but they have not outlined exact ideas since that news dropped on Friday.

◉ Democrats look more likely to push more targeted programs like property tax cuts, with the liberal Maine Center for Economic Policy recently saying higher-income households would benefit more under Ducharme's bill. We'll see if a deal can be made here.

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What we're reading

🔒 Eliot Cutler will serve nine months in jail for child porn. That is in line with similar Maine cases but far less than if he was charged federally.

📝 Attorney General Aaron Frey stopped supervising his romantic partner minutes before disclosing their relationship.

🧑‍🚒 A Bangor firefighter's death shows suicide risk for first responders.

🧩 A Maine foreclosure took more than a decade. Only an empty lot is left.

🌴 Former Gov. Paul LePage is once again a Florida resident.

🧑‍⚖️ Republicans join a lawsuit against the governor and Democrats over a budget maneuver. Here's your soundtrack.

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