💪 Democratic lawmakers try to muscle the governor on union talks.
◉ The long standoff between Gov. Janet Mills' administration and the Maine Service Employees Association drags on, with the sides still hundreds of millions of dollars apart in increasingly messy negotiations over a two-year contract to replace the one that expired in July.
◉ Democratic lawmakers led by Senate President Troy Jackson of Allagash and House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross of Portland intervened last week with a letter that referenced recent state employee shortages and another surplus of $141 million reported at the end of the fiscal year in July.
◉ "We urge your administration to seize the opportunity of the current ... negotiations and the State's historic budget surpluses to correct the long-standing pay inequity for state workers to help stabilize the essential services they provide to the people of Maine," the lawmakers wrote.
◉ "We deeply value state employees, and we see mediation as a productive next step to secure higher pay for them," Commissioner Kirsten Figueroa of the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services said in a statement last month after the administration requested a mediator to help solve the impasse. | 