By Michael Shepherd with David Marino Jr. - Dec. 21, 2022
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📷 Rep. Scott Landry, D-Farmington, left, greets Sen. Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle, on Jan. 8, 2020, at the State House in Augusta. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty)

Good morning from Augusta. The Maine Legislature's public hearing on a heating aid bill is at 1 p.m. Watch it here.

What we're watching today

How quickly will a deal come on the stalled heating aid measure? A rare December hearing comes at the State House on Wednesday after legislative Democrats met a key demand from Senate Republicans to hold one on the $473 million heating aid package. It was stalled earlier this month by the minority party in the upper chamber, while House Republicans backed the bill.

After bemoaning the delay of the package, which is headlined by $450 checks going to most Mainers, leading Democrats are betting that the hearing will clear the path for a deal. Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, told WVOM on Monday that if lawmakers can make a deal Wednesday, the measure can pass when the Legislature convenes on Jan. 4 and checks could be sent within another month.

The big question is whether those holdout Senate Republicans are going to try to win anything in the deal. House Republicans backed the package after Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham of Winter Harbor got Mills and Democrats to increase the number of Mainers getting checks. Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle, has flagged some policy concerns with transfers from other areas of the state budget, but he has mostly focused on process by saying the measure needs a hearing to gather input.

Some of his members have come up with their own ideas. An amendment offered up by Sens. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, and Nicole Grohoski, D-Ellsworth, would drastically shrink the number of relief checks while keeping money for other aid programs in place. It has seemed so far to be a non-starter because House Republicans wanted more checks. Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, this week suggested allowing Mainers to set aside tax-free income to pay for heating fuel, similar to health savings accounts.

Brakey did not sound like he would insist on inserting that into a heating aid deal, telling WVOM on Tuesday that he would submit it as a standalone measure this year if that happens. But he also said he has heard of alternative ideas to the relief checks, including vouchers for heating fuel or a promise by the state to reimburse companies directly for fuel purchased. This could indicate that members have more than just procedural concerns.

All of the legislative leaders, including Jackson, Stewart, Faulkingham and House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, will sit on the special version of the budget committee holding the hearing on Wednesday. They will be briefed by Kirsten Figueroa, Gov. Janet Mills' budget commissioner, on how the bill is funded and then by other state officials on the housing programs.

One of the members, Rep. Scott Landry, D-Farmington, thought it could go into the late night and expected lots of testimony capped with negotiations between members. When asked if he thought a deal would quickly come by early January, the moderate member previewed Democrats' argument if the impasse persists.

"This is what they want. We're giving them what they want," Landry said of Senate Republicans and their demand for a hearing. "Shame on them if they don't [agree to a deal.]"

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News and notes

📷 Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, left, confers with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, at a hearing at the Capitol in Washington on Sept. 27, 2022. (AP photo by J. Scott Applewhite)

🌊 A senator says this agreement averted "an economic death sentence."

◉ Mills, Maine's congressional delegation and the lobster industry are trumpeting the major agreement announced Tuesday to get a six-year pause on federal rules aimed at protecting the right whale, plus funding for equipment and monitoring, into a spending bill expected to pass this week.

◉ It could effectively end a lawsuit from conservation groups who argue the federal government is not doing enough to protect endangered whales and savaged the deal. The lobster industry and its political allies note that there has never been a right whale death linked to Maine gear and say the new rules would effectively shut down the fishery.

◉ "It is in no way a diminution of the standards of the Endangered Species Act or the Marine Mammal Protection Act," Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said about the agreement in a floor speech late Tuesday. "It merely pauses that economic death sentence until we have time to know how to navigate the solution and what the real definition of the problem is."

◉ Mills and the Maine delegation were set to discuss the agreement at a 9 a.m. news conference on Wednesday.

🔇 Tribes put King on blast for a sovereignty measure's failure.

◉ The lobster agreement, plus an Electoral College reform package led by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and a defense spending increase championed by Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from the 2nd District, have highlighted the omnibus package funding the federal government into next fall.

◉ One major Maine measure did not make the cut: a tribal sovereignty item led by Golden and Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from the 1st District, that would automatically apply future tribal laws to the Wabanaki tribes of Maine, who are treated differently under a 1980 settlement.

◉ Tribal chiefs issued a blistering statement that blamed King for the package not making it in, with Chief Kirk Francis of the Penobscot Nation saying it was "hard not to suspect that the senator's opposition to the legislation is political in nature and not substantive."

◉ King, a former governor, has been aligned with Mills in opposition to the measure for months. His spokesperson said he has "serious concerns about the legislation in its current form and the unintended consequences it poses for the state of Maine."

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What we're reading

🎁 She was in a bad car crash 26 years ago. Now she wants to know who saved her — and then mailed out her Christmas presents.

👞 The outgoing Maine chamber CEO reflects on the state's economic changes in his 29 years on the job.

🔇 New "rugged phones" are expected to save money and improve responses at a rural county's emergency management agency.

🔎 The new district attorney in eastern Maine says he will prosecute more sexual assaults than his embattled predecessor.

📪 Mail carriers rallied Sunday to say they are understaffed and overworked, Maine Public reports.

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