By Michael Shepherd - March 7, 2022
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Good morning from Augusta.

What we're watching today

The House speaker is closing his tenure by spearheading an affordable housing bill sending Augusta deep into local politics. It is a big day for House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, and his housing policy bill. Born out of a task force aimed at solving one of Maine's biggest problems, it is up for a public hearing on Monday morning. A pandemic housing shortage has driven home prices and rent up from greater Portland to Presque Isle. We have a story today on a young Maine couple who had to make 14 offers before buying a New Gloucester home in their price range.

This is Fecteau's last term in the House before hitting term limits. He is proposing some changes that could win bipartisan support, like making it easier to build accessory dwellings and aid for local planners. But it would also restrict local ability to rein in development by banning limits on annual home construction, allowing four homes to be built on lots now zoned for one and establishing a state board that could override local decisions.

The bill is notable because the State House has pulled back from regulating hot-button municipal issues in the last decade or so. This would be a huge intervention directly aimed at greater Portland suburbs that have the most restrictive housing policies. The Maine Municipal Association is already opposing the measure for local-control reasons.

A pair of Republicans show tension between a desire for more development and a proclivity for home rule. The tension between these two policy goals is what has kept Augusta out of the planning game in recent years. Former Gov. John Baldacci's landmark school consolidation law from 2007 has been watered down in cities and towns. A Republican-led Legislature effectively repealed a pioneering law subjecting big-box stores to review.

The tack from Republicans will be interesting. Rep. Amy Arata, R-New Gloucester, a landlord, is co-sponsoring the measure with Fecteau and spoke at an event with the speaker last week. But Assistant Maine Senate Minority Leader Matt Pouliot, R-Augusta, a real estate agent who sat on the task force and is in favor of denser development, said in December that developers are not likely to build multi-unit homes in many places where single-family ones dominate. The conflict between aiding developers and defanging localities is palpable.

What will suburban Democrats do? That aforementioned conflict is not just a Republican one. Democrats have been driving the conversation about affordable housing in Maine, since they are in control of state government and many of the cities in question. In Portland, progressive groups and the Maine State Chamber of Commerce that hardly ever agree on anything have been supportive of the housing task force's work.

It is a harder question for Democrats in the suburbs being targeted by the bill. Falmouth's residential building permit cap of 65 for 2021 was exhausted by last spring, for example. The town has among the most powerful Democratic legislative delegations as well, with the term-limited Sen. Cathy Breen and Rep. Teresa Pierce both chairing the budget committee. With Republicans looking to make 2022 incisions in areas around Portland that have shifted toward Democrats in the past decade, this is an issue worth watching.

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What we're reading

— Maine Republicans are taking a risk in running hard out of the gate against an unpopular President Joe Biden. From former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin in the 2nd District to the Maine Senate's campaign arm, Republicans are hammering Biden in the early part of the 2022 election cycle. While it could help them rally their bases and build momentum, Maine also has a long history of ticket-splitting and divorcing elections somewhat from national themes.

— Maine's state employees' pension system has had to hang onto Russian investments that are now effectively worthless due to Western sanctions. That is because Russia has blocked brokers from selling foreign investments during the economic crisis stemming from President Vladimir Putin's Ukraine invasion. Only a one-thousandth of Maine's pension fund, roughly $19 million, was invested in Russia before the crisis. Now it is worth little and the state wants to get rid of the assets as soon as it can.

— Every top Maine prosecutor could be elected without opposition in November. Two incumbent district attorneys are not vying for reelection this fall. Two others have primary challengers. But unless more candidates step up before a March 15 filing deadline, there will be no competitive general elections in any of the eight prosecutorial districts just four years after only one Maine district attorney ran unopposed.

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Follow along today

10 a.m. The housing panel will hold public hearings on Fecteau's affordable housing bill and others on the subject. Watch here.

The health committee will continue work on child welfare bills. Watch here.

Hearings on Mills' spending plan conclude today with the appropriations committee holding a daylong series of meetings with the State and Local Government, economic development and Veterans and Legal Affairs committees. Watch here.

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📷 Lead photo: House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, stands for the National Anthem at the State House on June 2, 2021, in Augusta. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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