By Michael Shepherd - May 9, 2022
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Good morning from Augusta. It is veto day in the Maine Legislature. The House is in at 9 and the Senate is in at 11. Here's your soundtrack.

What we're watching today

The Maine Legislature is leaving town. Here's what they have to do before that. Lawmakers are back in Augusta on Monday for what we think is their last day of work for 2022. It should be a relatively short day, but you just never can bet on the Legislature to finish things up on a tight schedule. We will let you know when we see everybody leave the building for good.

They are at the State House chiefly to handle five vetoes passed down by Gov. Janet Mills. Among the bigger vetoes are on bills to prevent employers from retaliating against workers who use paid leave under a 2019 compromise measure led by Mills, loosening certain bail conditions and a logging tax incentive measure from Rep. Richard Evans, D-Dover Foxcroft, that was also backed by Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash.

While progressives will be upset with the Democratic governor in particular over the paid leave and bail measures, none of these bills figure to have the two-thirds support in each chamber that is needed to override vetoes. This ream is also not as controversial among progressives as the one from last year, when Mills vetoed high-profile bills including a consumer-owned utility and measures championed by Jackson.

Democrats were also caucusing this morning to figure out what to do with the sweeping tribal sovereignty bill that is technically alive but tabled after a veto threat from Mills. She has already signed into a sports-betting compromise with tribes, which neutralizes a past threat from the governor to veto both of those bills if lawmakers sent the bigger one to her desk.

They could simply not act on the bill today, which would kill it. Democratic lawmakers could also force a decision from Mills by sending it to her desk, which they likely have the votes to do. Another option would be to water it down into a symbolic resolution. No matter what happens, the bill is not passing this year, but the topic is destined to be one we discuss in Augusta for a long time.

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News and notes

— An upcoming book from state Sen. Chloe Maxmin, D-Nobleboro, is getting national buzz and leading to condemnations from Democrats in Maine. In a recent New York Times Op-Ed adapted from her book, "Dirt Road Revival," Maxmin and co-author Canyon Woodward said Senate Democrats' campaign arm said "it didn't believe in talking to Republicans" during Maxmin's 2020 run. Julia Brown, who headed the campaign arm, blasted Maxmin in a Friday Medium post for "revisionist history" and said "it takes an immense amount of economic privilege" to campaign full-time for a legislative seat like Maxmin did.

— The book tour continues apace. Maxmin was on Fox News and HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" in the past few days.

— It's worth taking a look at the bills that Mills allowed to go into law without her signature in the past few weeks. Among them were two logging bills from Jackson, including one to establish a dispute resolution board that was at first opposed by the governor. Also on the pile are bills to allow adult-use marijuana delivery and maintain a comprehensive substance-use disorder treatment plan for incarcerated people.

— The Maine Ethics Commission voted Friday to reject appeals from two out of three legislative candidates who were applying for funding under the Maine Clean Election Act. Democratic House candidate Patricia Kidder of Springvale, up against Republican Luke Lanigan in an open-seat race, was the only one to have her appeal approved by the five-member panel.

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What we're reading

— Party-bucking votes are disappearing from the Maine Legislature, with the median member of the current House bucking their party only 3.8 percent of the time. Look up lawmakers by name and town.

— If she wins another term, Mills could make history as the only governor since the first one, William King, to nominate every justice on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Sadly, they do not ride around the state on horseback anymore to try cases anymore. (But maybe they should.)

— Maine has the nation's highest share of vacant homes, a large category that includes second homes and camps. See where they are.

— BDN Outdoors Editor Pete Warner says it's time to pay attention to PFAS contamination in freshwater fish.

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📷 Lead photo: Protesters supporting a tribal sovereignty bid rally at the Maine State House on April 11, 2022, in Augusta. (AP photo by David Sharp)

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