By Michael Shepherd - March 8, 2023
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📷 Gov. Janet Mills speaks with a visitor in her office at the State House in Augusta on Jan. 17, 2023. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty)

Good morning from Augusta. Legislative committees are in Wednesday, headlined by a 1 p.m. meeting on the sludge crisis. The full committee agenda.

What we're watching today

The governor is alone among big-name Democrats against another tribal priority. House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross is championing it. Attorney General Aaron Frey and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows support it. But a top aide to Gov. Janet Mills called it "a misguided attempt to right a historic wrong that never occurred" in a bid to persuade lawmakers to kill it.

The subjects of the debate are two constitutional amendments that would require treaties between Maine and tribes to be printed as part of the state Constitution. They are technically part of the document already and in full force, but the state removed the obligations from printed versions in 1876 as part of changes that were billed as making the Constitution easier to read.

Historic reasons for that omission were the subject of a 2021 report by the Maine Indian Tribal State Commission finding no clear evidence that Maine was trying to hide its obligations from public view. But Maine's history is full of clearly sinister examples in that vein, including a 1942 document that surfaced last year and shows a scheme to avoid millions of dollars in payments.

Tribes and their allies are now before the Legislature arguing for the treaties to be included, with Ambassador Maulian Dana of the Penobscot Nation calling Talbot Ross' proposal a "powerful truth-seeking measure" that will increase transparency. Another Penobscot voice, University of Maine anthropologist Darren Ranco, argues it would "un-erase" part of state-tribal history.

Both Frey and Bellows showed up at a public hearing on Tuesday to support printing the obligations, according to Maine Public. But the testimony from Mills' office went strongly in the other direction, with Jerry Reid, her top lawyer, noting no evidence of ill motivations behind the 1876 changes and saying a 1980 state-tribal settlement — not treaties — defines the sides' relationship.

"Any legislation that could be interpreted as invoking ancient treaties as the legal basis for modern obligations would be confusing and potentially destabilizing," Reid wrote.

Ever since Mills took office in 2019, tribes have been pushing a major overhaul of the 1980 document. They have won changes from the governor, including a landmark bill last year giving them control of a new mobile sports betting market and tax relief. But Mills has resisted their wider effort, even as legislative Democrats embrace it. We're seeing another example of that division here.

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News and notes

📷 Birds sit and fly above the trash at the Juniper Ridge Landfill in Old Town on Jan. 19, 2022. (BDN photo by Linda Coan O'Kresik)

🇨🇦 Here's how Maine's sludge is flowing across the border.

◉ Maine is facing a potential crisis as contaminated sludge is building up at wastewater plants due to a recent move by the operator of a state-owned landfill to dial back the amount of sludge stored there. Lawmakers will be briefed on the issue today, though no solution looked imminent early this week.

◉ Much of the state's sludge is being exported to New Brunswick. Fredericton-based Envirem Organics is the only company licensed in the province to handle the sludge, according to Radio-Canada. These imports are being criticized by some officials there, although the company can take 100,000 tons per year.

◉ Envirem's CEO told Radio-Canada that the increase in exports is expected to be short-term, expecting that Casella Waste Systems will be able to source enough waste that binds the sludge so it can increase landfill capacity.

📺 A Maine senator criticized a Fox News portrayal of the Capitol riots.

◉ After getting 41,000 hours of video from the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021, Fox News host Tucker Carlson began airing segments this week that show him "working to bend perceptions" closer to a narrative favoring former President Donald Trump, the Associated Press reported.

◉ This fits with efforts from Trump and House Republicans to downplay the riots, despite hundreds of arrests including serious sedition convictions for members of extremist groups. But several Republican senators criticized Carlson's portrayal on Tuesday, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine.

◉ “I was there all day in person on Jan. 6,” Collins told the Boston Globe. “From what I’ve heard, he very much misrepresents what was a full-scale riot, a scene of chaos, a dangerous situation, and an attempt to halt a peaceful transfer of power.”

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What we're reading

🇺🇦 After a raw debate, most Maine House Republicans opposed a Ukraine support resolution.

⚕️Here's how Mainers can keep health coverage while Medicaid rolls shrink.

🚫 Lawmakers could bar foreign governments from funding referendums, Maine Public reports.

⚫ Former state Rep. Pat Stevens of Bangor died at 80.

🍸 New Hampshire said Amtrak passengers can't buy booze during that leg of the trip. (But the governor may be reversing that.) Here's your soundtrack.

⚾ Red Sox legend David Ortiz is breaking into Maine's marijuana market.

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