By Michael Shepherd - March 17, 2023
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📷 Maine House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, observes floor votes at the State House in Augusta on Dec. 7, 2022. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Augusta. Legislative committees are in today. Here's the agenda.

What we're watching today

Republicans split between optimism and pessimism about the Democrats' next budget move. We are going to learn a lot about Maine's two-year budget in the next week. If the Democrats who control Augusta are going to advance a spending plan on their own and without Republican support, they only have until the end of this month to pass it and allow it to take effect in July 1.

They did this in a 2021 move that angered the minority party. The consensus budget process that normally exists in Augusta is one of the few Republican points of leverage in a Democratic-led government. It is moving along now, with the budget panel beginning to take early votes on points of agreement and other committees moving quickly to get their recommendations in.

Gov. Janet Mills' office raised eyebrows by telling the Bangor Daily News on Friday that Republicans should outline areas of her proposal that they want to cut to hit a spending cap that they favor. Members of the other party were bemused at the comments, with Sen. Rick Bennett of Oxford, a budget committee member, saying appropriators are working well together.

This has put the State House on majority budget watch. Spokespeople for House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, and Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, have ignored questions on the topic, but Democratic insiders are divided about whether party leaders will move a budget on their own. While many progressives see it as the best option, some think it would pose risk to bipartisan deals that could be important later in the session.

Then, there are the Republicans. In the Senate, there is more of an Eeyore-like sentiment on the issue. One senator who declined to speak on the record confidently predicted a majority budget, citing the statement from Mills' office as a likely pretext and saying one-party budgets may be the new norm.

However, House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, has a sunnier disposition, joking with me over my focus on a majority budget while admitting that his counterparts on the Senate side have been talking about it for a long time but "that isn't the talk down at this end of the hall."

His goal is to hold spending around $9.9 billion, down from Mills' offer of $10.3 billion, while offering an income-tax cut to Mainers making around $50,000 or less. While he initially broke with Senate Republicans to support a heating aid compromise with Mills in December, he thinks the other caucus would go along if House Republicans can achieve their budget goals.

"We're still working hard on it. We're trying to get there," he said of the budget. "We're not making any extreme demands."

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Tribal address news and notes

📷 Chief William Nicholas of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township addresses the Maine Legislature on Wednesday at the State House in Augusta. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty)

🎤 Tribal addresses were not coordinated but had a clear message.

◉ Maine's five tribal chiefs had a common theme in their historic address to the Legislature on Thursday: They are not stopping in their effort to put tribal power here on par with other tribes across the country.

◉ After the address, Chief William Nicholas of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township said the chiefs did not share their speeches with each other. Still, there should have been no surprise that sovereignty was the focus.

◉ "You can't have limited sovereignty or sovereignty when it pertains to something that is agreeable," he said.

😶 Chiefs did not discuss an elephant in the room, but others did.

◉ In their speeches, did not address Mills or her absence from the chamber due to an unspecified scheduling conflict, but it was certainly noticed.

◉ Donna Loring, a former Penobscot Nation tribal representative who briefly served as Mills' tribal adviser, told Maine Public the move was disrespectful to the tribes and that it looked like the governor was trying to set terms by offering to meet with them after the speech.

◉ "That was her decision, so I can't speak for her," Faulkingham told reporters after the address.

◉ Mills spokesperson Ben Goodman released a statement saying the governor congratulated chiefs on their speech, calling it "an important and historic opportunity for the Wabanaki people to speak directly to the Legislature" and touting progress on tribal issues.

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What we're reading

📝 A tribal-rights bill is being crafted to withstand a potential Mills veto.

🚌 The bus center at the heart of Bangor's downtown plans is set for a grand opening.

🐢 This long-defunct Maine museum is being reborn with a taxidemy exhibit. Here's your soundtrack.

🌅 A long-considered Acadia National Park visitors center is going up.

🏀 Orono's basketball championship united the whole community.

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