By Michael Shepherd - May 20, 2022 Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up.
Good morning from Augusta. There are 25 days until Maine's June primaries.
What we're watching today
Vulnerable governors are staking a lot on relief checks. The conversation in Maine is a different than others. Stimulus is in this seasonfor Democrats trying to fend off a terrible national environment in the 2022 election cycle. In March, Axios noted seven governors facing reelection, including Janet Mills of Maine, were using their huge revenue surpluses to propose relief checks as their antidote to rising gas prices and inflation.
There have been many developments since then. Gas prices are even higher, hitting an average per-gallon price of $4.73 on Friday, according to AAA. Republicans at all levels have focused on costs, with former Gov. Paul LePage and former Rep. Bruce Poliquin of Maine's 2nd District, both running for their old seats in November, showing up at Dysart's restaurant and convenience store in Bangor to pump gas for unsuspecting customers on Thursday.
These relief checks have made for strange politics in Maine. They started as an early budget demand from Republicans. Mills then embraced their idea. Even though it started with his party, LePage derided the checks as a Mills campaign gimmick. But Republicans tried to expand the checks to all Mainers in the course of budget negotiations that led to $850 checks for 857,000 people as the biggest element of a bipartisan $1.2 billion spending package.
Since then, Mills has used the initiative as a retort to questions on rising costs while also saying the state has limited ability to respond to global factors driving inflation. Legislative Republicans have continued to tout their work on the checks with a different spin, with Sen. Scott Cyrway, R-Benton, saying recently that the money was "always yours" and calling it a tax refund.
LePage's alternative proposal has been a gas tax suspension that he floated in March. Other Republicans including Rep. Laurel Libby of Auburn put forward similar ideas, but none were widely embraced by the party during budget talks. The Maine State Chamber of Commerce, typically an ally of the minority party on fiscal issues, joined transportation interests in opposing the idea.
Of course, Republicans' overarching desire is to cut taxes on a permanent basis. Their relief check idea was hatched knowing that they only had so much power to affect budget talks in a Democratic-led Legislature. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, is in conflict with a Republican-led one on her proposal this week to send another round of $500 checks. Lawmakers there have already advanced a $1 billion tax cut plan.
LePage will have to fill key details of his reheated plan to phase out Maine's income tax, something he was not able to do during his tenure as governor after fellow Republican balked at raising the sales tax. Mills will keep being asked about costs and future fiscal issues with economists worried about recession on the horizon. Relief checks are making for strange politics, but they are only a preview of a bigger conversation.
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News and notes
— Nearly a dozen Democratic lawmakers from the area alongside 16 community groups have asked South Portland to institute an eviction moratorium after the new owner of a 500-unit housing complex announced plans to dramatically raise rents, the Portland Press Herald reported. City councilors have already scheduled a meeting to discuss rent stabilization, which Portland voters passed on a progressive referendum slate in 2020.
— Astronaut Jessica Meir and NASA spacewalk engineer Derrick Porter, natives of Caribou and Cutler, respectively, will present Mills with the Maine flag that was flown aboard the International Space Station and is set to be exhibited at the Maine State Museum at a 10 a.m. State House event.
— Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, will be in Rumford this afternoon briefing on a new fire station and an event marking the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. She will take questions from the press around 3 p.m.
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What we're reading
— The parent company of Central Maine Power Co. is investigating a whistleblower complaint of fraud against a company tasked with connecting solar projects to the grid, Spectrum News Maine reports. The company, K&A Engineering Consulting, has denied engaging in fraud.
— Towns around Old Town are eyeing a regional ambulance service after seeing a dramatic spike in costs of contracting with the city. For example, costs have risen by 100 percent for Bradley after Old Town had to staff another shift. It has also had trouble recouping costs from insurers and patients.
— Forever chemicals were linked in a new study to rising cases of fatty liver disease. Determining cause and effects between PFAS and health conditions is difficult due to the combinations of chemicals people are routinely exposed to.
Former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin (center) and former Gov. Paul LePage (right) pump gas and talk with customers at Dysart's on Broadway in Bangor during a Thursday campaign stop. (BDN photo by Linda Coan O'Kresik)
đź“·Â Â Lead photo:Â Gov. Janet Mills greets the Legislature before delivering her State of the State Address from the State House in Augusta on Feb. 10, 2022. (Portland Press Herald photo by Ben McCanna via AP)
