By Michael Shepherd - Feb. 17, 2023
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📷 Democratic lawmakers listen as Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, speaks in opposition to a heating assistance package on Jan. 4, 2023, at the State House in Augusta. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty)

Hello from Augusta. It is a quiet day in the State House, with the Legislature's budget committee going over budget proposals affecting local government. Watch here. The Daily Brief will be off Monday for Presidents' Day.

What we're watching today

The passage of a low-key budget held some lessons on Republican divides. The contents of the short-term budget deal inked by Maine lawmakers on Thursday were not terribly controversial. After officials swept certain accounts deemed to be overfunded and moved money around in the budget, the Legislature passed a document estimated to shave off $21 million in state budget spending and unlock $79 million in federal funds.

Gov. Janet Mills is expected to sign the adjusted budget, which includes millions more in aid to cities and towns, plus hospitals, nursing homes and other health providers. There is $5 million more for a renovation of the state's cultural building, $3 million for library and archive shelving and budget increases for the community college and university systems.

Passage of the plan was assured on Thursday, but there were unexpected hiccups. Despite backing from Republican leaders, the Senate actually fell one vote shy of passing it on an initial vote due mostly to Democratic absences. It led to a 20-minute break, after which Sen. Matt Harrington, R-Sanford, switched his vote and allowed the bill to pass with minimal drama.

In the Senate, five Republicans voted against it and 21 opposed it in the House, led by Rep. Laurel Libby of Auburn, who has been the lower chamber's highest-profile againster in relation to both Mills and her own party in the early part of this session. She and Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, were the only two Republicans to speak against the budget on Thursday.

Both said they could not vote for the plan in part because it allocated more money to institutions with COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Libby appreciated a move to free up $2.6 million in funding for the embattled legal defense system for low-income Mainers, but she said it was "not enough to overcome the initiatives which grow government."

After voting against last month's heating aid compromise, Libby criticized House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, for not interacting with the caucus more on that issue, something he disputed by saying he kept members informed the best that he could. On the budget vote, his leadership team alongside Rep. Sawin Millett, R-Waterford, a key negotiator, won over most of the 67-member caucus.

Mills' $10.3 billion budget proposal for the next two years will be far more complicated. For now, Republicans want an income tax cut. The governor says she wants a bipartisan budget, but Democrats have gone around the minority party before. Most Republicans seem to want to remain attached to big deals, but the Libby-led faction bears watching going forward.

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News and notes

📷 Rep. Clinton Collamore, D-Waldoboro, speaks to reporters outside the Wiscasset courthouse on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, alongside Richard Elliott, his attorney. (BDN photo by Michael Shepherd)

🗳️ Get ready for an interesting special election on the Midcoast.

◉ Just after he pleaded not guilty to charges linked to alleged signature fraud on Thursday, Rep. Clinton Collamore, D-Waldoboro, told reporters he will resign due to the case taking a toll on his health and an inability to be effective in Augusta. The House clerk had not received a resignation at that time.

◉ Assuming Collamore resigns, his district will be an interesting canvas for an odd-year special election. Republicans had a nearly 4-percentage-point edge in party registration over Democrats there as of the November election, but the freshman won by 300 votes with the endorsement of former Rep. Jeff Evangelos, I-Friendship, an ardent progressive who held the seat before.

◉ History does not favor Republicans. They have not won any legislative special election since 2017 and they have not won competitive districts in them since 2015. The massive Democratic money edge that has shaped recent general elections has had even more of an effect on these races, with the party putting in a major sum of $44,000 to hold a Portland-area seat early last year.

☔ Mills wants a disaster declaration for Maine's December windstorm.

◉ The governor asked President Joe Biden to declare a major disaster for Cumberland, Franklin, Knox, Oxford, Somerset, Waldo, and York counties following the damaging storm that led to a peak of 365,000 power outages statewide between the two major utilities.

◉ Such a move would unlock federal aid for those places. An initial state review has found nearly $3.3 million in public infrastructure damage from the storm, but the total is expected to rise as tallies continue in some areas.

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What we're reading

🤦 Confusion still abounds over a property tax freeze program for seniors.

⚖️ An Aroostook man sued Maine's Catholic diocese, alleging a priest who is now dead abused him as a child in the 1990s.

📝 A report calls for better communication on sexual assault in the Maine National Guard.

🔜 Families brace for the end of pandemic-era SNAP benefits.

🤝 Maine's basketball tournament is a recruiting boon for college coaches.

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Correction: Thursday's edition of the Daily Brief incorrectly said Mills is suspending a state spending cap in her two-year budget proposal. She is asking lawmakers to rebase that cap in a way that would allow the $10.3 billion proposal to adhere to the new limit. Read the administration's case for it.

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