By Michael Shepherd - March 22, 2023
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📷 Gov. Janet Mills arrives in the House of Representatives chamber to deliver her budget address on Feb. 14, 2023, at the State House in Augusta. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty)

Good morning from Augusta. It's a busy day for legislative committees. Here's the full agenda, including a hearing on a proposed constitutional right to a "healthy environment." Watch it starting at 9 a.m.

What we're watching today

Here's what's happening behind the silence on the state budget. Lots of Maine's normally talkative politicians were relatively silent after a crucial Tuesday afternoon meeting between Gov. Janet Mills and top Democrats and Republicans on the two-year state budget.

It came just over a week from a key deadline. If Democrats are going to pass a budget without Republican support, they need to do so by March 31 to allow 90 days for it to go into effect by the end of the fiscal year on June 30. It would be the second simple-majority budget in two years, bypassing the consensus process that mostly governed state spending for 15 years.

It is likely that the majority party will strip new initiatives from Mills’ $10.3 billion spending offer and pass that plan by month’s end, according to a source briefed on the meeting. Spokespeople for Mills and Democratic leaders did not respond to questions on that Tuesday evening. If that happens, new initiatives would be considered in an addendum to the budget this spring, like in 2021.

Republicans have been trying to prevent a majority budget. Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle, said he was "sworn to secrecy" on the discussions, while House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, said leaders are working toward a consensus document.

"I remain optimistic," said Rep. Sawin Millett, R-Waterford, a budget committee member who said talks were ongoing, praised the governor's work in bringing lawmakers together and said discussions are continuing and that a budget path should be clear by Thursday.

Mills spokesperson Ben Goodman issued a statement calling the meeting "positive and productive."

"She will continue to work with them in the coming days to discuss potential avenues to move the budget forward," he said of the governor.

Earlier Tuesday, Stewart told reporters a majority-only budget would be a "tremendous blow" to the Legislature as an institution. The party was incensed when Mills and Democrats advanced a budget on their own two years ago, but they went along with a revised document later in the year.

This time, Republicans are looking to hold state spending at a cap of roughly $9.9 billion and for some kind of income tax cut for lower-income Mainers. Their relative silence on the talks are an indication that they think they can win a concession either in the budget that could come this month or later on.

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News and notes

📷 A young boy gets a ride on a luggage cart as Steve Miller helps move the belongings of African asylum seekers at the Portland Expo on Aug. 15, 2019, in Portland. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty)

📝 Maine lawmakers want permission to let asylum seekers work quicker.

◉ Federal laws barring asylum seekers from working for at least six months after their arrival in the U.S. have been a main target of state and federal lawmakers in Maine for years. But with no solution close to passing Congress, the Legislature is trying a novel one of its own.

◉ On Tuesday, a legislative committee unanimously endorsed an amended version of a bill from Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, that directs the state to ask for a federal waiver that would allow asylum seekers to work faster.

◉ The bipartisan bill is supported by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, and Reps. Mana Abdi, D-Lewiston, and Deqa Dhalac, D-South Portland, the first two Somali-Americans in the Legislature. It comes as Portland is struggling to accommodate the hundreds of asylum seekers who have arrived there from the southern border since January.

⚡ A massive Aroostook clean-power project keeps its wide coalition.

◉ Where the Central Maine Power Co. corridor failed with voters and many interest groups, the $1.8 billion wind transmission line slated for Aroostook County is benefiting from environmental, business and political support.

◉ Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, presented his bill to provide necessary legislative approval for the project to a legislative committee on Tuesday. Supporters include local Republicans including Stewart and Sen. Matt Harrington, R-Sanford, of the energy committee.

◉ Three environmental groups — Maine Audubon, the Conservation Law Foundation and The Nature Conservancy — testified in support alongside the Aroostook Partnership, a business group from the region. This kind of coalition on a major energy project is no small feat, but more layers of approval remain.

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What we're reading

🍳 This iconic Maine diner got backlash for appearing in a political ad.

🛌 Portland's planning board chair is renting an apartment on Airbnb.

🪵 An Aroostook mill plans a $7 million pellet expansion.

⌛ Columbia Falls voted to delay action on the large flagpole project.

♟️ A custodian guided these chess teams to victory. Here's your soundtrack.

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