By Michael Shepherd - Feb 28, 2022
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Good morning from Augusta on February's last day. Here's your soundtrack.

What we're watching today

Maine's new spending package will be defined by a push and pull among Democrats and what Republicans try to resist. Hearings begin on Monday morning in the Legislature's budget committee on Gov. Janet Mills' $850 million plan for nearly all of Maine's projected budget surplus through mid-2023. The highlights of the Democratic governor's package are $500 relief checks for Mainers, $100 million to replace regular transportation borrowing and a free community college program for recent high-school graduates.

The particular items in the supplemental budget proposal are not that controversial. But it is an election year and the surplus provides a major opportunity to fund priorities of all factions in the Legislature. Mills' package can be read politically as an overarching attempt to set terms of debate with Republicans and more progressive Democrats.

Let's start with that first group. Mills' relief-check idea came in response to demands from Republicans to give back half of the surplus. She credited the minority party for the idea in her State of the State address. Former Gov. Paul LePage, the presumptive 2022 gubernatorial nominee, called the checks a Mills campaign gimmick. Republican lawmakers are not taking a victory lap and may wish they united around a bigger demand (maybe income tax cuts?). Many now do not want Mills sending out checks near Election Day.

The governor also only left $12 million of the projected surplus unspent in her proposal while legislative Democrats on the budget panel control a massive list of bills worth $1.3 billion alone this fiscal year that are languishing for now without funding. While Mills' budget partially addresses some of those priorities, including money for embattled health care providers, property tax relief, funding free school meals, beefing up state pensions, progressive lawmakers will want more after the governor has vetoed many of their priorities in the past year.

The ultimate spending plan should not deviate much from what Mills has floated given solid Democratic control of Augusta. But both sides of the legislative aisle have some clear goals in the approach to the November election, plus a bipartisan interest in holding the Mills administration accountable on policy areas including the child welfare system. Lawmakers will have to work around all of these obstacles if they are going to ink a deal in a fraught year.

News and notes

— LePage, formerly Maine's most famous bartender, called Monday morning on the Mills administration to ban Russian-made vodka from state-licensed liquor stories to "signal our state’s resolve against Russian aggression." Neighboring New Hampshire is among the states to make similar moves during Russian President Vladimir Putin's escalating invasion of Ukraine.

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What we're reading

— U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said President Joe Biden's U.S. Supreme Court pick was "impressive" after a call with the president on Monday. It was among the highest praise for Ketanji Brown Jackson seen from a Republican senator after the pick was unveiled Friday. Collins has been seen as the member of her party most likely to vote for a Biden nominee. While Democrats do not need her vote, they are courting it while trying to give the pick an air of bipartisanship.

— A storied Maine ski resort is staking its future on solving the high costs of warmer winters. Half the budget at Shawnee Peak in Bridgton is now spent on snowmaking, a share that has increased in recent years because of increasing freeze-thaw events, where snow is followed by rain and a cold spell turned slush into ice. “Climate change certainly is the largest, most detrimental issue facing the winter outdoor business,” said the head of a national industry group.

— A small Maine tribe has hired a lawyer to restart negotiations with the state for more rights. The Mi’kmaq Nation, formerly known as the Aroostook Band of Micmacs, was left out of a 1980 landmark land-claims settlement that is now the subject of a wider tribal sovereignty effort, but it has lived under those terms without bigger benefits. The end result could be a bill in the Legislature or an agreement with the attorney general's office, but talks will be complicated.

— Maine's largest cities have moved quickest to allocate federal COVID-19 aid. Taken together, Portland, Lewiston, Bangor, South Portland and Auburn have allocated 40 percent of their first disbursement compared with less than 20 percent for the eight biggest counties, according to federal disclosures. It goes back to Maine's government structure, which has stronger cities and towns with more identified needs and planning capabilities and weaker counties.

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Follow along today

9 a.m. It's a big day for hunters in the wildlife committee, which will be briefed on recent state efforts to allow Sunday hunting and hold hearings on bills that would require the state to implement electronic tagging of turkey by 2023 and deer, bear and moose by 2024. Watch here.

The Legislature's environment committee will hold hearings on two water-quality bills, including one from Jackson that would require state river management plans to take hydropower into consideration. Watch here.

The local government committee will take testimony on a bill that would eliminate inactive boards and commissions from the Combat Sports Authority of Maine to the Nutrient Management Review Board. Watch here.

The Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee will work on liquor bills. Watch here.

9:30 a.m. Budget hearings begin with a joint meeting of the appropriations and health committees on areas of Mills' supplemental budget affecting the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, including child welfare policies. A briefing from department staff begins the day and public testimony comes at 1 p.m. Watch here.

10 a.m. The judiciary panel will hold hearings on tribal-rights bills, including one that would force the state to review culturally significant land and waterways and develop a process to return them to tribes. Watch here.

1 p.m. A group studying potential cost structures of a proposed paid family and medical leave program in Maine will meet. Watch here.

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📷 Lead photo: House Majority Leader Michelle Dunphy, D-Old Town, speaks during a legislative session on June 30, 2021, at the State House in Augusta. Rep. Teresa Pierce, D-Falmouth, the co-chair of the budget committee, is second from right. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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