By Michael Shepherd with Billy Kobin and Melissa Lizotte - May 23, 2023
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📷 Gov. Janet Mills speaks to the press in Portland on May 10, 2023. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

Good morning from Augusta. The Legislature is in. Here are the House and Senate calendars, plus a long committee agenda that includes potential votes on a high-profile raft of Republican education bills.

What we're watching today

The governor is silent on some major Democratic priorities in a signal of disagreement. With less than a month before the 2023 legislative session is set to end, many in the State House are looking to Gov. Janet Mills for signs on the biggest issues facing lawmakers. Relatively few have come in public.

This has led the Democrats who lead the Legislature to channel the governor in public, work her over behind the scenes or simply wait for her to publicize her opposition to some of their key priorities. There are many examples of this so far, with some of the policy areas crashing together at this late date.

One of the more obvious examples to date is on paid family and medical leave, a topic on which Mills has not weighed in on since two top Democrats rolled out their proposal last week. Business groups met with the governor weeks ago, with one lobbyist saying she shared concerns. But the sponsors of the measure said the governor is broadly supportive of their effort if not all the details.

“We know that she’s reviewing it and looking at it, and we’ve been grateful for the conversations we have going from there,” Assistant Senate Majority Leader Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, told reporters on Monday.

That's all we have on the measure because Mills' office has not answered questions on the topic over the last two weeks. The main dispute between Democrats that it has discussed this month is when a Mills spokesperson rebuked House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, for a threat to hold up a spending plan if the governor did not reverse herself to embrace a ream of tribal-rights bills that are a priority of the progressive speaker.

But the governor's office has not answered questions over the last week on Talbot Ross' effort to expand Medicaid to asylum seekers, a proposal that enjoys solid support from legislative Democrats and advocacy groups but is roundly opposed by Republicans. Debate around it could change after Sanford struggled to deal with a wave of asylum seekers from the greater Portland area who have been led to Maine in part by generous benefits at the state level.

"Ultimately, it is a moral and economic imperative that all people living in Maine are treated fairly, with adequate and affordable health care," Talbot Ross spokesperson Mary-Erin Casale said in a Monday statement that did not address the governor's position.

Contrast these situations with Mills' behavior in situations where she wants to pass bills. Her controversial abortion-rights bill was released with enough Democratic co-sponsors to get it through both chambers. When she rolled out an expanded set of business tax incentives, she got top lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and business groups to issue statements of support.

Another clue about Mills' motivations came in that $900 million spending plan released earlier in the month. It contained money for many Democratic initiatives, but it set aside priorities of party leaders including a larger child tax credit that the governor's administration opposed in testimony in early May. Unless things change, that move may keep the bill out of the budget.

The silence so far may serve as Mills' way of trying to chill the legislative environment in her favor. But Democrats seem likely to advance many of their priorities, including some that conflict with the governor. She is going to have to speak out soon, even though quiet is key in her State House playbook.

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News and notes

📷 House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-California, speaks as he meets with President Joe Biden to discuss the debt limit in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday in Washington. (AP photo by Alex Brandon)

👓 Here's the debt ceiling status through a Maine lens.

◉ Another meeting between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-California, ended with no spending deal as the June deadline for an unprecedented default on the national debt closes in. The contours of a debt ceiling deal have seemed to show themselves throughout the talks, but neither side has agreed to drop some of their hard lines so far.

◉ House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, said he would be willing to support a spending freeze at 2023 levels on Monday, according to The Hill. But McCarthy has rejected that, sticking to a Republican plan to freeze spending at 2022 levels.

◉ A plan that has been floated for weeks by Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine's 2nd District, would hit the middle ground on this issue, taking 2022 spending levels and adjusting them for inflation. The centrist also targeted a list of spending cuts and tax increases aimed at reducing the deficit.

◉ "Right now the two major players are President Biden and House Speaker McCarthy," Sen. Susan Collins, a top Republican appropriator, said in Caribou on Monday when asked about the Senate's potential role in helping to solve the standoff. "The House has passed a bill, so we know where they stand."

🇺🇸 Collins says it's too early to say whether she'll endorse for president.

◉ The Maine senator stepped out no further on presidential politics the same day as Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, announced what looks like a longshot campaign for the White House. Collins brought Scott to Waterville to campaign with her in a 2020 race against Democrat Sara Gideon.

◉ Since last year, she has responded to questions on the subject by citing a shortlist of candidates she would prefer to former President Donald Trump. On Monday, the list included Scott, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. But none of them are really registering in polls alongside Trump, and Collins said it's too early to tell whether she will endorse in the primary.

◉ "It's an unusual situation for me to know so many candidates personally, and I think highly of each of them," she said. "Any one of them, I believe, would be a better candidate than Trump."

⚫ Funeral services are announced for a legendary Maine media member.

◉ Visiting hours for Mal Leary, the longtime dean of the State House press corps who died Saturday at age 72, will be on Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Plummer Funeral Home on Pleasant Street in Augusta.

◉ His funeral will be held there on Friday at 11 a.m. Read his BDN obituary.

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What we're reading

🎰 Maine's top gambling regulator is on leave after tweeting a sexist slur.

⚪ Bangor councilors voted to hike fees on vacant properties.

⚡ One of Maine's biggest electric utilities will delay part of a rate increase.

😶‍🌫️ Firefighting foam contaminated the water supply in Waterville.

🚼 Meet the volunteer who has cuddled vulnerable Maine babies for 25 years.

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