By Michael Shepherd - Feb 18, 2022
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Good morning from Augusta. The Daily Brief will take a break on Monday for Presidents' Day. It will be back on Tuesday, Feb. 22. Here's your soundtrack.

What we're watching today

The same forces that whittled away at tribal gaming are threatening a new deal with the governor on the subject. Gov. Janet Mills' proposed deal with Maine tribes that would give them control of a new mobile sports betting market was aired for the first time in public on Thursday. In a way, it was an anti-climatic lesson in the parochial divides that have shaped Maine's gaming environment and led to a steadily diminished role in it for the tribes.

Unsurprisingly, casinos and their regional backers in Bangor and the Oxford Hills area are upset that the Democratic governor's offer cuts them out of sports betting. Off-track betting parlors, which would be given an in-person market that will be smaller than the mobile one, do not think they can make that work. Sen. Brad Farrin, R-Norridgewock, a gambling committee member, was miffed that Mills bypassed both his panel and established gaming interests.

Gaming is a rare example of a policy area that has largely been filled in by referendum. Voter approval is the only viable way to establish a casino here and Mainers green-lit the two casinos in Bangor and Oxford. But tribal bids to establish their own casinos were rejected at the ballot in 2003 and 2007. Legislative bids to expand tribal gaming rights have been turned back since.

Across the country, tribes have wide authority to pursue gaming. In Maine, that authority is limited by the 1980s settlement governing state-tribal relations. That agreement has been the subject of a major tribal sovereignty push that Mills has resisted. The sports betting offer is part of a relatively small package of concessions that the governor is willing to accept.

Over the years, Maine's gaming industry has crowded out smaller tribal businesses. For example, the Penobscot Nation's high-stakes beano games were long a major revenue source. But the establishment of Hollywood Casino in Bangor made them less viable and the hall closed in 2015. The Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes get a small share of Oxford Casino revenue.

Special-interest opposition to tribal gaming has mixed with overlapping groups of lawmakers opposed to gambling expansion and those who defend hometown casinos or smaller operations to shape our system. It is looking like it will take a tenuous coalition of Mills and more progressive lawmakers to get this deal with tribes done. But history tells us it will not be easy.

News and notes

— Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, outlines her view of the effort she is helping lead to overhaul the Electoral College count in a New York Times Op-Ed today. A bipartisan group of senators is working to clarify the vice president's role in the congressional count of presidential election results and make it harder for members of Congress to challenge them. Collins calls former Vice President Mike Pence's actions heroic after supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but she writes "the peaceful transfer of power shouldn’t require heroes."

— The rest of the congressional delegation wants the U.S. to hold China accountable for not buying more lobster under the terms of a 2020 trade deal. As part of a deal that eased a trade war with China under former President Donald Trump, the world's most populous country agreed to purchase $200 billion more in U.S. goods by the end of 2021. But they bought none of the additional imports on net and barely any more lobster over 2017 levels. Sen. Angus King, an independent, as well as Democratic Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden wrote a letter to President Joe Biden's trade representative to urge the disclosure of the exact amount of lobster that was supposed to be purchased and get China to live up to the promise.

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What we're reading

— A state-owned landfill needs more refrigerators and couches to help it contain runoff laced with "forever chemicals." The operator of Juniper Ridge Landfill in Old Town asked state regulators to allow it to accept 5,500 more tons of bulky waste, which it combines with wastewater sludge contaminated by the toxins more substance to help prevent runoff. It is making the move in anticipation of getting far more of the sludge that is being applied to farmland less during a statewide fight against the chemicals.

— Maine is expected to mirror a nationwide spending bump during the omicron variant ease in January. An economist said even though consumers are worried by inflation and interest rate hikes, the recent surge led to pent-up demand for goods including furniture, appliances, vehicles, clothing and groceries.

— A Republican lawmaker likened Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to a dictator Wednesday on the House floor. The remarks from Rep. Sherman Hutchins of Penobscot came after Trudeau invoked emergency powers to allow police to clear blockades of border crossings and downtowns by the "Freedom Convoy," a right-wing group of truckers protesting COVID-19 limits.

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Follow along today

10 a.m. The health committee will meet for a briefing on the Fund for a Healthy Maine before working on bills that would change it, including one that would bar the use of tobacco settlement funds to provide health coverage and gear it further toward prevention efforts. Watch here.

The criminal justice committee will hold hearings on two corrections bills and another proposal that would add school officials to an area of law aimed at preventing harassment of public officials. Watch here.

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📷 Lead photo: Hollywood Casino in Bangor is pictured on Feb. 3, 2021. (BDN photo by Linda Coan O'Kresik)

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