By Michael Shepherd - July 18, 2023
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The Legislature is coming back in a week, and here is what they have left to do. The two Democratic presiding officers announced Monday that they will call lawmakers back a week from today to finalize spending items and any vetoes coming down from Gov. Janet Mills.

We have a good sense of what they are going to do. Last week, the budget committee endorsed a referendum on changing the state flag, salary increases for the next governor and Legislature, an offshore wind compromise between the Democratic governor and organized labor and other additions to a budget document recently signed into law by Mills.

There are some items that technically progressed but will not win out in the end. For example, Democrats attempted to fund a constitutional amendment that would expand ranked-choice voting to general elections for state offices, something that Republicans are adamantly opposed to. It will need two-thirds approval in both houses, and it already failed to get that in the more closely divided House. That means it won't go anywhere.

We are still waiting for potential vetoes from Mills, and it only looks like a small number may be handed down. That is in part because lawmakers have not advanced much that she opposes, such as a $15 minimum wage, and because Democrats have been negotiating with the governor on major issues headlined by a new paid family and medical leave program funded by a payroll tax.

One candidate for Mills' red pen is what began as a ballot initiative to bar foreign government-owned companies from spending in Maine referendums, assuming it passes after being funded by the budget committee. She vetoed a similar bill from Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, two years ago, and she could do it here.

The coalition leading the ballot initiative touted polling this spring showing wide support for the idea, which originated from Hydro-Quebec's spending in the campaign over the Central Maine Power Co. corridor. While it might be an easy sell for voters, Mills said in 2021 that it would effectively bar some businesses from defending themselves.

There are reservations about it in the Legislature as well. When it cleared the chambers, the House took a rare non-recorded vote on the measure to pass it 73-53. Two-thirds of lawmakers will be needed to enact the measure if Mills opposes it, so any veto may prevail and put this back on the November ballot.