March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

House budget votes fail to end partisan impasse

AUGUSTA — A partisan impasse over how to close a $160 million budget gap continues in the Maine House after weekend budget votes failed to garner the two-thirds majority needed to enact a fiscal plan.

The House votes followed nearly five hours of debate. Representatives rejected a Republican budget plan and gave preliminary approval to the Democratic version Saturday night.

The voting was largely along party lines, although six GOP members voted against the plan put forth by their Appropriations Committee team and one, Hugh A. Morrison of Bangor, subsequently voted for the Democratic alternative.

Before recessing the House until Tuesday, Speaker John L. Martin said the next chore for lawmakers would be to determine “how to get to 101” — the number of votes needed to ensure enactment.

The GOP plan lost on a lopsided vote of 99-42, shortly after Republican Rep. Peter Hastings of Fryeburg, who ended up voting for it, dismissed both measures by saying, “They’re a great starting point, but they’re not going anywhere from what I hear here today.”

The Democratic package won initial approval by a margin of 94-47, but even some supporters warned against overselling its virtues.

Answering GOP complaints that Democrats were less willing to reduce the size of government, Democratic Rep. John A. Cashman of Old Town, the co-chairman of the Taxation Committee, said neither party was in a position to boast on that score.

“The differences are minimal in accounting gimmicks and spending,” Cashman said. “So who has downsized state government? Nobody. Why? Because you can’t in this short a period of time.”

Earlier, Martin led the Democratic debaters and was targeted anew by Republican criticism of his negotiating methods, as the House took up the competing proposals for closing this year’s state budget gap.

With both sides seeking to stretch revenues and cut back spending to close a potential deficit, Martin appealed for bipartisan support.

“What you have before you today is not a Democratic budget,” he told House members as the two initiatives finally hit the floor in late afternoon.

“We were down to two issues” — an appropriate funding level for the Maine Health Program and a Democratic call for major governmental reorganization — when committee talks deadlocked Friday, Martin maintained.

“The majority report represents the majority of this body, regardless of party,” the Democrat from Eagle Lake said.

Following the speaker’s opening statement, other Democratic participants in the budget talks that have dragged on for more than a month rose to advocate for various elements of the majority plan — for example, its $7 million restoration to the subsidized health insurance plan.

They also spoke favorably of what the majority plan did not do — for instance, borrow from state retirement system funds, as was originally proposed by Republican Gov. John R. McKernan.

At first, Republican representatives held their fire, under a pre-session agreement that called for a series of brief Democratic presentations.

Minority party members then began to offer similar explanatory pitches for their plan — but not before the leadoff GOP speaker, Rep. Judith C. Foss of Yarmouth, castigated Martin without naming him for “insults (and) bullying” that she said he introduced to Appropriations Committee sessions.

Foss also asserted that Martin had omitted a key sticking point from his description of the panel’s negotiations: “the source of funding for the other issues that were pending.”

Democrats, who desire to restore more money than do Republicans to limit McKernan’s original cutback proposals — the difference between the two sides was mired in conflicting mathematical analyses — would free up $44 million by postponing for a day a month’s worth of local school aid payments at the end of the fiscal year.

Republicans, while criticizing that scheme, had put forth an equally creative plan for freeing up $12 million that called for a one-time advance in anticipated telecommunications tax payments.

The McKernan administration offered a comparative analysis of the two measures that suggested the Democratic plan carried $25 million more in reduced cuts and added spending than the GOP plan.

Martin put the difference at $16 million.

Indications were that the debate would be lengthy and Saturday’s session was only the first of several to be devoted to it.

The Senate, which did not meet, is not scheduled to reconvene until Tuesday.

Barring a surprise, the eventual outcome of legislative voting may be preordained. Neither side, without some crossover voting, would be able to garner the two-third majorities needed to assure enactment.

Democrats expressed hope that they could lure some GOP lawmakers to their side.

“A lot of them are coming in here this morning asking questions on their own,” said Rep. Lorraine N. Chonko, D-Topsham, as she prepared for the debate in Martin’s office. “Nobody’s pushing them.”

Ranking Republicans, meanwhile, worked to shore up solidarity within their minority bloc. House Minority Leader Walter E. Whitcomb of Waldo urged his caucus members to stand fast and force the Democratic majority back to the bargaining table, but there were signs of restiveness.

Rep. Omar P. Norton, R-Winthrop, warned his GOP colleagues that their plan contained several politically troubling elements and said, heading into the floor debate, that, “I’m prepared to vote no on both at the moment.”

Norton also urged his caucus not to act out of a “phobia of John Martin.”

Three hours into the debate, Martin had a confrontation with McKernan aide Mark LeDuc just outside the House chamber, where the speaker temporarily denied LeDuc permission to have a handful of envelopes distributed to GOP members.

Martin challenged the aide, demanding that he reveal the contents of the envelopes, which he suggested bore McKernan signatures that the governor, who was attending a meeting in Washington, had not signed himself.

LeDuc refused to surrender the letters, telling Martin, “I’m not going to open a piece of mail for you.”

Following a consultation with Martin’s legal counsel, Jonathan Hull, LeDuc handed the letters — which contained talking points for Republican debaters — to a House doorman for distribution.


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