State budget writers work the weekend to grind out revisions

AUGUSTA – State budget writers put the finishing touches on their tentative revisions to Gov. Angus King’s $5 billion two-year tax-and-spending package after working into the weekend.

A final Appropriations Committee vote, however, was put off to allow time for panelists to brief their rank-and-file colleagues and attempt to measure the level of support for the revised plan within the full Senate and House of Representatives.

Those briefings are expected to begin Monday with a committee vote scheduled Tuesday.

For now, the 13 committee members are hanging together, said Republican Rep. Irvin Belanger of Caribou while noting they “didn’t take any final action.” The committee worked into the early hours of Saturday morning.

Among the final agreements that produced a tentative deal was committee acceptance of the basics of a King proposal to close Maine’s 27 remaining state liquor stores.

King has said the closings would save about $5 million annually while eliminating close to 100 jobs. The committee would seek to ensure a negotiated severance package for employees who lose their jobs.

In a rebuff to the administration, appropriations panelists have lined up against the governor’s initiative to extend the term of the amortization schedule for the unfunded actuarial liability of the state retirement system.

Committee members instead have proposed transferring $35.5 million from the state Rainy Day Fund to help bridge a gap between anticipated expenditures and expected revenue that once approached $300 million for the upcoming biennium.

To date, a $50 million school technology fund that the governor would use to provide computers for students remains intact.