Part 2 budget gets initial nod in Maine House

AUGUSTA – A $75 million, Part 2 budget that would be funded by nearly $60 million in new taxes on cigarettes and restaurant meals won preliminary approval Monday in the House.

But the 82-65 decision lacked the support of 19 legislators needed to enact the emergency measure with a supermajority. The budget faced additional votes Monday night and its supporters were trying to persuade opponents to back the plan while preparing to debate a lengthy list of amendments to the bill.

The 20-cent-per-pack hike on cigarettes and the imposition of a 7 percent tax on meals in all Maine restaurants was strongly opposed by GOP lawmakers who were not influenced by a majority endorsement of the budget bill by the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee.

Instead, House Republicans offered a competing $60 million budget bill that contributes $27 million less in health care for the poor than the majority budget report and imposes a 1 percent across-the-board decrease for many state agencies to reduce the growth of Maine government. The Republican minority report also would take nearly $17 million in lapsed year-end balances from state departments and apply the money for other priorities.

Significant differences between the proposals focused on several issues including local educational reimbursement. In the budget’s second fiscal year, Democrats offered a 3 percent raise in reimbursement while the Republican budget boosted that figure to 4 percent. Democrats also rallied behind the majority report’s $4.6 million in new domestic violence prevention funding. Republicans offered $250,000 in an additional domestic violence money, promising to amend their budget to include an additional $4.4 million if Democrats voted for their plan.

Another distinction between the competing plans was reflected in their impact on the expected deficit in the budget package for the next Legislature that budget writers describe as an ongoing structural gap – the differences between anticipated state revenues and state spending. The majority report, favored by Gov. Angus S. King, pegs that gap at between $190 million and $220 million. Because the GOP plan contains no new tax revenues, it increases the gap in the majority report by $45 million.

Both measures require two-thirds votes of the membership in the House and Senate. In order to obtain tax revenues needed in August and September, the majority budget needs to take effect sooner than the 90 days that elapse between the day the legislative session ends and the soonest date a bill can become law. Republicans need two-thirds in order to include revenues from lapsed state agency balances into their proposal. In the House, that threshold is 101 votes; in the Senate, 24.

Consisting of 17 Republicans, 17 Democrats and one independent, the Senate was expected to back the majority report with two-thirds approval, despite a division in its GOP caucus. But in the House, Democrats hold 89 seats while Republicans claim only 61 districts. Rep. John Michael, of Auburn, is the lone independent in the House and was expected to side with Republicans. Assuming every Democrat voted for the majority budget, they would still need at least 12 additional affirmative votes to reach the minimal 101-vote threshold for two-thirds approval.

“It is my hope that my [Republican] colleagues will see the benefits of a two-thirds budget and will include bills that they would see us prioritize,” said Rep. Randy Berry, D-Livermore. “Some of them are existing programs and they deserve to be continued.”

House Democratic leader Patrick Colwell, D-Gardiner, told his seatmates that the majority budget made the tough choices to provide responsibility and leadership for state government.

“We need to meet the needs of the citizens of Maine here and now,” he said. “This budget does that. We’re moving our state in the right direction.”

But Colwell’s GOP counterpart disagreed. Rep. Joseph Bruno said the majority budget contained an endless list of needs that considered almost everyone except the working men and women of Maine.

“You know we always forget about the need of the Maine taxpayer,” he said. “Maine taxpayers are tired and beaten up – exhausted. They just can’t pay anymore.”