$5.8B state budget gets Senate OK Legislature adjourns after party-line vote

AUGUSTA – The regular session of the 122nd Legislature adjourned Wednesday night after majority Democrats in the House and Senate gave final enactment to the party’s $5.8 billion state budget.

Shortly before 9 p.m., the House approved the two-year, tax-and-spending plan in a 77-73 vote that divided largely along party lines. The Senate followed about a half-hour later with an 18-16 vote that sent LD 468 to the governor for his signature.

Gov. John E. Baldacci is expected to sign the bill later this afternoon before calling the adjourned Legislature back into “special session” next week to continue its remaining work.

The unusual protocol was advanced by majority Democrats in the House and Senate in order to avoid further negotiations with Republicans over several divisive elements in the budget. Democrats hold 76 seats in the House to the Republicans’ 73.

The entire membership reaches 151 with the inclusion of one unenrolled member and one Green Independent, both of whom are more inclined to vote with Democrats than Republicans. The Senate comprises 19 Democrats and 16 Republicans.

The budget was approved 8-5 by majority Democrats on the Appropriations Committee after negotiations broke down when Republicans asked Democrats to consider $215 million in reductions achieved through restructuring spending.

Like any bill that passes with a simple majority, the budget bill becomes law with the governor’s signature 90 days after the Legislature adjourns. Since LD 468 had to become law when the current two-year budget expires on June 30, majority Democrats had to pass the budget and adjourn by 11:59 p.m. Friday.

In the House, the budget continued to be opposed by nearly all the Republicans and two Democrats, Reps. Barbara Merrill of Appleton and Joanne Twomey of Biddeford.

Merrill objected to the budget’s education funding level while Twomey felt more taxes were needed to guarantee the delivery of state services.

Reps. John Eder, a Green Independent member from Portland, and Richard Woodbury, an unenrolled member from Yarmouth, supported the Democratic majority budget as did one Republican, Rep. Gerald M. Davis of Falmouth, who favored the proposal’s educational funding component.

In the Senate, Republicans opposed the plan along with one Democrat, Sen. John Nutting of Leeds, who was unhappy with the level of borrowing the budget relies upon in order to deliver current state services.

“We’re digging a bigger and bigger hole with this barn shovel, and I’m not going to have my hands on the handle,” said Nutting, a dairy farmer.

Most of Wednesday’s budget activities were focused in the Senate, where 14 of 15 largely GOP amendments were beaten back by Democrats. The majority party praised LD 468 as a well-considered spending proposal which will increase the state’s share of education funding to 50 percent with a $250 million cash infusion over two years.

The feat is accomplished in part by the budget’s reliance on a $450 million state revenue bond which will have to be paid back over 14 years at $45 million a year.

Other budget highlights specified by the majority party include:

. $20 million more to higher education than the last two-year budget;

. $1.7 billion in aid to local schools for K-12 education;

. Removal of a tax exemption for users of satellite TV, so they will now pay the same 5 percent sales tax as cable customers;

. Restoration of $52 million in proposed cuts to child welfare, health care and prescription drug programs.

The House and Senate eliminated a $10 registration fee on canoes and kayaks as well as plans for a study committee that would have considered possible fees for hikers and bird watchers.

Another amendment repealed Baldacci’s seat belt legislation, which would have made failure to use seat belts a primary violation rather than a secondary infraction, the current policy for motorists who fail to buckle up. The return to the status quo on seat belt use also involved fines, which, under Baldacci’s plan, would have increased from $60 to $212.

A few minor conflicting amendments between the House and Senate were resolved Wednesday night when the House agreed to yield to the Senate and rescinded its amendments.

Senate and House Republicans attacked the majority budget’s provision for obtaining a state revenue bond authorizing borrowing up to $450 million to balance the state budget and pay down the state retirement system debt.

They also objected to refinancing the state retirement system debt for another 14 years. While the longer loan provides immediate savings of about $340 million through a lump sum $120 million payment on the loan’s principal, Republicans claim the extended schedule also adds about $2.5 billion in interest payments over the life of the loan.