People’s veto committee claims victory on budget Recent cuts, tax ended need for $450M loan

AUGUSTA – The two men who started the ball rolling three months ago for a people’s veto of a $450 million budget-balancing loan arrived Monday at the State House with a simple message: “We won.”

Michael Healy, president of the Don’t Mortgage ME people’s veto political action committee, and Sen. Peter Mills, a Cornville Republican who launched the effort with four other legislators, brought a pile of boxes to represent more than 40,000 signatures they said had already been collected.

Rather than bask in their victory – although there was some degree of that activity – the Republicans at Monday’s people’s veto event actually called the press conference to dissemble the troops of volunteers who had fanned out across the state to collect signatures to place the question on the ballot.

Before the Legislature adjourned its special session at about 3 a.m. Saturday, lawmakers in the House and Senate voted to repeal budget language approved by majority Democrats in March that balanced the state’s $5.7 billion budget with a $450 million state revenue bond. The loan was replaced with a combination of spending cuts and the imposition of a new tax on cigarettes that will double the current $1 assessment.

The elimination of the borrowing plan by Democrats in a largely party-line vote late Friday night rendered moot the need for the people’s veto since the loan is no longer part of the budget. Like soldiers who continue to fight because they never received their surrender orders, the signature gatherers for the people’s veto may need help in getting out the message that it’s over.

“We’ve had to explain twice to some of them,” Mills said.

“They want to know why they can’t vote on it anyway,” said David Emery, an organizer for the campaign and a potential GOP gubernatorial candidate in 2006. “But that just reflects the level of intensity people were feeling over this issue. They very strongly believed that the borrowing was inappropriate and they wanted an opportunity to put their ‘X’ in the box. I’ve been telling them they can put their ‘X’ in the box in 2006 to get the same level of satisfaction.”

Emery said the volunteers had more than accomplished their goal of reaching more than 52,500 signatures by June 28.

“We had, would have had, 55,000 to 60,000 signatures easy,” he said.

Despite assertions to the contrary by some Democrats, Emery and Mills said the $125 million in state spending cuts that, along with the cigarette tax, helped offset the need for the borrowing package never would have happened if the people’s veto initiative had not been blazing away in the background.

“All [of the Democrats] got the feedback and the calls at home and they all know that without the petition drive, the borrowing would have sailed through,” Emery said.

“I give thanks to the Democratic Party and the governor for having had the good grace to change their minds in the face of overwhelming opposition,” added Mills.

Pat Colwell, chairman of the Maine Democratic Party, said Republicans were taking way too much credit for changes made to the budget. In a prepared statement Monday, Colwell said that despite “GOP stonewalling,” lawmakers managed to have a productive legislative session and keep their promise to the residents of Maine.

“For all their complaining, the Republicans still did not do the heavy lifting and participate in the budget process,” Colwell said. “They will be claiming victory, but that doesn’t pass the straight-face test. This session was a clear victory for the people of Maine, preserving Maine’s reputation for fiscal restraint and protection of the health of its citizens. A victory delivered to them by the hard work of Democrats in the Legislature and the Blaine House.”