(The Center Square) — Maine’s Democratic-controlled Legislature has pushed through a two-year, $11.3 billion budget on Thursday that plugs revenue gaps and a shortfall in the state’s Medicaid program, despite Republican objections to the spending plan.
The Maine House of Representatives approved the spending plan by a 74-67 vote along party lines. The Senate passed it 18-17, with two Democrats joining Republicans in opposition. The proposal is now awaiting Democratic Gov. Janet Mills’s signature.
Democrats said their spending plan will continue to fund Maine programs for the next two years without any cuts or additions. It also fills a $118 million funding gap in MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program.
“It’s a pretty good budget,” state Rep. Michael Brennan, D-Portland, said in remarks. “It’s a budget that invests in Maine communities, invests in Maine families, and saves hundreds of millions of dollars in educational costs.”
However, Republicans voted in unison against the spending plan after trying unsuccessfully to amend it, complaining that Democrats locked them out of the decision-making process and gave them little time to consider the spending plan before voting on it.
“The real losers tonight are the people of the state of Maine who in the short term might see some benefit from the spending, but it’s unsustainable. We’ve crossed that threshold,” Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, R-Aroostook, said in remarks Thursday. “We’re not addressing the root of these problems; out of control costs, out of control spending.”
The budget doesn’t include a proposed $1 per pack increase in Maine’s cigarette tax, child care cuts and other tax hikes Mills pitched in her $11.6 billion, two-year spending plan.
Passage of the spending bill was also prolonged by a debate over transgender athletes and the Legislature’s recent censure of state Rep. Laurel Libby, an Auburn Republican, who was criticized by Democrats for re-posting photos of an underage transgender athlete on social media.
Libby, who is prohibited by House rules from voting on bills until she apologizes for the post, has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the censure vote.
Libby filed several amendments to the spending plan, including a proposal to keep trans athletes out of girls’ sports, but Democrats voted to indefinitely postpone the amendments.
Maine Republicans have long argued that the state doesn’t have a revenue shortfall but a spending problem. During the debate on the budget, they criticized Democrats and the Mills administration for a lack of fiscal restraint in creating new programs and expanding services. They point to state financial data showing overall revenues have increased by more than $300 million from the previous biennium budget.
Last week, Republicans blocked passage of a separate supplemental budget aimed at closing the state’s Medicaid funding gap after pushing unsuccessfully to add work requirements for recipients and other reforms.
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The Mills administration has attributed the $118 million Medicaid gap to several factors, including an increase in MaineCare enrollment during the COVID-19 pandemic and changes in federal policy that expanded eligibility.
Because the budget didn’t pass with a two-thirds majority, lawmakers must wait at least 90 days before the spending plan goes into effect. Mills has 10 days to sign the budget, veto it or send it back to lawmakers with proposed changes.