Maine lawmakers return to address vetoes, unfinished business on final day

The Maine Legislature will reconvene today to vote on whether to sustain or override the governor’s vetoes. Legislators are also expected to consider bills that the budget committee  opened up the possibility to enact earlier this week. 

The Legislature’s Democratic majority leaders said they are supportive of funding those additional investments while the minority Republican caucuses are generally opposed, as is Gov. Janet Mills who has repeatedly urged lawmakers to “show fiscal restraint” and only take up her vetoes. 

Regarding vetoes, the Legislature has never had enough votes to overturn any of Mills’ formal objections so far during her tenure and that seems unlikely to change this session, as Republican leadership said their party will be sustaining the vetoes up for consideration today. 

Mills, a Democrat, vetoed eight bills this year, two of which the Maine House of Representatives already sustained. During the first year of the two-year legislative cycle, Mills vetoed four bills, which legislators also sustained. 

Mills and Republicans say they are opposed to voting on other matters because they object to more spending and making policy changes this late in session. The Legislature has not yet adjourned “sine die,” or finally, but the deadline under state law for the Legislature to conclude its work was April 17.  

There are also differences of opinion as to whether lawmakers can vote on matters without calling a special session. On April 17, the Legislature passed a joint order allowing lawmakers to return to consider objections of the governor but also “when there is a need to conduct business.” 

The Legislature worked past midnight of statutory adjournment day to vote on bills and pass budget changes. While lawmakers settled the fates of many bills in these final hours, they left more than 200 in limbo between passage and funding.

Most of these bills were left on what is known as the “appropriations table.” Bills that land on the table have already passed the full Legislature. However, if they aren’t explicitly funded in the state budget, they need to be paid for using remaining unappropriated money, which wasn’t determined until the early morning of April 18.

The Legislature’s Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee reconvened on Tuesday and voted about 80 bills off the table, providing an opportunity for the Legislature to enact them and allocate the now-remaining $11.4 million unappropriated surplus.

Committee chairs and Democratic leadership agreed on leveraging $10 million of those remaining funds for bills on the table, with $4 million each for the Democratic majority caucuses in the House and Senate, and $1 million for each minority Republican caucus — though the total cost of bills moved off the table is not yet known as details are being finalized. 

Bills voted off the table now must be approved by the Senate, or both chambers if the Appropriations Committee amended them in any way. 

Disagreement over spending 

A call for fiscal restraint has been a throughline of the governor’s stance on the budget this session. 

Mills proposed setting aside $107 million in savings as a means to protect Maine’s long-term fiscal health this year, a plan critiqued from both within and outside of her party. The budget the Legislature passed, and Mills signed into law last month, cut her proposed savings in half, acknowledging the governor’s concerns but not agreeing to restrain spending to the extent she’d proposed. 

Earlier this week, after the budget committee advanced the additional spending bills, a spokesperson again said the governor was concerned about the state’s long-term financial sustainability with those added investments. 

Dozens of bills left in limbo now have chance to be enacted this session

Both House and Senate Republicans are opposed to more spending, however Assistant Republican Minority Leader Lisa Keim of Oxford said her caucus “will be considering each one on its merit and making that decision as the bills come forward,” though declined to provide specific examples of bills they may support. 

John Bott, communications director for Maine House Republicans, called the spending “so reckless that even the governor has called them out.”

Christine Kirby, spokesperson for Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook), said that Jackson shares the governor’s commitment to fiscal restraint and responsibility, pointing to the growth of the Budget Stabilization Fund, otherwise known as the rainy day fund, which reached a historic high during their respective tenures. 

“That being said, there are a number of critical measures on the special appropriations table that deserve to be funded and will make a meaningful difference in the lives of Mainers,” Kirby said, including measures Jackson is particularly supportive of, such as support for survivors of sexual assault and initiatives to improve outcomes for children in the child welfare system. 

House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland) similarly said earlier this week that the investments would address immediate needs and represent careful consideration from legislators.

House Democrats championed bills that made it off the table Tuesday, including a proposal from Talbot Ross to establish a unit to enforce violations of the Maine Civil Rights Act.

Another bill sponsored by the Speaker to create an advisory council to ensure Wabanaki and African American studies requirements are effectively taught in schools also made it off the table, which a coalition of Maine organizations has called on the Legislature to pass. The coalition — the Abbe Museum, ACLU of Maine, Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission and Wabanaki Alliance — authored a 2022 report that found school districts have failed to include Wabanaki studies consistently and appropriately in their curriculum. 

In contrast, more than 100 bills are set to die when the Legislature finally adjourns because the Appropriations Committee did not vote them off the table.

There are also a handful of bills the budget committee moved off the table back on April 17  at risk of dying without further action. For instance, the committee amended several workers’ rights bills to remove the need for funding, but the Senate tabled them, leaving them as unfinished business. 

The Legislature is also expected to take final enactment votes on bills voted off something called the “study table” late last month. Bills that require studies are placed on this table and the Legislative Council, composed of the ten highest ranking members of the Legislature, has the authority to decide which studies to prioritize and ultimately fund. 

Differences in opinion on permissible actions

Lawmakers have debated whether the joint order passed April 17 permits the Legislature to take votes on matters aside from vetoes past statutory adjournment. 

A spokesperson for Talbot Ross said her office has been in conversation with the Attorney General to ensure actions taken are in accordance with the law, though the Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Director of the Legislature’s Office of Policy and Legal Analysis Danielle Fox told Maine Morning Star that she is aware generally of past instances when Legislatures have agreed by joint order to extend a regular session for multiple days to complete work, though did not provide specific examples. Kirby, the spokesperson for Jackson, similarly said there is precedent for such action. 

Kirby also pointed to an opinion from the late former Attorney General Joseph Brennan in 1977, in which he weighed in on a similar, but distinct, question.

In 1977, the 108th Legislature passed an adjournment order pertaining to work beyond statutory adjournment that allowed the Legislature to meet again to consider the governor’s objections. Brennan concluded that under the order, he did not believe the Legislature could conduct other business aside from dealing with gubernatorial vetoes.

However, Brennan noted other options available to the Legislature, such as calling a special session, or simply extending session if doing so was approved by a two-thirds vote of members present. 

“As the first regular session of the 108th Legislature has not adjourned sine die, we believe it would be possible to conduct business relating to an extension of the adjournment date,” Brennan wrote. 

Compared to the 1977 order, the order that the current Legislature passed on April 17 was broader in its scope, allowing the Senate President or House Speaker to call the Legislature back “when there is a need to conduct business or consider objections of the Governor.”

As of Thursday, Keim said her caucus did not have legal concerns. 

“Our concern is really more around, at what point do we just walk away from our process so wholly, right? And where do we draw the line?” Keim said. “We believe that the line should already be drawn. Yes, we can legally do this but it’s not appropriate.”

Vetoes

Mills has never had a veto overridden during her time in office. The governor has formally objected to 49 bills since assuming office in 2019. Her predecessor, Republican Paul LePage, set a record among Maine governors by vetoing more than 640 bills.  

A two-thirds vote of those present in both chambers is required to override a veto. This means that a veto override could be done with less than two-thirds of all members if some are absent, however Republican opposition is already clear. 

Pushing back on veto, farmworker advocates say Mills’ proposal scaled back labor rights

“We’ll be sustaining vetoes,” Keim said on Thursday. “Those are bills we voted against anyway, so our position hasn’t changed, just come to find out the governor agrees with us.”

The Legislature already sustained the governor’s vetoes of two bills this year: a measure to further limit noncompete clauses in Maine and another to prevent felony-level charges from being brought against someone with multiple theft convictions if their most recent offense is for petty theft. 

The Legislature is expected on Friday to take up the remaining six bills vetoed by Mills this session, several of which drew pointed rebukes from members of her own party. 

Among the highest profile of those is the governor’s own bill, which would have established a minimum wage for farmworkers. However, as proposed by Mills, the bill would have also curtailed farmworkers’ right to directly sue their employer for the bulk of their possible unpaid wages, instead tasking the Maine Department of Labor with enforcing the law. 

Mills said that was needed to avoid costly lawsuits against farms. Democrats on the Labor and Housing Committee disagreed, arguing that it was wrong to take a right away from farmworkers in exchange for the minimum wage and pointing out that accessing the court system is already difficult. The committee removed Mills’ restrictions on farmworkers’ private right of action, and the governor ultimately vetoed the bill. 

Mills vetoed another bill related to farmworkers that lawmakers will also take up Friday. This proposal aimed to give farmworkers the right to discuss wages and engage in other concerted activity. 

Following the mass shooting in Lewiston in October, the Legislature proposed numerous gun control proposals. Two of those bills, one to expand background checks and modify the state’s “yellow flag” law and the other to create a 72-hour waiting period for certain gun purchases, became law. 

However, Mills vetoed another proposal that aimed to ban conversion devices on semi-automatic weapons, such as bump stocks and would require that firearms used in a crime be destroyed. 

Mills objected to the bill because she said it could unintentionally ban weapons that responsible gun owners use for hunting or target shooting. Gun safety advocates pushed back, with Nacole Palmer, the executive director of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, arguing there is “no excuse to allow everyday guns to mimic machine guns.”

The Legislature is also expected to take up vetoes on the following bills Friday: a measure to add new tax brackets and increase tax rates for wealthier Mainers, a proposal meant to ensure clean energy projects on state land aren’t disrupted by labor disputes that the governor called overly ambiguous, and legislation to require that Juniper Ridge landfill operator Casella treat leachate in a way that ensures PFAS levels don’t exceed established drinking water standards.

Evan Popp contributed reporting to this story.