AUGUSTA, Maine — Democrats and Republicans in the Maine Legislature have approved a $6.7 billion budget that will guide state spending for the next two years.
The so-called leadership budget brokered by heads of the four partisan caucuses was crafted to deliver $135 million in tax cuts by 2017 while increasing state funding for education, nursing homes and drug enforcement.
But efforts to provide benefits for asylum seekers were not supported by the Maine Senate, leaving the fate of about 1,000 new arrivals to Maine in doubt.
The budget process that began late in the afternoon plodded on until just after 12:30 a.m., when Maine Senate President Mike Thibodeau recorded the final 31-4 vote to keep Maine government in business for the next two years.
"This bill, having been passed to be enacted, will be signed by the president and presented by the secretary to the governor for approval," Thibodeau says.
Legislative leaders expect that Gov. Paul LePage will find more not to like than like in the $6.7 billion state budget. But the veto-proof vote in the Senate was matched with a 105-42 vote in the House.
Most of the details in the initial budget agreement was shrouded in secrecy, with legislative leaders concerned that the premature release of the information could cause the deal to fall apart.
The lack of transparency in the process was one of the reasons that Democratic Rep. Matthew Peterson of Rumford refused to vote for the budget.
"The legislative process is one of public debate and discussion and we've strayed from that," Peterson says. "That is why I'm voting against this budget and I urge all of my colleagues in this body to join me. Make no mistake about it. This is a moment of truth for all of us in this body. Agreements were made in a way very different from the usual matter of course. Let's send this bill back to the Appropriations Committee to be considered in the light of day to affirm the faith of the Maine people who sent us by reopening a transparent and inclusive process."
The major sticking point in the budget for many Democrats and some Republicans centered on General Assistance benefits for asylum seekers and noncitizens who are in Maine legally.
A recent court decision concluded that without a change in Maine law, the state could deny General Assistance funding to towns who choose to provide benefits to the newcomers.
An effort in the House to define the legal asylum seekers as group that was entitled to those benefits was rejected by the Senate, as was a similar fix offered by Republican Sen. Amy Volk of Scarborough, who wanted to allow any asylum seekers who were legally present in Maine as of July 1 to be able to receive government assistance for up to 24 months.
"I feel like encouraging these asylees to create lives here in Maine, to invest in our communities is an investment in our future particularly when you see that they're actually sending their children at a faster rate than Maine-born children are going to college," Volk says.
Still lawmakers found large areas of mutual agreement in the leadership budget crafted as an alternative to the plan originally submitted by LePage.
Funded in part by the extension of the 5.5 percent sales tax that was supposed to return to 5 percent on July 1, the expansion of the sales tax to some prepared foods and a 1 percent hike in the lodging tax from 8 to 9 percent, taxes will decline for nearly 580,000 Maine families, although approximately 117,000 Maine families will see an overall tax increase.
House Majority Leader Jeff McCabe, a Skowhegan Democrat, said the budget preserves the home mortgage deduction and contains some other desirable tax revisions.
"Instead of huge tax cuts for the wealthy, it's a tax cut that targets low- and middle-income families," McCabe says. "These cuts won't blow holes in future budgets as they are fully paid for. Rather than 50 percent of the tax break going to the top 10 percent, as we've seen proposed earlier this session, this compromise sends 75 percent of the benefit to the bottom 90 percent."
Republicans and Democrats also were able to find additional educational funding that was not included in the governor's original proposal.
"This is a real meat and potatoes budget," says Sen. Linda Valentino, a Saco Democrat and a member of the Appropriations Committee. "It provides an additional $80 million for K-12 education, $8 million for the community colleges, $9.4 million for the UMaine system and $10 million for the Maine State Grant Program to increase grants from $1,000 to $1,500."
Lawmakers are scheduled to reconvene at the State House today at 10:30 as they continue their march to adjournment.