Gov. Paul LePage is threatening to keep the Legislature in session until Election Day in November unless it deals with a number of key issues he wants resolved.
House and Senate leaders say LePage should withhold his bluster and help to deliver some votes in the Legislature.
LePage wants action taken on proposals to bring about tax conformity, to regulate municipal foreclosures affecting elderly homeowners, and to slow the implementation of a voter-approved increase in the state minimum wage. On Radio station WVOM earlier this week, the governor said that if lawmakers don’t act on his demands, he’ll make sure they have a busy summer.
“I will tell you the Legislature will be here until Election Day because I will call them back every day until they deal with my elderly bill and the minimum wage,” he said.
The foreclosure bill is important, says LePage, because it would prohibit municipalities from short-changing seniors who face foreclosure for back taxes. Specifically, it would prevent the town from selling the foreclosed property for an amount equal to the taxes owed, and it would require that any money left over from a fair market sale goes to the former owner.
LePage also says he wants the minimum wage increases slowed to ease what he believes will be the negative effects on the economy.
As for his threats of keeping lawmakers in Augusta until Election Day:
“The governor says a lot of things that he doesn’t always mean,” says Senate President Mike Thibodeau. “Maybe this is another example of that.”
Thibodeau, a Republican from Winterport, says the governor can bluster all he wants, but that won’t push legislation through the divided Legislature.
“ A few weeks ago he wasn’t going to veto any bills, we’ve just dealt with 40-something vetoes,” Thibodeau says. “Before we worry about the governor calling us in, we have to figure out how to get out after we have called ourselves in. “
Democratic House Speaker Sara Gideon of Freeport says LePage should work with the Legislature to find compromises and to leverage the needed votes from both parties. Gideon says the governor has created gridlock in Augusta by refusing to work with the Legislature.
“I think I am frustrating for him,” she says. “I think he has a desire to be relevant. I think he is gasping with every last breath to declare that relevancy.”
Both Gideon and Thibodeau agree that the major issue holding up the session is an error in the drafting of the two-year state budget passed last year that does not allow the Ethics Commission to distribute money it already has on hand to publicly financed candidates for the Legislature and governor. Both leaders say it is wrong to allow a mistake to be used to block distribution of Clean Election funds, triggered by the nearly 50,000 Mainers that have made $5 qualifying contributions to candidates. So far, most House Republicans have rejected attempts at compromise on the matter, which has also ended up in court.