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Maine Democrats and Republicans Lay out Priorities for Upcoming Legislative Session

Mal Leary
/
MPBN

AUGUSTA, Maine - With a partial changing of the guard at the State House this past November, control of the Maine House and Senate is now split, with Republicans running the Senate and Democrats still holding the gavel in the House.

The leaders of those two bodies are aligning their parties' priorities in the session that begins after the holidays.

House Speaker Mark Eves says that when it comes time for the big budget debates, he and fellow Democrats will be guided by a few overarching goals, based on the need to improve Maine’s economy.

"We are going to be focused on jobs and the economy, making sure we can close the jobs gap that exists in Maine," Eves says. "Maine is lagging behind the rest of New England; we need to do everything we can to close that jobs gap. In addition to jobs and the economy, we are going to be focused on making sure that seniors can live independently in their homes and have a more secure retirement."

Some projections of Maine's economy predict continued growth in the services sector, and further decline in the production of goods. Nearly all the net growth in the foreseeable future will be in education and health care, professional and business services and in the leisure and hospitality sectors.

Eves says the Legislature's focus in 2015 must take that into account. "The key is making sure that we have the right alignment between what the workforce needs are right now and how we need to train our young Mainers," he says. "There are jobs available - there are 1,200 jobs coming online in York County through the (Portsmouth Naval) shipyard and Pratt and Whitney."

Senate President Mike Thibodeau says, for Republicans, the issues that matter most are no different than they were tow years ago. He believes they are also the same issues that are on the minds of most Maine people.

"Last legislative session, Republicans tried to address some key issues:  One of them is the energy policies of this state, the second is welfare reform in this state," he says. "And then, obviously, we need to close out a budget that makes sense and we can come together in a bipartisan way and pass."

Thibodeau says lawmakers have no choice but to agree on a budget and says he is confident that the job will be done, though the process will be difficult and, at times, contentious.

He says action must be taken to reform Maine's welfare rules, specifically to include more job training requirements in order to break the cycle of welfare dependence. And he says energy is crucial to Maine’s economic future, and will be a major issue in the session.

“We got to have to have a close look at Maine’s millions of dollars’ worth of subsidies that are going to generators that don’t need those resources to make money," Thibodeau says.

Both Eves and Thibodeau say that despite philosophical differences on many issues, members of both parties will have to come together to pass legislation. And both say there are too many critical issues on the table to allow partisan gridlock to jeopardize the state's future.
 

Journalist Mal Leary spearheads Maine Public's news coverage of politics and government and is based at the State House.