AUGUSTA — The Maine Legislature on Friday passed a package of bonding bills that will ask voters to borrow as much as $150 million in the state’s next budget cycle. Included in a series of bills that were approved by lawmakers is $100 million for highways, bridges, ports and intermodal facilities, $45 million to fuel […]
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Posted inMaine
Gov. Paul LePage effort to raise minimum wage falls short
AUGUSTA – An attempt by Republicans and Gov. Paul LePage to set a minimum wage lower than the eventual $12 an hour voters will decide about in November fell short Thursday night in the state Senate. A Republican-led effort to raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour by 2020 garnered a vote of 22-12, […]
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Posted inLewiston-Auburn
State approves Lewiston school concept plan
LEWISTON — The state Board of Education has approved the concept design of a new elementary school on East Avenue, Superintendent Bill Webster said Thursday. The unanimous vote was held Wednesday in Augusta. The 880-student school would be for students at Martel and Longley schools, and take another 150 students from other schools to relieve […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
State approves Lewiston school concept plan
LEWISTON — The state Board of Education has approved the concept design of a new elementary school on East Avenue, Superintendent Bill Webster said Thursday. The unanimous vote was held Wednesday in Augusta. The 880-student school would be for students at Martel and Longley schools, and take another 150 students from other schools to relieve […]
Posted inMaine
By one vote Maine Senate agrees to expand Medicaid, bill faces all-but-certain veto
AUGUSTA – By a single vote Tuesday night, Sen. Tom Saviello, R-Wilton, secured approval of his proposal to expand the state’s Medicaid system, MaineCare, by using federal funds to buy private insurance for the state’s poorest residents. But Saviello was joined by only two of his Republican colleagues, as well as the entire caucus of […]
Posted inMaine
Last-minute budget plan panned by legislative Democrats
AUGUSTA — An 11th-hour House Republican supplemental budget, and conditions attached to it, were being rejected by Democrats in the Maine Legislature late Thursday. House Speaker Mark Eves, D-North Berwick, said House Minority Leader Ken Fredette, R-Newport, offered the budget proposal that includes almost all of the items that were in a budget package that […]
Posted inAdvertiser Democrat, Maine
Maine lawmakers continue practice of meeting behind closed doors
AUGUSTA — Lawmakers on the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee thumbed their noses at Maine’s open-meeting law Thursday, taking their deliberations behind locked doors after being challenged by the Sun Journal on the matter. The committee was meeting to debate proposed Department of Health and Human Services rule changes that could result in the […]
Posted inAdvertiser Democrat, Maine
Families worried DHHS cuts could leave thousands of Maine autistic children in lurch
AUGUSTA — A legislative committee voted Thursday to move forward with a bill that would seek a moratorium on rule changes that could cut millions of dollars to agencies that provide services to children with autism and their families. The Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee voted 6-5 along party lines to block a Maine […]
Posted inMaine
Report: Maine has no capacity to regulate hayrides
UPDATE: Hayride victim Cassidy Charette’s family disappointed by state report AUGUSTA — A new report from the Maine Fire Marshal’s Office says there’s little the state can do to improve safety when it comes to farm hayrides in the Pine Tree State. The report from a working group set up in 2015 to review regulations for […]
Posted inMaine
Overhaul of Maine tree growth tax credit chopped down by committee
AUGUSTA — Legislation designed to dramatically overhaul Maine’s tree growth property tax credit program fell largely on deaf ears Monday as lawmakers on the Legislature’s Taxation Committee unanimously rejected the proposal offered by Republican Gov. Paul LePage. Among other provisions in the bill, LD 1632, is one that would have excluded from the program, which […]