AUGUSTA — A proposal to create a new oversight commission for Maine’s welfare program faltered in the Republican-controlled Senate Thursday on a party line vote. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Nate Libby, D-Lewiston, calls for gathering more data and setting benchmarks to ensure low-income Mainers are doing better. It would also add a citizens oversight […]
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Two Republicans, union say LePage emptying Washington County prison
AUGUSTA (AP) — Republican Gov. Paul LePage is taking steps to empty out a minimum-security state prison and force a closure over the objections of state lawmakers, according to union representatives and two Republican legislators from Washington County. Republican Sen. Joyce Maker, Republican Rep. Will Tuell and representatives of the American Federation of State, County […]
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Camden lawmaker wants Maine to go along with Paris climate deal
AUGUSTA — Frustrated by President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the country out of the Paris climate agreement, a state senator is pushing for Maine to comply with the goals of the accord on its own authority. “We can’t stop trying,” Sen. Dave Miramant, D-Camden. Miramant plans to ask the Senate Thursday to ask the […]
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Public health nurses win over Senate, look to House next
AUGUSTA — The Republican-controlled Senate overwhelmingly gave its approval Wednesday to a proposal, opposed by Gov. Paul LePage’s administration, that would force him to more than double the size of its public health nursing division. Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta, said that lawmakers “can sit by and idly watch the dismantling of our public health system” […]
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Maine Senate overrides Paul LePage’s veto of nips bill
AUGUSTA — Without much opposition Wednesday, the Senate followed the House’s lead to override Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of a measure to require deposits for small liquor bottles known as nips. The move, which adds a nickel deposit to the 50-milliliter bottles starting in 2019, secured the required two-thirds vote by a 29-6 margin. LePage […]
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Analysis: House Dems offer to cut income surtax rate to advance budget
House Democrats have blinked in a standoff over education funding, offering an deal to increase the threshold for Maine’s surtax on high earners and lower it from 3 percent to 1.75 percent. Republicans are on the record as wanting the surtax gone. Progressives still want to keep it and Senate Democrats didn’t join their House […]
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Maine House votes to override LePage’s nip deposit veto
AUGUSTA — Ignoring Gov. Paul LePage’s threat to try to ban tiny liquor bottles known as nips if the Legislature requires deposits on them, the House on Tuesday easily passed the two-thirds threshold required to overturn his veto of the measure. “Let’s reaffirm putting a tip on the nip, to nip littering in the bud,” Rep. […]
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House seeks to make lying to legislators a felony
AUGUSTA — Despite warnings it could escalate partisan squabbles into criminal charges, the House approved a proposal that would make it a felony for some to provide false testimony to legislators. Initially conceived as a broad ban on anyone providing false testimony, the revised bill adopted by a vote of 76-70 would make it a […]
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Lawmakers gun down bill that sought to arm more college students
AUGUSTA — House members shot down a proposal Tuesday that would have allowed people with concealed carry permits to carry their firearms on public colleges except in dorms and in entertainment facilities that post signs barring their possession. By a 90-56 vote, House members turned aside a plea by the measure’s sponsor who worried that […]
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Analysis: Legislature to choose among 5 options for ranked-choice voting
AUGUSTA — Protected by Maine’s high court, a key group of Democrats looks open to eventually joining Republicans in repealing the state’s pioneering ranked-choice voting law before the 2018 election. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued a unanimous opinion in May finding the law unconstitutional after it passed with 52 percent support from voters in 2016, saying it violates […]