AUGUSTA (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- Leaders of the Maine Legislature are trying to get the session restarted, after an abrupt and unexpected end last week. Members of both parties say they have a number of important issues to settle and need to get back to work.
Last week, on the scheduled adjournment day, Republicans in the House of Representatives would not agree to extend the session for five more days, forcing the session to end and sending legislators home. That led to a round of accusations and name calling on Thursday—including Speaker of the House calling the House GOP leader and the Governor “terrorists” – a comment for which she later had to apologize.
On Monday, Republican Leader Rep. Ken Fredette said he was confident the Legislature would return to session, possibly next week, to finish the various bills awaiting action. Republican Senate President Mike Thibodeau also sounded confident they would be able to agree on a plan to resume the work that had been interrupted.
“Gridlock does nobody any good,” said Thibodeau, “and we need to find a way to get together. We know we have differences but until we talk to each other we can’t find common ground to work them out.”
Democratic Speaker of the House, Rep. Sara Gideon, agreed on the need to deal with the many issues but sounded skeptical an agreement could be reached to resume work.
"I think it remains to be seen,” Gideon said. “The idea of a special session becomes a little bit challenging when you consider one caucus, the House Republicans, refused to extend the session.
That breakdown happened amid negotiations over several issues last Wednesday, with each side blaming the other.
There is general agreement on the big issues remaining to be resolved. They include funding to start Medicaid expansion—a key issue for Democrats—and conforming Maine’s income tax code to match the new federal tax code passed in December, which is a central issue for Republicans.
Beyond that are issues such as continuing pay increases for direct care workers who help care for elderly and disabled people. The higher pay levels were put into the first year of the current budget, but left out of the second year.
There are also more than 100 bills on the “Appropriations table”, bills already passed by both House and Senate and awaiting funding decisions. They include several measures aimed at fighting the epidemic of opioid drug addiction.
Sen. Thibodeau met with the Governor’s chief of staff Monday to talk about the various issues, and also met with Speaker Gideon to develop a plan they hope will lead to resuming the session.
All three leaders agreed that compromises can be found on the major issues.
Thibodeau said he is hopeful they can get lawmakers back to Augusta sometime the week of April 30, but Gideon would not predict a timeframe.
Lawmakers are already scheduled to return to Augusta early next month to vote on vetoes from the Governor, but that “veto day” would likely not be enough time to deal with all the other remaining issues.