Good morning from Augusta, where the first waves in a parade of lobbyists, advocates and possibly even some regular Maine residents are gathering to add their voices to the coming budget debate. The Appropriations Committee, responsible for turning Gov. Paul LePage’s $6.57 billion two-year budget proposal into a deal that will be amenable to the entire […]
So, something weird happened around 6 p.m. Monday. Democrats on the budget-writing Appropriations Committee voted to approve a bill to restore a $40 million reduction in municipal revenue sharing in the state budget. Absent from the process, though, were any Republican members of the committee. The reason for that is … hairy, to say the […]
The powerful Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee (we call it “Approps”) heard from a lot of experts at its meeting Tuesday. But one group they didn’t hear from was the LePage administration, a fact lamented several times by Senate Chairwoman Dawn Hill, D-York, throughout the six-hour session. Hill said the lack of availability from LePage’s department […]
