AUGUSTA — Faced for the first time with the various rules on the Maine governor’s line-item veto, legislative Republicans decided Tuesday not to break up their recess in order to decide whether to let the vetoes stand.
A phone survey by legislative officials showed that more than two-thirds of the GOP members of the House and Senate did not want to take up Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s weekend vetoes of two items in a state budget-balancing bill.
His line-item vetoes marked the first time a governor has exercised that power since voters passed a constitutional amendment in 1995 authorizing it.
State House members spent much of Tuesday figuring out how lawmakers would deal with the governor’s action. Complicating matters was that the House and Senate were in recess until May 15, when they plan to return to take up additional fiscal matters. They had only five days to act on the line-item vetoes.
LePage on Saturday rubbed out two figures in a recently enacted bill to bring the state’s $6 billion, two-year budget in balance. The governor did not think cuts the Legislature authorized for General Assistance, the all-purpose welfare program run by cities and towns, were deep enough.
“General Assistance is a welfare program that, like most others, has gotten out of control,” LePage said. “The amounts vetoed will put this issue back on the table, and the Legislature must summon the political courage to fix the program structurally. Hiding from our problems will not make them go away.”
He also crossed out a portion that authorizes Medicaid funding to house people involuntarily in secure public institutions, such as criminal defendants in mental hospitals. He said federal Medicaid rules do not allow using Medicaid funds for this population.
Because Republicans have House and Senate majorities, their vote effectively decided whether the full Legislature would return this week to take up the vetoes. Majority votes in each chamber are needed to override pocket vetoes.
A majority of Democrats said they wanted to return to vote on LePage’s action, confirming predictions earlier in the day by their leaders.
“Democrats are ready and wanting to return to override the line-item veto,” said Rep. Emily Cain of Orono, the House minority leader. “We believe the Constitution puts us in a place where we really are obliged to act.”
Cain warned that deep cuts in general assistance sought by LePage would result in a tax shift to property taxpayers in cities and towns, which would have to make up the difference.
Republicans said bringing lawmakers back to the State House this week would be “an unnecessary exercise and expense” because they will have an opportunity to weigh the issues raised by the governor when they return in May to take up other budget matters.
Senate Majority Leader Jon Courtney, R-Springvale, said some senators were concerned that voting on the two specific lines in the budget might jeopardize the rest of the budget package, which was adopted after painstaking negotiations.
“The important thing is to think about the consequences of coming in,” Courtney said. “These issues can be addressed in the next budget.”
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