AUGUSTA — A school construction bill vetoed Tuesday by Gov. Paul LePage will not mean future state funding for Auburn’s Edward Little High School will be further delayed, Maine Department of Education Deputy Commissioner Jim Rier said.
In LePage’s veto letter to state lawmakers Tuesday, LePage wrote that L.D. 1235, “An Act Regarding School Construction” would undermine the statewide system used to finance and build new schools.
It would allow municipalities to start spending state money before they received it, allowing towns and cities “to pass this bill onto the state,” read the veto letter.
If a school district wants to get a jump-start on planning, “they are already free to do so if they cover the cost. But this bill would leave towns free to spend state money without state input,” said the veto message.
The bill was sponsored by Sen. President Justin Alfond, D-Portland.
Alfond criticized the veto Tuesday, saying the bill would have “kick-started the rebuilding of schools in disrepair” and “cut the red tape to get our schools rebuilt and safe again.”
The measure would have allowed the top 12 schools on the Major Capital School Construction Priority List, which have not yet been approved for state funding, to begin the pre-planning process, Alfond said in a press release.
Seventy-one schools have applied for state construction money, and only six have been approved. Auburn’s Edward Little is 16th on the list.
“This bill was an integral step in allowing schools to move forward with getting their construction plans on paper and moving one step closer to being shovel-ready,” Alfond said.
Rier disagreed. He said Alfond’s bill “was trying to accelerate the process for Portland.”
The bill initially would have allowed the top 20 on the list to begin the planning process before they were identified for funding, Rier said. The state had no problem with that. But then the “bill got amended to be more specific on what the planning process meant.”
The final version would have caused the Department of Education “to look at more projects than we would have ordinarily. It would have rewritten rules.”
That, Rier said, would have been in direct conflict with existing rules, “and would have created more chaos in the process.”
Rier said Tuesday that what he said last month is still the case — the first six schools on the list have been approved for funding, and “sometime in the future,” the next batch will be looked at for funding, moving Auburn up the list.
“The question is how timely it will be for Edward Little. What I have assured them (Auburn school officials) is that eventually, we will get to it.”
The veto will be taken up when the Legislature reconvenes July 9.
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