AUGUSTA — Budget negotiators in the Legislature were expected to work into Friday evening with hopes of releasing a two-year budget plan to be taken up in the House and Senate as early as next week.
Unlike most budget years in recent memory, in which negotiations in the Appropriations Committee result in a unanimous report, the panel is poised to split and put two competing spending plans out for votes in the Legislature.
The seven Democrats and two Senate Republicans are expected to support a compromise deal that includes increased spending for education, a cut in the estate tax and a continuation of current spending on state aid for municipalities.
The four House Republicans on the panel have said they’ll vote out a separate, more conservative plan that includes tax cuts and welfare reform, which House GOP leader Ken Fredette says must be included in the budget.
While the vote in the committee has been eagerly awaited by observers, it’s not expected to be the final word on what the final budget will look like: Leaders in both parties said Friday that high-level negotiations will continue in an effort to secure the votes necessary to get a budget through the House.
“By getting the budget voted out tonight, that allows for that about weeklong process that it takes to print the budget, and it allows that process to move forward so it can come up to the House floor,” Fredette said. “Quite frankly, I believe at the same time that it allows us the opportunity to continue to negotiate. We could have an agreement in a week different than what they report out of committee.”
Because two-thirds support in both chambers is needed to pass the budget, all eyes are on Fredette and his House Republicans — the only group not on board with a deal hammered out last weekend by Republican Senate President Mike Thibodeau, Senate Democratic leader Justin Alfond and Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves.
Fredette said Friday that talks on income tax cuts among Alfond, Eves and himself continue but repeated his claim that he was being excluded from budget negotiations between the other three leaders.
Eves and Thibodeau refuted that claim, saying Fredette had always been welcome at the table.
Eves said that any messiness in the negotiations was a function of the split in the Republican Party. The Democrats have negotiated as one unit, while the GOP has not, he said.
“Democrats on our side are working harder than anyone else to get a deal done. We struck one with Senate Republicans,” he said. “We are doing everything we can to stay at the table to make sure we pass this budget, but it is very difficult when you’re not negotiating with just one party. It makes it all the harder.”
The sticking point of income tax cuts has remained unchanged since LePage first introduced his budget plan in January. Republicans want sweeping cuts at all levels of the income scale, while Democrats say any cuts must be targeted toward the middle class, not the wealthy.
Eves said Friday that he and Fredette were still “in different places.”
Thibodeau said Friday that the deal he reached with Democrats was a good one for Mainers, and that he was confident it would pass the Senate.
The compromise included estate tax cuts and income tax exemptions for veterans, both coveted by the GOP. The deal also includes Democratic support for a constitutional amendment to require any future increases in the income tax to win two-thirds support in the Legislature, which Thibodeau said would go a long way in preventing the growth of government.
Democrats won $50 million in additional spending on K-12 education, and the uninterrupted flow of state funding for services at the municipal level, which towns say is necessary to keep property taxes from rising. The deal also protects General Assistance funds for immigrants, including asylum seekers, who LePage and the House Republicans want to make ineligible.
Thibodeau conceded that with Fredette’s strident opposition, the path forward is “murky.” Meanwhile, whispers in the State House about the potential for a government shutdown grow louder every day.
“At the end of the day, it’s time to close the budget,” Thibodeau said. “We are running out of time here.”
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