Who could have imagined, in the days and weeks after last November’s decisive statewide election, that just eight months later the Legislature would enact a state budget that increases spending by a whopping $300 million, jacks up taxes on tens of thousands of middle-class Maine households, and makes it easier for able-bodied people to stay on welfare without even looking for a job?
If that’s not stunning enough, who would have dreamed that more than two-thirds of Republican legislators would vote for such a budget? But wait, it gets worse.
The new budget was crafted and drafted in secret meetings between Republican legislative leaders Sen. Mike Thibodeau, R-Winterport, and Rep. Ken Fredette, R-Newport, and Democrat leaders Sen. Justin Alfond, D-Portland, and Rep. Mark Eves, D-North Berwick.
The Gang of Four hijacked the budget out of the Appropriations committee and away from the cameras and microphones, and then weeks later dumped its 700-page budget document on legislators just hours before the initial vote in the House. Their closed-door negotiations involved a huge re-write of the tax code that never saw the light of day in a public hearing.
When did Augusta, Maine, turn into Washington, D.C., on the Kennebec? We have come to expect corrupt back-room politics in Washington, but never before have elected leaders in Maine locked the public out of the legislative process on an issue as monumental as the state’s multi-billion-dollar state budget, and then forced a vote before legislators could read or understand what they were voting on.
The Republican leadership team failed us miserably, and by their actions they have rendered themselves unfit to lead. I am not going to use the “L” word here, but I will say this: Ken Fredette and Mike Thibodeau deliberately misled us about what was in their budget deal when they briefed us on it the night before the initial vote.
Contrary to what we were told, there is no welfare reform in this budget. Quite the opposite, it strips out work requirements in current law, makes it easier for TANF recipients (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) to stay on the program longer without working, and provides $4 million in welfare benefits for non-citizens. I don’t know how any GOP legislator running for re-election explains that to constituents.
Fredette and Thibodeau secured a so-called “tax cut” as a fig leaf, but according to Maine Revenue Services, nearly 188,000 or 17 percent of Maine households will see a net tax increase. Many of these households (about 75,000 of them) earn an income between $26,000 and $92,000. These are hardworking, middle-class families, many of whom are already struggling under Maine’s high tax burden. How will Republican candidates explain that one to constituents?
Additionally, tens of thousands of Mainers will pay more state income taxes, thanks to a provision tucked into the agreement that caps and phases out itemized deductions for charitable contributions.
These huge changes to the tax code should have been thoroughly vetted in public hearings, instead of horse-trading behind closed doors and then dumped on legislators’ desks a couple hours before the vote, buried in a 700-page budget document.
Minority leader Fredette played up fears of a state government shutdown if we didn’t accept the Gang of Four budget. During our off-site caucus on June 30, he threw cold water on Rep. Heather Sirocki’s bill (LD 1450) to fund state government through the month of July, after he ran out the clock and allowed barely 15 minutes to discuss our options before the vote.
Rep. Sirocki’s backstop measure was the next item on the House calendar after the vote to sustain or override the governor’s veto of the Gang of Four budget. If we had sustained the veto, passage of Rep. Sirocki’s interim operating budget would have averted a state government shutdown and allowed the Appropriations Committee to resume its work on the budget. But Fredette was determined to override the veto and enact his Gang of Four budget, and he succeeded in fear-mongering enough GOP legislators to make that happen.
There will be a terrible price to pay for this failed leadership. More spending, more taxes and more welfare are just exactly what Maine doesn’t need. But Mainers are tough and resilient, so they will survive in the short term, even with this bloated pork-barrel budget strapped to their backs.
But will Maine ever be the same again if a select few politicians are allowed to conduct the state’s most important business behind closed doors and without public hearings?
This isn’t Washington, D.C.; this is Maine. Or is it anymore?
Lawrence Lockman, R-Amherst, is serving his second term in the Maine House of Representatives (District 137) and serves as the ranking Republican on the Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development committee.
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