Budget work

The Appropriations Committee is scheduled to begin taking votes on Monday on certain parts of the supplemental budget, which seeks to close a projected $438 million shortfall.

Members are expected to approve cuts in several policy areas, including agriculture, conservation and forestry; business research and economic development; criminal justice and public safety; education; inland fisheries and wildlife; insurance and financial services; labor; marine resources; and transportation and utilities and energy.

But lawmakers will get briefed on Gov. John Baldacci’s so-called “change” package on Wednesday, which will further adjust his expectations of the budget picture through the rest of the biennium ending June 30, 2011.

The Health and Human Services and Legal and Veterans Affairs committees are also scheduled to report back later this week.

The Appropriations Committee must approve a budget before it is presented for votes by the full House and Senate.

Signature collection to be reviewed

A series of bills aimed at altering the process for how signature gatherers for people’s veto and citizen initiative petitions operate are scheduled for public hearings before the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee on Monday.

One measure, sponsored by state Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, would allow residents who signed a petition to request and receive permission to have their name removed from the document up to 15 days before the petition deadline. It would also require organizations that get paid for collecting or supporting the collecting of signatures to register with the state. The Secretary of State would also have to make electronic lists of certified signatures from petitions beginning in December 2010.

Another proposal, offered by state Sen. John Nutting, D-Leeds, would prohibit a person who has been convicted of fraud or forgery in the last five years from circulating a petition and would assess mandatory fines for violations, which would get paid into the Maine Clean Elections Fund. It would also, like Berry’s bill, require the person or group getting paid for signature collection to register with the state.

People’s veto and citizen initiatives have become more and more common in recent years, and the integrity of Maine’s rules surrounding the signature-gathering process have been criticized by national watchdog groups.

To Quebec on the taxpayers’ dime?

The annual Quebec Winter Carnival, which lasts from Jan. 29 to Feb. 14 this year, brought up some concerns on the conservative blog AsMaineGoes.com recently. Posters wondered whether or not any Maine lawmakers would be attending on the taxpayers’ dime. Rumor has it that in the past some have made the trek and perhaps earned mileage from the state, while subsidizing the rest of their trip with private fundraising.

But the word in the State House on Friday was that no legislators planned on attending, and even if they were, public funds were not being used, according to the legislative leadership offices.

Confirmations came from offices of the Democrats and Republicans in both the House and the Senate.

“Frankly, I can’t imagine any legislators taking tax money right now to go to a carnival,” said one Republican spokesman.

The Legislative branch budget has been reduced significantly in recent budgets, and legislative travel has been halved, a Democratic House aide said.

 — Rebekah Metzler

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