AUGUSTA — Wednesday is shaping up to be a busy day in Augusta with the 127th Legislature returning for Gov. Paul LePage’s second-term inauguration.

Inauguration festivities begin at 11:30 a.m. at the Augusta Civic Center, where thousands of well-wishers and the entire Legislature will convene for one of the biggest political events of the year. LePage was re-elected in November to his second term with more than 48 percent support and more votes than any governor in Maine history.

LePage will be sworn in by Senate President Mike Thibodeau of Winterport, who presides over a Senate that in November flipped to a Republican majority.

Republican gains in the November elections — and LePage’s convincing victory — should create a celebratory atmosphere for the event and reflect the fact that Republicans view the 2014 election results as a mandate for fiscal responsibility and welfare reform.

It also will be a chance for LePage to outline some of his goals for the coming legislative session — and the next four years. Traditionally, governors in the first year of their terms do not deliver a State of the State address — which otherwise happens in February — using the inaugural address to share goals and lay out an agenda.

LePage can be expected to reinforce familiar themes from his first term and re-election campaign — welfare reform, fiscal restraint, domestic violence prevention, the need to reduce energy costs and make Maine more business-friendly — but details of how he plans to achieve those goals have not been made public. The governor’s communications staff and members of his inauguration committee did not return calls seeking comment on Monday afternoon.

Some groups are already chiming in about what they hope the governor will say. David Clough, state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, said in a written statement Monday that his group hopes for tax cuts, which LePage has long said he will pursue in his second term.

“Small business owners are optimistic that Gov. LePage will propose true relief from the state’s tax structure,” said Clough. “(National Federation of Independent Business) members have said in the past that they welcome income tax relief, but they have opposed significant expansion of the sales tax or increases in other taxes in order to pay for revenue-neutral relief.”

AARP Maine, on the other hand, called for the state’s elected leaders to improve access to health care and support for older Mainers.

“Most Mainers 50 and older have been family caregivers or expect to be in the future,” said Lori Parham, AARP Maine’s state director. “Given this large proportion of the population that is affected by this issue, it is not surprising that according to our most recent state survey, the vast majority of respondents think it should be a top or high priority for elected officials in Maine to fund services that support family caregivers.”

Four years ago, during LePage’s first inauguration, a crowd of 5,000 — including the first Legislature since the 1970s with GOP majorities in both the House and Senate — packed the Civic Center. LePage used his speech to pledge an open-minded, nonpartisan approach to being governor.

“Partisan affiliations, political leanings and the obsession with winning and losing have been getting in the way of solving our problems,” said LePage in his 2011 inaugural address. “We need a new approach, and it starts here. It starts today, and I need all of your help.”

After Democrats regained legislative majorities in 2012, party leaders and their allies spent the next two years launching all-out attacks against LePage’s governing style and conservative positions. The governor often responded by fiercely criticizing his political opponents and refusing for months to meet with Democratic legislative leaders.

This year, LePage will deliver his inaugural address to a divided Legislature in which Democrats control the House and Republicans control the Senate.

LePage also used the 2011 inaugural to reiterate his troubled but inspirational upbringing, a theme he occasionally revisited in the early years of his first term but which has now become widely known after his re-election campaign used it as a way to defuse Democrats’ attacks and fortify LePage’s image as a Mainer who overcame horrific childhood obstacles to rise to success and leadership.

LePage will host an inaugural party later Wednesday — beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Augusta Civic Center. It will double as a fundraiser where attendees will contribute between $3,000 and $8,000.