AUGUSTA — Republican Gov. Paul LePage said Monday that State House Democrats resorted to scare tactics around a state government shutdown and he would attempt to avoid a shutdown with a short-term budget resolution.

In a short and impromptu news conference in his office Monday afternoon, LePage said he would offer lawmakers a bill that would fund state government for one more month at current spending levels.

The state constitution calls for a balanced budget.

“I want to be very clear to the Maine people there is absolutely no need for a shutdown,” LePage said. “In fact, if a shutdown occurs it is at the hands and the feet of the Speaker of the House and the minority Senate leader, Mr. Alfond.”

Speaker of the House Mark Eves, D-North Berwick, responded to LePage a few minutes later, noting negotiations between party leaders in the House, controlled by Democrats, and the Senate, controlled by Republicans, were ongoing and focused on a long-term budget accord both sides could agree to.

“Legislative leaders continue to meet and have ongoing conversations about the best way to provide a middle-class tax cut while investing in our students and workers,” Eves said in a prepared statement. “The only reason there might be a shutdown is if House Republicans insist on a tax cut for the wealthy. Right now, we are focused on a long-term solution that will provide a balanced budget for the next two years. We don’t want to kick the can down the road.”

Early Saturday morning, the Appropriations Committee voted 9-4 to send a $6.6 billion budget package to the full Legislature.

Despite the vote, legislative leaders spent much of the weekend at the State House trying to hash out a deal that will garner the two-thirds support needed for enactment.

Republican House Minority Leader Ken Fredette of Newport, who led the negotiations for House Republicans in favor of a budget bill that’s similar to what LePage proposed in January, said Sunday night that some progress has been made, but not the kind that will pull enough votes in his caucus.

It remains unclear, however, whether a continuing budget resolution that would include funding for just one month of state government operations would be legal or constitutional.

Attorney General Janet Mills previously said the Legislature could not fund government on a “continuing budget resolution.”

“That’s not true,” LePage said. “We’ve had it looked at by my legal staff and by outside legal staff and they clearly disagree with the attorney general, so if she says it’s illegal, then she could be responsible for shutting down government.”

LePage said he intends his plan to be temporary but it could go on, in 30-day increments, until the next legislative election in November 2016.

“What I’m thinking of doing is taking the 2015 budget and dividing it by 12 and saying a continuing resolution, a 30-day continuing resolution until we get a budget,” LePage said. “So that means that for the month of July we would work with the same budget we had last July, so there is no need to shut anything down.”

LePage also stood firm on his party’s demands that the Legislature act to cut the state’s income tax, reform welfare, eliminate the estate tax and end the income tax for military pensions.

“It’s all for the betterment for the future of the state and I simply do not understand how they expect future prosperity for the state of Maine if they cannot get themselves beyond today,” LePage said.

LePage said Democratic concerns that his tax cuts would largely benefit the wealthiest Mainers were misguided, but it is true he wants wealthy people to keep more of the money they earn.

“Wouldn’t it make sense to try to convince as many of them as possible to live here, to invest in Maine?” LePage asked. “People say everything I do is for the rich, tax breaks for the rich, well they are the ones with the money. That’s who I want to invest in Maine.”

LePage also said he was sticking to his promise to veto every bill that comes to his desk from the Legislature and that the only bills that would pass into law are those that could garner a two-thirds vote to overturn his vetoes.

Earlier Monday, the House voted 82-64 along party lines to oppose a bill that would have let voters decide whether they wanted to end Maine’s income tax with an amendment to the state’s constitution. Under the bill, offered by LePage, the income tax would be eliminated entirely by 2020.

LePage said his promise to veto bills was a direct result of that vote.

“That’s because they are disenfranchising the people of Maine; not allowing them to have a say on the income tax,” LePage said. “The income tax is nearly 50 years old and it’s time we revisit it. If we can’t have an open debate about that, among the people of the state of Maine, then they better make sure that both parties work very, very close together to be sure they get two-thirds vote.”

LePage said even bills that came to his desk with unanimous votes from both bodies would get a veto and be sent back to the Legislature.

Jodi Quintero, a spokeswoman for Eves, also said Monday that while LePage was turning up the pressure in the media, Eves had been meeting with House and Senate Republican leaders.

She said the leaders were drawing close on a budget deal that includes an income tax cut. Quintero said Democrats still insist those cuts must be focused on the middle class. She also said they were working on a compromise that would restrict welfare for illegal aliens.

sthistle@sunjournal.com

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