AUGUSTA — An unprecedented spree of vetoes by Republican Gov. Paul LePage is taking a toll on the Legislature in more ways than one.

LePage on Thursday issued 64 line-item vetoes in a $6.7 billion, two-year spending package, objecting to what he considers wasteful spending.

He also said he intended to waste lawmakers’ time.

A line-item veto allows the governor to cut specific lines of spending in the budget. To override each cut, a simple majority of lawmakers in both the House and Senate must vote to keep the line item. To achieve that, they will have to hold, at a minimum, 256 roll-call votes, one for each year and one for each chamber, per veto.

Even when lawmakers have no debate on the votes, a roll-call takes an average of three minutes — meaning LePage’s vetoes for Thursday alone, have added more than 12 hours of work to the lawmaking docket. And processing the paperwork necessary for the votes on the line-item vetoes by the House and Senate clerks took about six hours Thursday.

Each extra day lawmakers remain in session the bill for taxpayers is between $13,000 and $18,000 — a figure that accounts for mileage and lodging reimbursements for lawmakers who don’t commute home each day. The figure doesn’t include lawmakers’ pay, which essentially ended June 10.

The House and Senate on Thursday voted to extend the current session by five days to complete their work, and it’s possible another extension will be necessary, meaning the price tag for the extra time could add up to as much as $180,000.

The state faces additional costs in overtime for legislative staff and Capitol Police who staff the State House with additional officers when lawmakers are in session.

Calculating the full cost of LePage’s decision to veto so many bills based on the time it adds to the session won’t be fully possible until the session ends because variables such as the number of hours part-time staff will be required to work and printing costs for bills, amendments and other documents won’t be known.

The budget bill itself, of which two versions were printed in limited numbers, cost the state an estimated $5,000, according to officials in the Office of the Legislative Director, which oversees payroll and other expenses for the Legislature.

“He’s driving the price up greatly; there’s no other way to look at it,” said state Rep. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake.  

Martin, one of the most seasoned lawmakers in the Legislature — he served as Speaker of the House for nearly 30 years — said he wouldn’t criticize LePage for using the powers granted to the governor in the state’s constitution, but he also said he’s never seen anything like it.

Rep. Tom Winsor, R-Norway, also a veteran lawmaker and a long-serving member of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee, agreed.

“We are in uncharted waters, for certain,” Winsor said.

As LePage has vetoed many bills that were broadly supported by both Republicans and Democrats, lawmakers have fallen into near autopilot as they reject LePage’s vetoes. 

And because Maine has a part-time, citizen Legislature, the additional work is grating on lawmakers, who are either taking time off from their full-time jobs or taking leave from their work or businesses.

There’s little doubt that many lawmakers would like to go home to spend time with family and friends for more than a few hours at a time, Winsor said.

He and Martin said they weren’t complaining, because when you run for public office you take on the responsibility to serve until the job is done.

But, Winsor said, an important part of that service for him is spending time in the district he represents so he can listen to those who elected him and assess the impact of the laws being made in Augusta.

The longer lawmakers spend at the State House, the less time they have to work with constituents back home, Winsor said.

State Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, who voted against the budget, said he’s interested in taking the line-item vetoes up one by one to see what they are because he agrees with LePage that there was too much new spending in the budget approved by the Legislature.

“It’s his constitutional authority and the people gave the governor that right for a reason, so I say let’s consider these line-item vetoes,” said Brakey, a first-term lawmaker.

But others, including state Rep. Erik Jorgensen, D-Portland, said given that the outcome of most of the veto override votes was a foregone conclusion, LePage’s protest served little purpose.

“We’ve all got families; we’ve got jobs and businesses,” Jorgensen said. “It becomes really burdensome. We are prepared to do what it takes; however, when you start being here for what seems like frivolous reasons, it’s disheartening and frustrating — it just takes it out of you.”

sthistle@sunjournal.com

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