Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee Co-Chair Drew Gattine, D-Westbrook, standing at left, speaks during Tuesday’s debate on the supplemental budget at the Maine State House in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA — Lawmakers in the Maine Senate and House of Representatives voted to advance a $121 million supplemental budget proposal Tuesday, but without the two-thirds support needed for the plan to take effect immediately.

The House voted 73-71 on the proposal, which would fill a shortfall in the budget for the current fiscal year ending in June. The Senate later voted 20-14.

The spending package adds to the current $10.5 billion biennial budget and is primarily aimed at closing a $118 million gap in MaineCare costs this year. It also includes $2 million to fight a spruce budworm infestation in Maine forests.

Two-thirds support is needed in both chambers of the Legislature in order for the proposal to take effect immediately, and without it Democrats on Tuesday warned that there could be a negative impact on payments to MaineCare providers as well as economic and environmental damage from the spruce budworm, a tree-killing moth that is already present in northern Maine.

The budget proposal won bipartisan support in committee last week, but Republicans later criticized the deal and signaled that they would oppose it in floor votes. Lawmakers are expected to revisit the proposal on Feb. 25, as final votes are still needed in both chambers.

On Tuesday, Republicans stood firm in their plan to reject the budget, arguing in House and Senate floor debates that they were disappointed to see the proposal from the committee not include Gov. Janet Mills’ plan to limit General Assistance housing aid to three months in a 12-month period.

They also wanted the budget to include cost-of-living pay increases for direct care workers, which had been scheduled to take effect last month but were revoked in Mills’ budget proposal, and reforms to MaineCare, including work requirements and limits for certain new enrollees.

After a series of amendments were introduced by Republicans and rejected in both the House and Senate, Republican leaders said during a news conference Tuesday night that they are still willing to negotiate to try and get to the two-thirds majority.

“All we’re asking for is very simple: some fiscal responsibility,” said House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor. “That’s all we’re asking for. Most of it is centered around some very reasonable limits to General Assistance. But they won’t come to the table with us.”

Democrats accused Republicans of trying to push for too much during negotiations that came up during Senate debate on the bill Tuesday following an amendment from Sen. Marianne Moore, R-Calais, that would have reintroduced a cost-of-living increase for direct care workers.

When Democrats tried to effectively kill the amendment, four Democrats joined with Republicans to reject the motion to indefinitely postpone it. After a break in the debate, two Democrats still voted with Republicans to support the amendment, but it failed 16-18.

Senate President Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, said during the break that Democrats went to Republicans with an offer to include the cost-of-living increases as a part of the budget proposal.

“However, Republicans made it clear that they had no intention to support it and would continue to put forward additional demands, which people can see in the amendments that were presented in the Senate,” Daughtry said, adding that Republicans seemed to be “moving the goal post.”

Daughtry said Democrats are “hoping to be able to continue the conversation” over the next two weeks. “The problem is we have agreed over and over and where is the limit?” she said. “We have reached the limit of what makes sense in an emergency supplemental.”

Republicans also took issue with the process that led to Tuesday’s floor votes. They criticized the fact that the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee met late into the night last Tuesday before voting on the proposal. And they blamed Democrats for refusing to reconsider the proposal to allow Rep. Ken Fredette, R-Newport, who was absent for the committee vote, to register his objections to the deal.

Democrats on Tuesday stressed that the supplemental budget is aimed only at addressing emergencies and said they planned to revisit other proposals, such as the cost-of-living increases and the General Assistance limit, when they debate the 2026 and 2027 biennial budget.

They said that if the supplemental budget doesn’t take effect immediately because of Republican opposition, it could have dire consequences. If the budget isn’t passed with two-thirds support, it will take effect 90 days after the session ends, which is scheduled to happen in June.

Mills also weighed in, saying in a written statement that Republicans reneged on a deal approved by members of both parties who were present for a committee vote last week.

“If they continue their opposition and do not support enactment of the supplemental budget, Republicans will force the Maine Department of Health and Human Services into the extraordinary position of having to cap payments to health care providers,” the governor said in a statement. “I want to be clear: there is absolutely no need to obstruct a two-thirds passage of this bill. It will only hurt Maine people.”

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services issued a notice Monday saying the MaineCare funds included in the budget proposal will be used to leverage additional federal funds, for a total of $414 million — money that will not be available immediately if the budget is not passed as an emergency.

That means the department would need to withhold certain MaineCare payments from providers starting in March in order to ensure that at least a percentage of claims are paid until the department receives sufficient funding.

“The governor and the department are continuing to strongly urge all members of the Legislature to support the supplemental budget request so that the capping of payments is not needed,” the notice read.

Democrats also warned that a spruce budworm infestation could have dire economic and environmental implications if remediation is not funded soon, leading to forest fires and reductions in the state’s wood supply in northern and western Maine.

“If we don’t pass this emergency funding, it’s not that the economic effect could be devastating, it will be devastating,” said Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, co-chair of the Legislature’s agriculture and forestry committee.