AUGUSTA — Key state lawmakers, including a Lewiston senator, are questioning a nearly $1 million contract to hire a consultant to study an expansion of Medicaid in Maine. Lawmakers also are questioning the consulting firm’s objectivity and why Department of Health and Human Services officials in Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s administration awarded the no-bid contract under […]
Maine Legislature
Posted inLocal & State, sj-web
Lawmakers to reconsider rejected bills for 2014 session
AUGUSTA — Maine lawmakers whose bills were rejected last month will have one more shot this week to convince legislative leaders that their measures merit consideration when they meet again in January. The Legislative Council, a bipartisan panel of House and Senate floor leaders and presiding officers that decides what bills are heard next session, approved […]
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Posted inLocal & State, sj-web
LePage threatens to sue Legislature over state budget
AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage has threatened to sue the state’s budget-writing Appropriations Committee if they do not balance the state budget in the next session. Speaking to a group of Kiwanis Club members in Dexter on Nov. 15, the governor lamented “gimmicks” used to balance the budget approved by the Legislature in July. LePage […]
Posted inLetters
D. Ricker: Give those women a second chance
What were they thinking? Were the Democrats in the Maine Legislature politically motivated to reject a bill by State Rep. Amy Volk, R-Scarborough, that would allow Maine courts to vacate prostitution verdicts for women who could prove they were victimized by human trafficking? According to party sources, they were. Jon Hinck, D-Portland, agreed with political […]
Posted inLetters
L. Wooten: The voters are taking notes
Maine is experiencing the war on bills, but it is more like tyrannical rule by those who make up the majority in the Legislature. A bill about wine tasting has taken priority over bills to help homeless veterans with housing (by utilizing buildings that are slated for demolition), and bills that would protect human sex […]
Posted inLocal & State
Maine Legislature’s energy docket set for full slate in 2014
AUGUSTA — The cost of energy in Maine, its production and transmission, as well as whether the mix of renewable sources is balanced, will continue to be debated at the State House in 2014. Lawmakers on the Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee have spent their past few meetings honing up as they prepare to […]
Posted inLocal & State, sj-web
LePage defends policy barring department heads from hearings
AUGUSTA — Facing criticism from Democratic leaders in the Legislature, Gov. Paul LePage on Tuesday continued to defend his policy instructing department heads to communicate with lawmakers in writing. That policy has largely kept department heads and other chief executive branch officials from showing up for questioning by lawmakers, which had been the normal practice […]
Posted inLocal & State
Bill for Maine homeless veterans and others could still move forward
AUGUSTA — Citing “inside baseball” and political gamesmanship, state Rep. Corey Wilson, R-Augusta, said he would appeal the rejection of a bill that paves the way to create a shelter for some of the state’s homeless veterans. Wilson’s bill was rejected by the Legislative Council, a committee of Democratic and Republican leaders, earlier this month. […]
Posted inLetters
In rebuttal, T. Saviello: Didn’t deserve criticism
On Nov. 3, a guest column appeared in the Sun Journal that questioned Speaker Mark Eves’ ethics concerning his job with Sweetser and his support of the Medicaid expansion bill. I am personally disheartened by those allegations. The Maine Legislature is a part-time Legislature. I want to emphasize “part-time.” Legislators leave their jobs and families […]