House Democrats have blinked in a standoff over education funding, offering an deal to increase the threshold for Maine’s surtax on high earners and lower it from 3 percent to 1.75 percent. Republicans are on the record as wanting the surtax gone. Progressives still want to keep it and Senate Democrats didn’t join their House […]
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Maine House votes to override LePage’s nip deposit veto
AUGUSTA — Ignoring Gov. Paul LePage’s threat to try to ban tiny liquor bottles known as nips if the Legislature requires deposits on them, the House on Tuesday easily passed the two-thirds threshold required to overturn his veto of the measure. “Let’s reaffirm putting a tip on the nip, to nip littering in the bud,” Rep. […]
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House seeks to make lying to legislators a felony
AUGUSTA — Despite warnings it could escalate partisan squabbles into criminal charges, the House approved a proposal that would make it a felony for some to provide false testimony to legislators. Initially conceived as a broad ban on anyone providing false testimony, the revised bill adopted by a vote of 76-70 would make it a […]
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Lawmakers gun down bill that sought to arm more college students
AUGUSTA — House members shot down a proposal Tuesday that would have allowed people with concealed carry permits to carry their firearms on public colleges except in dorms and in entertainment facilities that post signs barring their possession. By a 90-56 vote, House members turned aside a plea by the measure’s sponsor who worried that […]
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Analysis: Legislature to choose among 5 options for ranked-choice voting
AUGUSTA — Protected by Maine’s high court, a key group of Democrats looks open to eventually joining Republicans in repealing the state’s pioneering ranked-choice voting law before the 2018 election. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued a unanimous opinion in May finding the law unconstitutional after it passed with 52 percent support from voters in 2016, saying it violates […]
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Mary Mayhew announces she will run for governor in 2018
After leading Maine’s effort to overhaul its welfare programs, former Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew is taking aim at the state’s highest office. In morning radio interviews Tuesday, Mayhew declared her intention to seek the Republican nomination for governor in 2018. Mayhew, the most widely known of the handful of contenders […]
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Democratic lawmakers try to soften welfare rules proposed by Paul LePage
AUGUSTA — Democrats in the House of Representatives supported bids to make social services easier to acquire for veterans, homeless people and elderly Mainers, but the bills are unlikely to be enacted with most Republicans and Gov. Paul LePage leaning hard against program expansions. In preliminary House votes, LD 689 and LD 1538 were supported 80-66 and 78-68, respectively. LD 689 would […]
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Lawmakers consider copyrighting public meeting audio
AUGUSTA (AP) — A group of legislators concerned with political groups taking their words out of context has begun exploring whether lawmakers can copyright audio recordings of public hearings. The little-known panel has spent the last year mulling what to do with the archived audio recordings. Some legislators have called for immediately deleting the recordings […]
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Larry Lockman’s immigration bill fails in Maine House
AUGUSTA — An anti-immigrant bill proposed by Rep. Larry Lockman, R-Amherst, that drew a torrent of criticism from Mainers who are sympathetic to newcomers fleeing war and oppression overseas failed to pass muster in the House on Wednesday. The Republican lawmaker pushed a trio of related bills taking aim at cities that offer sanctuary to […]
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Betsy Sweet to run as Democrat for governor
As expected, Hallowell lobbyist Betsy Sweet filed Tuesday to run for governor in 2018, issuing a news release saying she’s “not part of the political establishment” while referencing a lobbying and advocacy career dating back to the 1980s. “I think I’m the sweet spot — if you will — between not experienced and being part […]