Gov. Janet Mills (D) and House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland) issued a joint statement on Thursday requesting that the Committee on Appropriations and Financial Affairs (AFA) reconvene to reconsider a supplemental budget.
“The Legislature has less than a week to finish its business before statutory adjournment, and there is broad agreement among lawmakers that the Appropriations Committee should move to reconsider the budget immediately in order to make changes needed to move it forward,” said Gov. Mills.
The statement came shortly after the AFA committee drew bipartisan opposition for voting in the dead of night to implement a variety of unpopular changes to the spending plan.
Those changes included AFA Democrats’ decision to remove millions from the Department of Transport Budget (DOT) budget, and take direct control of that funding away from the Transportation Committee.
As a result of that meeting, which forced through the controversial measures around 2am on Saturday morning following a blizzard, House Minority Leader Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) submitted a letter to House Speaker Talbot Ross calling for the removal of Rep. Melanie Sachs (D-Freeport) from her position as AFA chair.
That meeting even received criticism from Mills for the “under cover of darkness” tactics used by Democrats.
Although Mills did not reference anything particular from the controversial meeting, she suggested that, if changes are not made to the supplemental budget, it will not move forward, which would require her approval.
In her portion of the statement, Talbot Ross did not address Rep. Faulkingham’s calls for the removal or Rep. Sachs, and has not commented on the controversy on the most recent AFA meeting.
“There are discrete items that deserve reconsideration, and I am calling for the Committee to reconvene immediately. We must continue our legacy of passing historic, fiscally-responsible budgets that address Maine’s most pressing challenges,” said Talbot Ross.
Talbot Ross did not mention the controversial meeting, has not condemned the tactics used by Democrats in the AFA to push through unpopular spending initiatives, and has not acknowledged the demands to remove Sachs from her position.
Both Mills and Talbot Ross requested that the AFA reconvene on Thursday, the same day they put out their statement, citing the looming end of the legislative session and the need to pass a supplemental budget.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="27382 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=27382">9 Comments
“Maine’s most pressing challenge” will be the removal of you madam.
View from the road: Plenty of road construction going on in the Freeport area but then again that is the other Maine.
Will some legislator please introduce a bill that important bills be voted on during normal business hours. But I can predict, a bunch of Friday 4:45 votes
What a joke!!! This is nothing but theatre. Nothing is going to change they will continue on because these are Marxists who don’t care about the people of Maine.
New York politics in Maine now–do it in the dark.. We need a new leadership. As Nick of Tic-tok fame said on TV this AM “Neither side is working for the people!”
Our leadership is following the Joe Biden book .
Our most pressing matters are kicking illegals out of state and stopping the Dirty Dems from killing this state.
If the illegals are gone, housing frees up, taxes go down, schools get better, crime goes down…..
Keep it in the dark you Democrates just like in DC
beachmom No No it is Democratic votes don’t you know.
The citizens of Maine do not count right INDEPEDENT Seantor.