Maine Governor Janet Mills’ refusal to act on dozens of last-minute spending bills passed by Senate Democrats when lawmakers returned to Augusta last Friday for “veto day” resulted in an embarrassing moment for House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland).
A video shared to social media Friday by Republican State Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) shows the House Speaker and her chief of staff walking dejectedly back to the State House shortly after 8 p.m.
Libby and other State House sources said Talbot Ross was attempting to gain access to the governor’s mansion in a bid to convince Gov. Mills to consider additional spending bills.
“She couldn’t get in at first — couldn’t get in the gate,” Libby said.
“The Speaker went over to the Blaine House, couldn’t get in the gate, tried to find another way in, finally did?” Libby added, asking Rep. Randall Greenwood (R-Wales) to confirm her story.
“[Talbot Ross] finally did make entrance to the property, but it didn’t appear to go to the direct mansion, so I’m not really sure exactly where she was,” Rep. Greenwood said, telling Libby that the House Speaker was at the Blaine House for about 15 minutes before returning to the State House.
Describing Friday’s situation — that caused an over seven-hour delay — Rep. Libby said that during the intervening weeks between the adjournment of the Legislature in April and so-called “veto day,” Democratic lawmakers “had been trying to get up to some shenanigans” to push the funding of about 80 additional pieces of legislation.
“The shenanigans that have been going on all throughout this session continue even down to the very last minute, as the Democrats grasp at straws and try to salvage their bills that they want to get across the finish line,” Libby said.
Veto day is typically reserved for its eponymous purpose — voting to uphold or overturn the governor’s vetoes on legislation — not to handle additional spending bills or other business.
Although about 30 bills were approved for funding by Senate Democrats on Friday morning, Mills refused to take up any of the additional bills.
“The governor closed her door, and has refused to take those bills…[…]…the governor is simply refusing to handle it at all,” Libby said in her Friday video.
“[Talbot Ross] is trying to figure out what to do, because they’re trying to move their agenda forward, and [they’re] being blocked by their own party, their own governor,” she said, adding that the situation was “fun to watch.”
Also throwing a wrench in the Legislature’s belated business was the absence of a large number of House Democrats from Augusta on Friday.
The House could not act on an additional roughly 50 spending bills passed and amended by the Senate due to many House Democrats not showing up on Friday for “veto day,” resulting in Republicans holding a majority throughout the day.
House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) at one point quipped to House Speaker Talbot Ross that it was “the first House Republican majority since 2012.”
Eventually, after several hours of futile attempts to convince Mills to go along with the Democratic lawmaker’s spending agenda, Talbot Ross reconvened the house shortly after 9 p.m. and announced the end of the session.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="27951 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=27951">5 Comments
Must be really bad if Mills wouldn’t go along with the commie Ross! They still managed to put the screws to the people with their spending bills! When are people going to wake up that the democrat party is gone, it’s been replaced by a communist party that wants to rule over them not for them.Or are the masses truly brainwashed by a putrid school system and leftist propaganda media?
Unfortunately, former Governor LePage waged an extremely weak campaign.
I have had many dealings with Ms. Ross, Mills is lucky she was not called a racist for refusing entry to a “person of color”, I was in no way surprised about all the games being played in Augusta, head counts, head counts at 3 AM, spying to make sure republicans were in low numbers before a vote was taken, Ross is one of the worst things to happen to Maine government!
Human rights or disability rights Maine does nothing for anyone ,they gov Mills and corrupt attorney general are killing my son taken illegally and held hostage through fraud perjury falsifying suppressing ,the Maine police do nothing about their felony crimes ! 133 plus dead disabled bodies all wards if state of Maine taken illegally ,docters mysterious freak accidental deaths that went along with kickbacks to misdiagnose ,hide hideous labs perjury, premeditated planned inducement of black market deadly meds ! Someone do something !
Where is all the declared federal emergency funds straight to Mills from Biden since 2020 ongoing still almost every month add it all up follow the money ! I mean Mills and her family are directs investors hospitals pharma with attorney frey ! And I quite governor Mills said exactly ” If you are attorney general or governor you own the state of Maine !”,Not true the people own the state of Maine ,governor mills you work for us ! Nit against us ,all you do is harm and cause death and destruction ! You are not above the law! You are not god ! And you never will be! Now let my son free you broke every state law,federal,national, supreme court rulings constitution, ,ada, codes ethics cides conduct ! What a criminal ! God help the great state of Maine ! As Nd the citizens ! And there’s no way Maine voted for Harris over Trump it’s a lie ! Shannon bellows as corrupt as Mills !