House Dems Punt on $120M Spending Bill After GOP Demands Stronger Welfare Reforms

After reaching the next-to-last step in passing a $120 million supplemental spending package, Democratic leaders put off a final vote late Monday night for an additional two weeks. The Maine House of Representatives gaveled in at 7:13 pm on Tuesday and almost immediately adjourned for until 10 a.m. Tuesday, February 25th at 10am.

The development is an embarrassing one for Democrats, who have controlled the House, Senate, and governorship in Maine for the past six years and have singularly controlled almost every dime of state taxation and spending during that time.

Now, the state is looking at a $118 million current-year shortfall in spending on MaineCare — Maine’s version of Medicaid — and a $450 million structural deficit looms over the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget planning.

The so-called “supplemental budget” is an extra spending bill designed to allocate more funding to MaineCare so that the state can continue paying money owed to Maine’s health care providers. The Mills Administration has previously warned that these payments could stop as soon as this spring unless urgent action is taken by lawmakers, making the spending package the legislature’s top priority.

Democratic leaders rejected modest welfare reforms proposed in Gov. Janet Mills’ (D) version of the supplemental budget. Those welfare limits would have capped the use of General Assistance, a municipal welfare program mostly paid for by the state and primarily used by Portland residents, at 30 days per household. The reforms would also have limited usage of an emergency rental assistance program, which has mostly been used by noncitizens who have arrived in Maine since 2019.

By removing those provisions from the supplemental budget, Democratic leaders created unanimous opposition from House and Senate Republicans, who were already timid about the idea of spending additional money on a bloated and ever-expanding welfare program. Although Republicans are minorities in both houses of the legislature, their votes are still important for urgent time-sensitive bills that need to take effect immediately, as those measures require 2/3 support in each house.

After a more than six-hour break following the initial round of votes in both legislative chambers Tuesday afternoon, House Speaker Ryan Fecteau (D-Portland) decided to punt until after next week’s scheduled legislative vacation rather than force LD 209 through with only Democratic votes. The bill returned to the House from the Senate with no changes and did not take on any of the proposed Republican amendments, giving House Republicans no reason to change their party line votes against it from earlier in the day.

[RELATED: Mills, State House Dems Poised to Approve $120 Million Spending Bill Using “Extraordinary Occasion” Maneuver]

Bipartisanship fared no better in the Senate. The Maine Senate Democratic majority engrossed, or essentially endorsed, the House Speaker’s far left version of the spending bill and blocked all attempted amendments from Senate Republicans, continuing the pattern of excluding the minority from the process.

Fast tracked by Senate President Mattie Daughtry (D-Cumberland), the additional spending bill completed its first phase of Concurrence, or the process of aligning it between the two chambers. Though it was then sent back to the House where many expected a lengthy debate, vote, and potential Sine Die adjournment to force the bill through to the Governor’s desk without having to achieve a 2/3 majority vote, the House leader decided not to invoke this extraordinary and controversial tactic.

In the Senate, Minority Leader Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook) urged the body to support a new cap on Medicaid enrollments, and include General Assistance reforms, such as work requirements for able bodied, working-aged people receiving benefits. But Stewart’s measures were met with ridicule and aspersions from several veteran Democratic senators who ended up being admonished by Senate President Daughtry for questioning the motives of her counterpart across the aisle.

Freshman Sen. Joe Martin (R-Oxford) offered an amendment that would have required State Auditor Matthew Dunlap to assess the current state of MaineCare and inform legislators and staff on his findings before any further vote.

But as with Stewart’s efforts, it was for naught. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Peggy Rotundo (D-Androscoggin) suppressed all Republican amendments with a parliamentary move to Indefinitely Postpone them.

At 7:23 pm, the Appropriations Committee and Health and Human Services Committee gaveled in to begin their joint public hearing on the Biennial Budget, LD 210. The Public Hearing was scheduled to begin more than four hours earlier. Holding such a hearing immediately after the House and Senate adjourned would have made it difficult for the public and any other interested parties to participate well after dark and with minimal notice.

There is a chance that either the Speaker of the House or the Senate President calls the legislature into Session this coming week, even though nothing is scheduled on the calendar and many legislators have made plans to take advantage of the vacation week.

The Maine Wire will be monitoring and reporting on any developments with regard to the legislature convening this coming week to complete their votes on LD 209 the Supplemental Budget.