Maine House Republicans have called upon Democratic lawmakers to produce their proposed budget documents, including the details of their plan for fully funding MaineCare, as the legislative session draws to a close.
“We have about three weeks left and we have not seen a budget document from the Democrats,” said House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor). “We have not seen how they are going to cover that gap [in MaineCare funding] and what they are going to do.”
Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Drew Gattine (D-Westbrook) has responded to these calls saying that the budget is still a work in progress and will not likely come together until very late this session.
“I think we’ll be working on it for a while, pretty much right close to the end,” he said.
Other initiatives that may potentially be written into the upcoming budget include making permanent the state’s free community college program, increase cigarette and cannabis taxes, and implementing a tax on streaming services.
Is there hope for Maine? Republican lawmakers say they are ready to lead the way and fix what the House majority broke. pic.twitter.com/F195SIg6bQ
— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) May 29, 2025
During a Thursday press conference, House Republicans drew attention the $120 million MaineCare shortfall that was at the center of heated budgetary debates earlier this year.
Although an emergency $120 million supplemental spending bill had been on the table, negotiations across the aisle fell apart when Democrats rejected the welfare reform proposals that Gov. Janet Mills (D) had included in her proposed language, including limits on general assistance and rental assistance programs.
When it was clear that Republicans wouldn’t budge without these reforms, Democratic lawmakers pivoted, ditching the $120 million supplemental spending bill in favor of a multi-billion dollar biennial budget that continued to fund all state services at the same level for the next two years.
Also included in that budget was the MaineCare funding originally at the heart of the supplemental budget debate, as well as funding to address the state’s impending spruce budworm outbreak.
In order to ensure that the funding included in this budget would be made available by the start of the next fiscal year in July, Democrats opted to pursue extraordinary parliamentary maneuvers instead of coming to the table and earning support from Republicans.
Generally speaking, approved legislation takes effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns sine die at the end of the session, which would normally take place about mid-year.
That said, lawmakers did have the option of giving a bill an emergency designation, allowing it to take effect immediately after being signed into law.
To do this, however, at least two-thirds of legislators in both chambers must agree to the same language, which, given the current composition of the Legislature, would require bipartisan cooperation.
Rather than pursue this, legislators adjourned sine die early, only to be called immediately back into session by Gov. Mills, thus allowing the $11.3 partisan budget to take effect before July 1.
[RELATED: What Just Happened in Augusta?]
In response to this maneuvering, Rep. Gary A. Drinkwater (R-Milford) filed a petition for a people’s veto of this budget. Should the requisite number of signatures be gathered, Maine voters will have the opportunity to potentially repeal this party-line budget at the ballot box.
To earn a place on the ballot, the petition must receive more than 67,000 signatures, a number that is calculated based on the turnout levels from the most recent gubernatorial election.
Petitioners have a little more than two weeks left to collect signatures for this effort.
[RELATED: GOP Lawmaker Applies for People’s Veto Petition to Repeal $11.3 Billion Partisan Budget]
House Minority Leader Faulkingham also noted during Thursday’s press conference that this $11.3 billion budget does not fund the state’s MaineCare shortfall during its second fiscal year, meaning that this gap would need to be addressed in the currently unreleased budget document.
Faulkingham also highlighted the “unbalanced” nature of the state’s budget as it stands today.
“They passed an unbalanced budget where they didn’t even fund that [MaineCare] shortfall in the second year. It’s important to recognize that we have an unbalanced budget,” he said. “We all know it.”
“I do not understand how my appropriations members here have not had a budget document put in front of them this late in the game that shows how the Democrats plan on covering that [MaineCare shortfall],” said Faulkingham.
MaineCare has also been broughtinto the spotlight this week by a separate GOP initiative, as Democratic lawmakers voted down a Republican-led bill that would have ensured hospitals received timely reimbursements from the state for services they provide to MaineCare patients.
Under this bill, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) would have been required to reimburse at least 75 percent of the as-filed settlement from cost reports within 90 days of receipt.
If approved, this would have brought the timeline for hospital reimbursements into alignment with the standard set for nursing homes in 2023.
Currently, hospitals often face delays in receiving payments for already-provided services, making it difficult for these facilities to cover expenses and meet the needs of their patients. Rural hospitals in particular have been feeling the squeeze in recent months as entire practice areas, such as obstetric and gynecology, are getting shut down. In some cases, hospitals are even being closed altogether.
Maine’s major hospital networks have advocated in support of this bill, citing the many challenges they face as a result of waiting years to be reimbursed for services that they have already provided.
Although an amendment providing millions of dollars in additional funding was introduced, seemingly in response to concerns raised by DHHS that they would need to dip into their budget for future fiscal years in order to meet these requirements, lawmakers remained divided along partisan lines.
This same partisan divided persisted in the House, where the majority Ought Not to Pass report was accepted by a roll call vote of 70-66.
Maine House Republicans go scorched earth on Democrats for refusing to pay hospitals in rural Maine pic.twitter.com/FYi6UdBypV
— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) May 28, 2025
