“Governor Mills Lied to the People of Maine” Republicans Blast Overnight Budget Rollout

AUGUSTA, Maine – Maine Republicans on Wednesday tore into Democrats over what they described as a late-night budget dump that gave lawmakers and the public virtually no time to review a major supplemental spending package before revisions were due.

Their message was blunt: Where is the transparency?

At a State House press conference held Wednesday morning, Republican leaders said they received the supplemental budget after 8 p.m. Tuesday night, only to face an 8 a.m. Wednesday deadline for revisions. That gave lawmakers roughly 12 overnight hours, outside normal business hours and while most Mainers were asleep, to review a document involving hundreds of millions of dollars in spending.

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Republicans said the timeline was not just rushed. They said it was a deliberate effort by Democratic leadership to jam through a partisan spending plan with little scrutiny and no meaningful opportunity for public input.

“This is a supplemental budget. This is not the biennial budget. State government is not going to shut down if we don’t pass this thing,” said Senate Republican Leader Trey Stewart. “But it does include hundreds of millions of dollars of new spending.”

Stewart said lawmakers received the budget at 8:07 p.m. Tuesday, and four amendments were due by 8 a.m. Wednesday.

“So outside entirely of regular business hours, outside entirely of any chance for the public to review the document and offer up their thoughts or amendments to the document and to the process, none of that exists,” Stewart said. “The deadlines had already come and gone while you all were sleeping.”

That, Republicans said, is the real face of Democratic “transparency” in Augusta: a massive budget rolled out at night, with revisions due by morning, before the public even had a chance to see what was in it.

Republicans: Democrats shut out the public and the minority party

House Republican Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham said Republicans have been asking for two things throughout the budget process: transparency and fiscal responsibility.

He said Democrats delivered neither.

Instead, Faulkingham said, majority Democrats pushed forward a spending-heavy budget, layered in new taxes, dipped deep into state reserves, and handled the process in a way that shut out both the public and Republican lawmakers.

“We have got fiscal irresponsibility and complete non-transparency,” Faulkingham said.

Republicans argued that if Democrats were proud of the budget, they would have allowed it to be debated in the open and reviewed on a reasonable timeline. Instead, they said, the budget was dropped late Tuesday night and effectively locked in by Wednesday morning.

For Republicans, that overnight turnaround made clear that Democratic leaders were not looking for debate. They were looking to push it through before anyone could fully react.

Democrats accused of spending first, explaining later

Republicans also blasted Democrats for continuing what they described as a tax-and-spend approach to government, saying the supplemental budget piles on more spending without addressing structural problems already threatening the state’s finances.

Stewart warned that Maine is already vulnerable because of its reliance on federal funding and unresolved issues surrounding Medicaid spending and oversight. He said instead of confronting those problems, Democrats are doubling down on spending.

He also accused Democrats of draining the state’s fiscal safeguards at the very moment Maine should be preparing for economic uncertainty.

Rainy day reserves targeted again

A major focus of the Republican criticism was Democrats’ use of the Budget Stabilization Fund, commonly referred to as the Rainy-Day Fund.

Appropriations Committee member Rep. Jack Ducharme said Republicans made it clear from the start that there would be no path to bipartisan support if Democrats used stabilization funds or raised taxes.

“We will not get to a two-thirds budget if there are two things: one, if you put money from the Budget Stabilization Fund into this budget, two, if there are tax increases in this budget,” Ducharme said.

According to Republicans, Maine had about $249 million available from recent surpluses, but Democrats built a package spending more than $600 million, requiring roughly $291 million to be pulled from the stabilization fund.

Ducharme warned that Democrats are treating the fund like a political piggy bank instead of a financial safeguard for hard times.

“Taking $300 million from the Budget Stabilization Fund doesn’t help us at all,” he said, adding that it would reduce the state to less than 60 days of operating reserves.

Republicans argued that such a move would be troubling under any circumstance, but especially so amid continuing financial uncertainty.

Republicans say Democrats chose tax hikes over tax relief

Faulkingham said Democrats had an opportunity to use the supplemental budget to provide meaningful tax relief to Maine workers and families. Instead, he said, they chose higher spending and more taxes.

“This could have been a huge blue-collar tax cut for the people of Maine,” Faulkingham said. “Instead, it’s another tax increase.”

Republicans said they pushed for tax conformity with federal changes, including proposals related to tips, overtime, pensions, and car loan interest, but those ideas were rejected.

Instead, they said, Democrats continued moving Maine in the wrong direction on tax policy while ignoring warnings about competitiveness and affordability.

Medicaid, fraud, and more unanswered questions

Republicans also used Wednesday’s press conference to again hammer the Mills administration and Democratic lawmakers over fraud and growing MaineCare costs.

Ducharme pointed to a budget item setting aside approximately $116 million for future health care cost trends, describing it as a red flag and suggesting the state is quietly bracing for financial fallout tied to Medicaid obligations and federal scrutiny.

Republicans said they tried to redirect some of that money, but Democrats refused.

They argued that while Democrats are quick to find money for expanded spending, the budget still does not seriously address fraud, an issue Republicans say is one of the biggest threats facing Maine taxpayers.

Harrington: “Governor Mills lied to the people of Maine”

Senator Matt Harrington delivered one of the conference’s sharpest lines, accusing Gov. Janet Mills of breaking her word on taxes.

“There’s one key point that I think we should all take away from today, and that is that Governor Mills lied to the people of Maine when she said she wouldn’t raise taxes,” Harrington said.

Harrington said the budget shows Democrats are not raising taxes out of necessity, but because they refuse to control spending or tackle waste and fraud.

“We are raising taxes so they can continue their spending spree,” he said.

That accusation gave Republicans a clear political message: Democrats campaigned as stewards of stability, but are now governing through rushed process, higher taxes, and depleted reserves.

A Wednesday morning press conference centered on one question

By the end of the Wednesday press conference, Republicans made clear that their criticism was about more than the numbers in the supplemental budget.

It was about the way Democrats handled the entire process.

A budget delivered Tuesday night after 8 p.m. and revisions due Wednesday at 8 a.m. is not openness. It is not accountability. And it is not transparency, Republicans said.

To them, it was a closed-door power play, one more example of Democrats forcing through major fiscal decisions before lawmakers or the public have a real chance to respond.

And as Republicans made clear Wednesday morning, they want Maine voters to remember exactly how it happened.