Legislature overrides budget veto, avoids shutdown
Lawmakers voted Wednesday to override Gov. Paul LePage's veto of a two-year budget that raises the state's sales and meals and lodging taxes to restore part of the state's revenue sharing with municipalities.
The Bangor Daily News reported the $6.3 billion budget cleared the House by a 114-34 margin and the Senate by a 26-9 margin Wednesday. It was the first gubernatorial veto, out of 40, that the Legislature overrode this session.
The override vote also avoids a state shutdown that would have come on July 1, when the new budget is set to take effect.
The plan raises the sales tax by 0.5% and the meals-and-lodging taxes by 1% for those two years to restore 65% of the state's $200 million state revenue sharing program — a program LePage proposed suspending earlier this year to close a budget gap. The budget also includes a $30 million increase in spending on public schools and restores merit and longevity pay increases for workers whose salaries have been frozen for over four years.
LePage remained opposed to the budget after the veto override Wednesday and chastised lawmakers for supporting a budget that raises taxes.
The governor's vetoes of other bills withstood legislative challenges Wednesday, except for a wide-ranging energy bill that cleared the Senate late Wednesday night. The vetoes upheld included bills that would re-start a state study of climate change impacts, require employers to accommodate nursing mothers in the workplace, change reporting requirements for gubernatorial transition teams and study factors contributing to Maine's above-average cancer mortality rate.
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments