AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Some lawmakers are calling for Maine’s Legislature to return to work as they near looming deadlines for action on key issues.
Several leaders met Wednesday to talk about several bills in limbo. They range from a looming pay cut for thousands of direct care workers, to tackling the opioid crisis and the rising number of people dying from drug overdoses.
Several lawmakers declined to comment as negotiations continued. No decisions have been made yet, though the Legislature’s appropriations committee could meet again as early as Friday.
GOP Rep. Tom Winsor said it’s likely lawmakers could return to consider a supplemental budget that includes widely supported bills.
“People are talking, trying to find a way forward, and I think we will,” he said.
Winsor said lawmakers should separately discuss a $3.8 million bill to start rolling out voter-approved Medicaid expansion. Republican Senate President Mike Thibodeau has said he hopes to start asking lawmakers next week whether they support returning.
Lawmakers are not expected to return before primary elections Tuesday.
Republican Sen. Ronald Collins said lawmakers must act soon on bonds, including a $100 million transportation bond that includes road and bridge projects. Lawmakers typically act on such bonds by the end of June, he said, to ensure they have enough time to get on the fall ballot for voter approval.
But lawmakers appear to have some wiggle room. Lawmakers need to vote on and approve bonds by August 28 to meet ballot printing timelines for the November election, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
Meanwhile, a coalition of 120 organizations - from the Maine Rural Water Association to Associated General Contractors of Maine - is clamoring for lawmakers to get work done soon on issues including county jail funding and health centers at schools.
If lawmakers don’t act by July 1 to pass a routine school funding formula bill, the Department of Education will give out funding to schools until the Legislature acts. But superintendents warn that allowing the executive branch to make such spending decisions could set a bad precedent.
Direct care workers serving the state’s disabled and elderly will see a pay cut in July if lawmakers fail to maintain reimbursement rates set to expire June 30.
“It puts us in a very tight situation,” said Mike Stair, President and chief operating officer of Care and Comfort, an agency providing services for more than 2,000 people in Maine. “We’re pinched between wages needing to go up for some of the lowest paid folks in the industry and the rate that we’re paid either staying the same or going down.”
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