Lawmakers eye budget, Medicaid expansion and welfare reform
Lawmakers returned to Augusta last week in a second session likely to be dominated by drafting a supplemental budget and the partisan issues of Medicaid expansion and welfare reform.
Second session
The Legislature will consider 124 bills during the session that started Jan. 8, but those dealing with expanding Medicaid and reforms to benefit programs like the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families are likely to be key points of contention for Democrats and Republicans. Lawmakers are shouldering the full burden of making up an expected $120 million budget gap as Gov. Paul LePage has declined to submit a supplemental budget since the Legislature last session passed a budget he had vetoed. Part of that budget battle will come over a self-imposed ultimatum for the Legislature to eliminate either $40 million in tax exemptions or to make an equal cut from state revenue sharing with municipalities.
Money talk
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Michaud started the race for big campaign fundraising totals early, announcing last week in advance of a Jan. 15 filing deadline that his campaign has raised $1 million so far. Republican incumbent LePage and Independent Eliot Cutler had not yet released their fundraising figures for the last six months of 2013. Earlier campaign finance reports show LePage raised nearly $340,000 and Cutler had raised $430,000 through June 2013. Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Shenna Bellows also released early numbers, reporting raising nearly $340,000 since announcing her bid to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in early October. A spokesman for Collins said the incumbent's campaign plans to have $3 million on hand in its pending filing.
Casino or no?
After a commission tasked with studying expansion of gambling in the state was disbanded, lawmakers are expected to return to the issue during this session. How the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee moves ahead has high stakes for the two operating casinos in the state — Bangor's Hollywood Casino and the Churchill Downs-owned Oxford Casino. Read more on the topic in Senior Writer Jim McCarthy's story, “High-stakes betting.”
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