Gov. Paul LePage recently used his line-item veto power to make some changes to the state budget.

Undeterred by the fact that it had just passed with an overwhelming, bipartisan majority, he used his red pen to strike out two specific items: funding for General Assistance programs, which allow cities and towns to help people with emergency, short-term needs for housing, electricity, food and other essentials, and Medicaid funding for institutional care.

Rather than reversing these vetoes, which would have required only a simple majority vote, Republicans in the Legislature decided not to reconvene. By staying home, they ensured that the vetoes would stand.

The recent discussion and debate about these moves has focused mostly on the mechanism of LePage’s vetoes and the parliamentary specifics of the Legislature’s response. I guess there’s some reason to talk about the process. Yes, this was the first time a governor has used his line-item authority, and that merits a historical footnote.

And yes, as Democrats have argued, the House and Senate Republicans may have violated the Legislature’s rules by not returning to consider reversing the cuts. Technically, they make the rules and they can break them if they want.

What should be more important than the details of these mechanisms, however, is how they were used. The governor used his power to go after those who already are struggling the most, and legislative Republicans used their power to make sure LePage’s vetoes were upheld, while at the same time they attempted to avoid being held personally responsible for their actions.

Advertisement

Thankfully, legislative Republicans only partially succeeded in the second part of their plan. By holding an informal poll of their members on whether they should come back to deal with the vetoes, they attempted to avoid having to decide, on the record, between what they already had approved and what LePage now demanded of them.

House Republicans were even smart enough to conduct their poll by secret ballot, using phone calls to make sure there would be no paper trail.

In spite of Freedom of Access requests from the media, we likely will never know where individual legislators stood.

Senate Republican leadership, however, wrote down their votes, and the results were later obtained and published by the Bangor Daily News. So, at least those 20 senators can be held responsible for their actions.

The tally reveals some surprises. First of all, Senate Republican leaders Kevin Raye of Perry, Jon Courtney of Springvale and Debra Plowman of Hampden (all of whom are now candidates for federal office) apparently voted against coming back to consider overturning the governor’s vetoes.

They showed no loyalty to a budget they previously had supported and their colleagues across the aisle had agreed to in good faith. Even more surprising, however, are the votes of some senators whose districts will be among the hardest hit by the cuts.

Advertisement

Perhaps Sen. Tom Martin, who represents part of Kennebec County, including the city of Waterville, thought that the results of the poll would never be made public. That would explain why he voted against reconsidering the deep cuts to General Assistance that Waterville’s mayor, Karen Heck, called part of “a war on poor people.”

Heck is part of a coalition of mayors from across the state who have pointed out that the cuts will not only hurt the needy, but will almost certainly lead to increased local property taxes as cities and towns attempt to cope with the lack of state funds.

The perceived secrecy of the poll also is probably the reason why Sen. Lois Snowe-Mello, who represents part of Androscoggin County, including the city of Auburn, voted not to return to reconsider the cuts, despite their effect on her constituents.

I can say this with some certainty because in public she sang a very different tune. “Some Republicans, like Sen. Lois Snowe-Mello, an Androscoggin County Republican, say that as elected representatives of the people, lawmakers have an obligation to respond to the governor’s line-item veto and either sustain or override these objections,” Maine Public Radio reported on April 17.

“I think we need to come back, and we need to address the issues,” Snowe-Mello said, just hours before the ballot results show that she voted to do exactly the opposite.

The most difficult and most important job of a legislator is to choose a side on tough decisions, and to do so in the public eye. LePage’s vetoes were bad policy but, unlike Republicans in the Legislature, at least he made his decision in the light of day.

Mike Tipping is a political junkie. He writes the Tipping Point blog on Maine politics at DownEast.com, his own blog at MainePolitics.net and works for the Maine People’s Alliance and the Maine People’s Resource Center. He’s @miketipping on Twitter. Email to writebacktomike@gmail.com


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.

filed under: