Maine:$100M added by Dems to budget GOP leader decries 'open credit card'

AUGUSTA - No one had seen the final product Monday, but the word was quickly circulating around the State House that an all-nighter by majority Democrats last Friday had increased the proposed state budget by more than $100 million. Some of the Republican members on the Appropriations Committee, who stuck with Democrats until 2 a.m. Saturday when the majority budget was approved, said the $5.8 billion tax-and-spending plan contained new taxes and fees, many of which had never been aired at public hearings. "They are setting a precedent for spending," assistant Senate Republican leader Carol Weston said of Democrats. "This budget is nothing but an open credit card. It's going to allow the state to do deficit spending. No more do we have to worry about a balanced budget - the sky's the limit."

The two Democratic chairmen of the Appropriations Committee did not call the panel into work Monday, and the majority budget plan is now under review by nonpartisan legislative budget analysts. The budget document is expected to be released today by the committee chairmen and given its first reading in the Maine House.

Included in the Democrats' last-minute budget decisions, according to Republicans, are:

An order directing the Department of Conservation to develop a "nonconsumptive user permit" system that could be instituted through rule making to impose fees and permitting requirements on bird-watchers, hikers and those who use the woods for purposes other than hunting or fishing.

The ratification of a $40 million collective bargaining agreement with state employees that was delivered Saturday on two hours' notice.

An additional $460,000 over two years to hire four more staffers for the Maine Senate.

The exemption of retailers with buildings exceeding 100,000 square feet from the Business Equipment Reimbursement Tax Program.

A decision to expand a proposed $415 million state revenue bond to $450 million.

"We have an unemployment rate of less than 4 percent, which means most everyone is out there working just as hard as they can," said Weston, of Montville. "But the Democrats are saying: 'You're not sending us enough money - you've got to send us more."

Senate President Beth Edmonds, D-Freeport, and House Majority Leader Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, said many details of the two-year budget package still were being analyzed by staff, and they declined to comment on most details until the bill was released by the committee chairmen.

The Democratic leaders said the budget would provide the additional $250 million for local education promised under the property tax relief bill passed by the Legislature earlier this year. The majority report would not include plans suggested by Gov. John E. Baldacci to lend out state lottery revenues for 10 years or extend the financing schedule for Maine State Retirement System debt. The Democratic plan also restores more than $52 million in Department of Health and Human Services cuts originally sought by the governor and does not include new broad-based tax increases, they said.

Cummings did say that the proposed exemptions under BETR for large retailers did not translate into a tremendous amount of money - "possibly less than $100,000" - but he did say that many Democrats are opposed to the program they deride as "corporate welfare."

"I know there are members of my caucus who have said, 'How dare you take $130 million from the mentally retarded, the mentally ill, physically disabled and brain-damaged, and not touch a single piece of corporate welfare?'" Cummings said. "I think there are members of my caucus who saw the BETR piece as an equity issue."

Republicans said Monday they would continue to push for a budget resolution to partially fund state government through the end of September to allow for further negotiations on differences separating the two parties. Democrats hope to have a final vote on the majority budget by April 1 and then adjourn the session to allow the bill to become law 90 days later and before June 30, the end of the current fiscal year.

Baldacci then would call the Legislature into "special or emergency" session later in April to finish the remainder of its work.

Isn't Maine awash in Somalis burying the welfare system ?

Definitely! And read the following email I received this morning:

Our generous welfare state draws 'em from all over the world, don't it?

    We heard last month that Baldy and Komrades (some sort of "Catholic Charities", I think) were bringing in another 700 or so Somali Democrat Party loyal Constituents; Have you heard anything about where they are being "settled"?

      I find it interesting that the Catholic Church is facilitating the importation of thousands of "persecuted" Moslems, when there are Christians all over the World being persecuted to death for their Faith - by Moslems! How many Christian "Refugees" have we seen lately?

    But I digress...

    These Commiocrats in Augusta are drasticly altering the economy, population, and demographics of the State, driving out our educated young and working people who are more apt to vote for common sense and fiscal restraint, and replacing them with effite Kalifornia liberals and welfare tit-sucking human parasites who the libs can rely on to turn out the vote for them every time.

    Pretty soon there will be no political opposition that will be able to challenge that kind of constiturncy base - and then it won't be long before this won't be a State that anybody in their right mind would even think about trying to live in.

   I'm afraid that we're not far from the point of no return - if we havn't already passed it.

Maine already has people swamped in taxes...guess they want more people to quit work. It's hardly worth working there!

Oh yes. And also in the news today:

Jobless rate rises 0.3 percentage point in February
March 25, 2005

AUGUSTA, Maine -- Maine's unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage point in February to 4.7 percent, the state Labor Department said Friday.

While Maine's February jobless rate was higher, it was still below the national February rate of 5.4 percent, Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman said.

Maine's jobless rate has remained within a few tenths of a percentage point for the past year, Fortman said.

"During this time, job growth has kept pace with labor force growth, with little change in unemployment," Fortman said.

The unemployment figures are adjusted to remove the influences of seasonal patterns so they better reflect longer term trends, the Labor Department said.

The January rate for Maine was revised upward from 4.1 percent to 4.4 percent based on updated unemployment insurance claims counts, the department said.

Oh, I forgot - passing a Gay Rights bill is going to "improve the business climate" in Maine. What possible "logic" could have been used to arrive at that conclusion?

You got it!

Gay rights bill clears hurdle, heads to Senate

Aim is to add sexual orientation to state list of protected classes

BY JEFF TUTTLE, OF THE NEWS STAFF

The Legislature's Judiciary Committee on Thursday lent its support to the governor's gay rights initiative, pushing the anti-discrimination bill along its fast track through the Legislature. "People's maturity and tolerance have evolved on this issue," the committee's chairman, Sen. Barry Hobbins, D-York, said before the panel's 9-4 vote in favor of the bill. "The time has come." "We'll probably end up at the ballot box again, but the time has come," he later added, predicting a "citizens veto" attempt led by conservative opponents should the measure be signed into law.

Hobbins made the comments during an afternoon work session in Augusta, where lawmakers debated the merits of LD 1196, which will be considered next by the Senate, possibly as soon as Monday.

If passed, the bill, submitted by Democratic Gov. John Baldacci and sponsored by Republican Sen. Karl Turner of Cumberland, would amend the Maine Human Rights Act to include sexual orientation among the protected classes in areas of housing, employment, education, credit and public accommodation.

The act now prohibits discrimination based on gender, race, religion, age, and mental or physical disability.

The bill has pitted gay rights advocates against social conservatives for more than a decade in Maine. During that time, voters have considered it three times at the ballot box, most recently defeating it in 2000.

That latest rejection had some opponents, including the committee's Rep. Roderick Carr, R-Lincoln, lamenting the idea of lawmakers deciding the issue.

"The Legislature might be ready to move forward on this, but the people have spoken," Carr said in response to Hobbins.

Four of the five Republicans on the judiciary panel voted against the bill as written. At least two of the dissenting Republicans planned to offer an amendment to send the measure out to referendum.

Sen. David Hastings of Oxford was the only Republican on the committee who voted in favor of the legislation.

Baldacci has opposed sending the matter to voters, essentially taking the same path as his predecessor, former Gov. Angus King, who in 1997 signed into law a similar bill extending protection to gays and lesbians.

In 1998, religious conservatives launched a successful campaign to send the matter back to voters, 51 percent of whom voted to overturn the law that year.

Should the current bill pass, conservative groups have all but promised a similar repeal effort at the ballot box, where voters have been unpredictable on the subject.

Twice, voters have narrowly rejected initiatives similar to Baldacci's. In 1995, however, voters convincingly defeated an anti-gay rights measure.

Since 2000, gains in the area of gay marriage - particularly a Massachusetts court's 2003 ruling legalizing it there - have caused opponents to change tack in their campaign against gay rights.

While opponents in Maine focused earlier debates on the "special rights" they believed would be granted to homosexuals, the current argument against the bill has centered on its potential as a precursor to gay marriage.

"That certainly seems to be the most effective wedge issue for opponents now," said Jim Melcher, a political scientist at the University of Maine at Farmington. "But it can also serve as a motivating factor for supporters who want to move in that direction."

Supporters note the bill contains no language about gay marriages or civil unions.

If the measure passes, Maine will join 15 states that protect homosexuals from discrimination. About a dozen Maine communities, including Bangor, already have similar laws on the books.

Gov. Baldacci Republican Karl Turner

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