Senate President Mattie Daughtry looks on as Minority Leader Trey Stewart and Majority Leader Teresa Pierce converse before tabling the supplemental budget proposal on March 4, 2025. (Photo by Emma Davis/ Maine Morning Star)
MaineCare funding remains in limbo, still.
The Maine Senate adjourned for another week on Tuesday without taking action on the budget change package to address the funding shortfall anticipated for MaineCare, Maine’s Medicaid program, which is expected to result in stalled payments this spring if not addressed.
Though, the upper chamber did agree to change a rule on Tuesday — following a vote in the Maine House of Representatives on Feb. 11 — that had a hand in unraveling Republican support for the budget plan.
A late-night committee vote earlier this month had initially signaled bipartisan support for the supplemental budget, but that apparent harmony fell apart quickly after Rep. Kenneth Fredette (R-Newport) tried to cast a late vote in opposition but came up against a restriction in the joint rules that prevented him from doing so.
The rule, which prevented a lawmaker not present for voting from later filing a different report outside public view, was aimed to improve transparency, several lawmakers explained on the Senate floor on Tuesday.
The change now allows lawmakers to register a late vote but only to create a report of “Ought Not to Pass,” which in legislative lingo means a recommendation against the full Legislature passing a given bill — or the “no” vote Fredette sought to cast.
While this change passed the House swiftly, it was held up in the Senate when Minority Leader Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook) tried to send the measure to the joint rules committee for deliberation first. He reiterated his reasoning on Tuesday, saying that while he appreciated the urgency, he cautioned against unintended consequences if the change was not workshopped in committee.
But Stewart ultimately backed the change in a floor vote on Tuesday, calling Senate President Mattie Daughtry (D-Brunswick) through the legislative phone to discuss while the vote was still open as their colleagues on both sides on the aisle watched in anticipation.
Stewart’s motion to send the measure to committee failed 15-20. However, he later joined Democrats and some Republicans in supporting the change, with a vote of 26-9.
While lawmakers resolved this procedural scuffle on Tuesday, the budget remains stalled.
After a weeks-long stalemate with Republicans, members of the Maine House of Representatives struck the emergency preamble from the supplemental budget on Feb. 25, sending it to the Senate on a path to be enacted without the minority party’s support and therefore without the possibility for funding to become available immediately upon the governor’s signature.
That would require two-thirds support, a threshold the Senate appears to still be holding out for as the budget document was tabled on Tuesday.
If the budget isn’t enacted as an emergency, Medicaid payments to health care providers will likely need to be withheld as funding is expected to run out by May. Allocations provided through a simple majority budget wouldn’t be available until 90 days after adjournment, a clock lawmakers could start by taking the symbolic step to technically adjourn after that decision.
While the main purpose of the change package is to shore up Medicaid funding, the package also addresses other issues, including funding to prevent spruce budworm from damaging forests. However, the budget plan being considered includes far fewer initiatives than Gov. Janet Mills initially proposed, some of which Republicans want back in.
Leaders of the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee, which sets the budget plan, said they removed any measures that were not emergencies, instead vowing to consider them in the two-year budget.
Republicans have said their backing hinges on adding two amendments: reinstating limits to General Assistance that Mills, a Democrat, initially proposed in the change package, and adding work requirements for childless, able-bodied adults to be eligible for Medicaid benefits.
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