Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford) and Senate President Mattie Daughtry during a joint session of the Maine Legislature on Feb. 20, 2025. (Photo by Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star)
Maine lawmakers remain at an impasse on the budget change package to address the Medicaid funding shortfall and other emergency measures after Republicans again refused to back the proposal Tuesday.
The House of Representatives took up the supplemental budget just after noon but failed to secure enough votes to enact the legislation as an emergency measure, voting 75-70 along party lines, which is far short of the 101 votes needed. Representatives then tabled the measure to caucus. As of 4:30 p.m., it remained unclear whether they would return Tuesday.
The Senate adjourned for another week around 3:30 p.m. without further action on the change package as it remains stalled in the lower chamber.
Without the support of two-thirds of lawmakers, funding cannot be made available immediately upon the governor’s signature, meaning Medicaid payments to health care providers would likely need to be withheld as funding is expected to run out this spring.
This deadlock is no surprise, as leadership entered the day clearly at odds.
On Feb. 11, the Democratic majority in both chambers cast initial votes in favor of the budget plan without any Republican support. Republicans attempted several floor amendments but each ultimately failed.
This past weekend, Republican leadership said their backing hinged on adding two of those attempted amendments: reinstating limits to General Assistance that Democratic Gov. Janet Mills initially proposed in the change package and adding work requirements for childless, able-bodied adults to be eligible for Medicaid benefits.
Democrats remain unwilling to do so. And Mills has urged Republicans to back the plan as is, vowing to push for General Assistance changes in the two-year budget instead.
Following the vote on Tuesday, Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford) described where things stood as “simple” in a statement.
“Republicans are holding out their support because they are trying to add provisions that would take healthcare away from people and cause others to lose housing,” Fecteau said. “We have asked for new ideas and have received none. Democrats stand ready to pass this supplemental budget.”
Leading up to the vote, Democrats gave floor speeches warning of detrimental effects for health care and the state’s forests — as the plan also includes funding to prevent the spread of spruce budworm — among other areas, if two-thirds support isn’t secured. Meanwhile, Republicans reiterated their stance that the budget plan lacks fiscal responsibility.
As House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) put it, “I feel like today’s episode of the Legislature is a rerun.”
Faulkingham made a motion to send the bill back to the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee, which sets the budget, for reconsideration, but that attempt failed 69-76.
Still at impasse, lawmakers return to determine fate of Medicaid funding
“We’re not going to sign a blank check today without seeing some fiscal responsibility in the form of cost savings,” Faulkingham said. “If that doesn’t come in the form of General Assistance reform or work requirements, we are open to suggestions from the other side.”
When lawmakers cast initial floor votes on the plan on Feb. 11, Rep. Michele Meyer (D-Eliot), who chairs the Health and Human Services Committee, spoke about receiving pleas from providers to pass funding for Medicaid, which she said have continued.
“There’s no excuse for ignorance about just how important MaineCare coverage is to real Mainers, who, frankly, don’t give a damn about our political squabbling,” Meyer said. “They care about their kids, their aging parents, their disabled family members, their foster child, their patients.”
Rep. Kristen Cloutier (D-Lewiston), a member of the budget committee and chair of the Taxation Committee, pointed to a component of the supplemental budget that has been less of a focus in public debates: tax conformity.
Each year, the Legislature reviews amendments to the federal Internal Revenue Code from Congress to determine whether Maine will conform, and one federal tax law enacted in December 2024 would have a meaningful impact on Maine tax receipts if the state adopts it.
The Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2023 eliminated the requirements that disaster-related losses must exceed 10% of a person’s adjusted gross income before becoming deductible, among other changes. Because the federal legislation is retroactive and impacts the upcoming tax filing season, this was included in the supplemental budget as opposed to stand alone legislation, the Mills administration previously explained.
“It will make a real difference to taxpayers across the state who have been impacted by storms since 2020,” Cloutier said, “and if this supplemental budget does not pass as an emergency measure, many Maine taxpayers will lose that money.”
Rep. Drew Gattine (D-Westbrook), who co-chairs the budget committee, repeated to his colleagues on the House floor that the supplemental proposal before them addresses only emergency issues.
“Many, many important issues were removed from the original bill and set aside, with the understanding that we would take them up again when we deliberate the biennial budget,” Gattine said. He went on to say that votes will make clear “where we stand when it comes to providing health care for people who need it, and protecting our forests and our rural economy.”
However, Republican budget lead Rep. Jack Ducharme of Madison said his party doesn’t oppose what is in the budget. “We simply realize that we have to be fiscally prudent,” Ducharme said.
In Ducharme’s view, biennial budgets have not been a place where substantial changes have been made, pointing to the fact that Democrats have passed majority budgets without Republican support in recent years. Therefore, he said this change package is the opportunity to come together.
“The only way we are going to get through [the next biennium], is if we start the process right now and say, ‘Woah, put the brakes on it,’” Ducharme said.
While the Senate did not take up the supplemental budget on Tuesday, the upper chamber did consider a rule change the House passed on Feb. 11.
That amended rule proposal aims to fix a seemingly unforeseen restriction in the joint rules after a member of the budget committee found himself unable to cast a late vote in opposition to the supplemental budget.
Minority Leader Trey Stewart (R-Aroostook) tried to refer the rule change to the Joint Rules Committee, after stating that he appreciates the desire to immediately address the issue but thinks there are deeper problems with the rule that must be considered first.
“I think anytime we do a knee-jerk reaction, we are opening ourselves up to some unintended consequences,” Stewart said.
However, Senate Majority Leader Teresa Pierce (D-Cumberland) tabled the issue.
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