The Senate session gets underway on Tuesday, the first day of the first special session of the 132nd Legislature in the Maine State House. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA — Republicans in the Maine Legislature renewed calls for MaineCare reform and pledged to reject tax increases Tuesday as lawmakers began their next phase of budget work following partisan divide over a two-year budget passed last week.

At a State House news conference, Republican leaders criticized the $11.3 billion budget that includes baseline government spending for the next two years and fills gaps for MaineCare funding in the current budget. Republican lawmakers have also filed paperwork with the Maine Department of the Secretary of State to try and initiate a people’s veto of the budget.

Democrats reiterated their support for the budget as a move to ensure government stability, but said they are open to working with Republicans as the next phase of work begins.

“We passed the first one because we needed our communities to have the stability to know what’s going to be coming for the next two years for (education) funding and revenue sharing, but now we really need to make sure we’re having intense conversations about what we need to move Maine forward,” said Senate President Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick.

Lawmakers are now moving to a second phase of budget work that will address new initiatives and policies for the next two years.

Tuesday was the first day of a special legislative session that Gov. Janet Mills called last week after the first part of the budget was approved. Democrats moved to adjourn the regular session in order to speed up the timeline for the budget to take effect since it passed by a simple majority.

Had the Legislature approved the budget with a bipartisan, two-thirds majority, the bill could have gone into effect immediately rather than in 90 days.

WHAT WILL BE IN NEXT BILL?

That move was criticized by Republicans Tuesday as tensions lingered over a budget compromise that fell apart at the last minute and Democrats ultimately moving to pass a baseline budget along party lines.

“This budget is reckless, dishonest and unbalanced,” House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, said during the Republicans news conference.

Rep. John “Jack” E. Ducharme III, R-Madison, looks up at the vote tally board in the corner Tuesday in the Maine State House. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Republicans have said the budget is not balanced because it does not include more than $100 million in anticipated MaineCare cost increases in fiscal year 2027. Democrats, however, have said the budget includes a baseline amount for MaineCare in both years of the coming biennium and that it’s typical for adjustments to be made after budgets are passed.

“The program continues to change,” said Rep. Drew Gattine, D-Westbrook, House chair of the Legislature’s appropriations committee. “We’re actually starting to see enrollments come down. We know there will possibly be significant changes coming from Washington. We thought it was a better strategy to let those things evolve and to take up the second year of the additional money MaineCare might need in this next bill we’re doing.”

Gattine said there is about $127 million in the state’s general fund to be allocated in the next budget bill, though that could fluctuate based on what specific proposals are taken up.

Democrats said last week that the budget that was passed did not include any of the tax increases or cuts originally proposed by Mills, including an increase in the cigarette tax from $2 per pack to $3 per pack, and a proposal to limit General Assistance housing support to three months per year.

Republicans on Tuesday said they are certain new tax increases will be included in the next budget proposal, none of which they plan to support. “We do not support tax increases,” Faulkingham said. “The state has more revenue than it has ever had by far, and we don’t need to increase taxes.”

Republicans also renewed pushes Tuesday for reforms to MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program, and General Assistance, and called for accountability over the state’s education system.

Democrats are concerned about costs, too, Daughtry said, but want to be able to preserve access to health care. “I’m not looking for the same old playbook with the same old initiatives,” she said when asked about MaineCare reforms Tuesday. “I’m excited to hear about new ideas and what will work for Maine, not something out of Project 2025 or a failed idea from Georgia.”

BUDGET TENSIONS STILL FELT

Republicans on Tuesday filed paperwork with the secretary of state’s office seeking to initiate a people’s veto of the budget passed last week. Rep. Gary Drinkwater, R-Milford, is listed as the applicant on the paperwork, which was also signed by Assistant House Minority Leader Katrina Smith, R-Palermo, Rep. Mike Soboleski, R-Phillips, Rep. Kimberly Haggan, R-Hampden, and Sen. David Haggan, R-Hampden.

Drinkwater said the effort is being made in response to concerns about the tax increases that may be proposed in the next phase of budget work, as well as Republicans being “shut out of the budget process.”

“We have heard from so many people who are against tax increases, and we have also come to understand that if you look at that budget, it’s not balanced,” he said.

The applicants will have until 5 p.m. on June 18 to submit at least 67,682 signatures from Maine voters to the secretary of state’s office in order to get a proposal for a veto on a statewide ballot.

Senate Assistant Majority Leader Sen. Jill Duson, D-Portland, stands in the aisle delivering a message to the House of Representatives that the Senate has convened Tuesday on the first day of the first special session of the 132nd Legislature. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

At the Republican news conference, Assistant Senate Minority Leader Matthew Harrington, R-Sanford, said he does not foresee lawmakers getting two-thirds bipartisan support on the next budget proposal. “I have a hard time thinking we could get to two-thirds when (Democrats) have shown a clear aversion to cutting spending and there’s … not a single vote up here for raising taxes,” he said.

Daughtry said she is “very, very committed” to trying to get two-thirds, noting that while the Senate was unable to pass a compromise bill that previously came up earlier this year for a supplemental budget, that bill passed with two-thirds in the House.

“I’m issuing the same challenge to my fellow leaders and colleagues to try and find that common ground, because I know we all care about this state,” Daughtry said.

She said any ideas that are to be taken up should have robust public debate and committee work. “Having things slapped into a budget as floor amendments is not a fair way for Mainers to have a budget sent to them,” she said.

ANOTHER EFFORT TO REMOVE CENSURE

Republicans on Tuesday also attempted again to restore voting and speaking privileges for Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, who was censured last month for using photos of a high school student in a Facebook post to criticize Maine’s policy on transgender athletes.

Republicans attempted to remove the censure last week but failed, and tried again Tuesday on a motion from Rep. Shelley Rudnicki, R-Fairfield. The effort again failed in a 68-76 vote.

“I think the people of her district are really entitled to be able to have a representative who is voting on their behalf and I am not seeing that,” said Rep. Marygrace Cimino, R-Bridgton. “So my question is when does this end? When will she be able to vote?”

House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, said Libby’s voting and speaking privileges will be restored when the House decides to do so, or if Libby issues an apology, something she has previously said she does not plan to do.

Libby did not respond to a voicemail or text message Tuesday asking if she will change her mind and apologize. She has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the censure on grounds it violates her First Amendment rights and the rights of her constituents to be represented.

In a written statement Wednesday morning, Libby said she “will not apologize for speaking the truth.”

Rudnicki also filed an order to censure Fecteau, alleging that he violated two rules governing how the House takes up and dispenses its business.