The numbers point to a simple fact: Maine’s “rainy day” fund currently has plenty of money if the state needs help in a financial emergency.

But whether to use what is officially called the Maine Budget Stabilization Fund is not so straightforward. The fund has often proven to be a source of tension in Augusta, and it’s currently at the center of an intraparty squabble between Gov. Janet Mills and legislative Democrats, who have controlled the State House for all eight years of her tenure.

After resisting past calls from members of her party to utilize it, Mills wants to tap into the rainy day fund by using about $219 million to pay for $300 “affordability checks” that would go to roughly 725,000 Mainers who meet certain income limits. Plus, she wants to pull another $100 million to help build more affordable housing, improve school bus safety and shore up the state’s public defender system.

Mills’ willingness to tap into the fund comes amid her U.S. Senate primary race against progressive Graham Platner.

Democratic lawmakers aren’t so sure about her proposals, with some arguing for more targeted aid instead of $300 checks. Progressives are also pushing Mills to sign a trio of measures that would increase taxes on the wealthy and on corporations in order to bolster education and agriculture programs. The governor has previously clashed with members of her party over those ideas, which Platner supports.

The emergency fund is primarily meant to cover General Fund shortfalls while shielding the state amid volatile revenue changes. It can also cover certain line-of-duty death benefits for police and firefighters. The fund reached its statutory maximum of $1.03 billion last year.

Both Mills and former Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican who was in charge from 2011 to 2019, saw the rainy day account mostly grow on their watches after the Great Recession decimated the fund near the end of former Gov. John Baldacci’s tenure.

As lawmakers near the end of their last session of Mills’ term, it’s worth zooming out on the history of the rainy day fund. Here’s a quick rundown of how it has changed under the last two governors.

2010 – 2018: Dips and swings, LePage versus Dems.

The rainy day fund was at a perilous low point just before LePage moved into the Blaine House. It was 2009, and state officials were still reeling from the Great Recession that saw the collapse of the American housing market. Revenues and budgets shrunk at the municipal and state levels, and the rainy day fund fell to about $195,000, according to state records.

It would bounce back to about $25 million in 2010, and for the next several years, LePage largely pushed to grow the fund — with a few exceptions. It dipped from about $71 million in 2011 to just under $45 million in 2012 as LePage tapped into it to offset a revenue shortfall.

Republicans controlled the Legislature in 2011 and 2012, Democrats took both chambers in 2013 and 2014 and then the parties split control of Augusta for the rest of LePage’s time in office.

By 2018, near the end of LePage’s tenure, the rainy day fund exceeded $200 million. The Republican moved to grow it while he pushed income tax cuts. For example, he said in 2016 he wanted to protect the state from a future economic downturn when proposing to sock away $73 million in additional surplus revenue.

Like Mills, LePage got a chilly response from lawmakers on both sides who felt the surplus money could instead go to more immediate needs.

2019 – 2026: Mills builds it through the pandemic while frustrating progressives

Mills has had a Democratic-controlled Legislature her entire time in the Blaine House, but that has not translated to agreement over the rainy day fund.

The fund continued to grow during the LePage-to-Mills transition, ballooning from around $237 million in 2019 to nearly $900 million in 2022. It maxed out at $1.03 billion last year. (The legal maximum for the fund is 18% of total General Fund revenues from the prior state fiscal year.)

The COVID-19 pandemic walloped the global economy in 2020, but Mills grew the rainy day fund instead of draining it like Republicans claimed she would. Maine navigated the pandemic with spending cuts, extra money from overperforming state liquor contracts and a crucial boost of nearly $9 billion in federal aid.

The two-year state budget has grown under Mills from nearly $8 billion in 2019 to her most recent budget proposal of about $11.9 billion.

Mills has advised lawmakers to exercise fiscal restraint when unveiling her budget plans. Both progressives and conservatives have chided her for that rhetoric amid the growing budgets and maxed-out rainy day fund. A particular flashpoint came when she refused to sign nearly three dozen bills at the end of the 2024 legislative session. At the time, she cited procedural issues and flattening revenue projections while arguing the budget would reach a “breaking point.”

Now, Mills faces one more showdown with progressives over potential tax hikes for residents who earn at least $1 million and corporations that make at least $3.5 million. The new revenue would bolster state coffers amid reduced revenue projections. Progressives, including Platner, want the hikes to fund education and agriculture programs, but Mills is a question mark.

If lawmakers approve Mills’ plan to use the rainy day fund to pay for her proposals, including the $300 “affordability checks,” it would mark the first time Mills has dipped into the fund, and it would take out a sizable chunk by reducing the fund by about a third.