Douglas Rooks has been a Maine editor, columnist and reporter for 40 years. He welcomes comment at [email protected].

Maine’s 132nd Legislature is not quite done — it could return to consider vetoes Gov. Janet Mills may issue — but its body of work is complete. There were some surprises, the major one being the decision to add 2% to the top income tax rate, reversing a policy of going only the other way for the past four decades.

Since Mills adamantly opposed any tax increases during her first seven years as governor, this one could have happened only in 2026’s unique political circumstances. Mills is attempting to follow in the footsteps of Angus King, Ed Muskie and a number of earlier Republican governors in using the office as a launch pad for a U.S. Senate bid — and having an unexpectedly tough time of it.

Mills’ sign-off on the “millionaire’s tax”  — a major priority for progressive Democrats — came at a price, the $300 “affordability” checks Mills insists on sending out, reprising the Biden-era pandemic checks in which she enthusiastically participated.

For those opposed to election-year gimmicks, it was a tough pill to swallow.

It’s hard, in particular, to raid the rainy day fund reserved for “emergencies” when the economy is fine, tax receipts are up and inflation isn’t a problem any state can make a dent in. Nonetheless, the checks are a one-off and the millionaire’s tax is a long-term change in direction, so the deal makes sense.

In other respects, the election-year, end-of-a-governorship session ploughed little new ground, and where it did the results weren’t always fortunate.

The Legislature considered ways to boost the state’s flagging public schools, and decided that the solution was to pump still more cash into operating budgets. Officially, the “reform” bill, LD 2226, which adjusted the Essential Programs and Services distribution formula, was about “equity,” allocating more to districts with more low-income students.

But one little detail largely escaped notice. Without any change in overall funding, any district receiving more aid would mean another district receives less — hardly a likely way to achieve majority support for any bill, much less the school aid that’s the budget’s single biggest spending line.

So how is it possible that 243 of Maine’s 277 school districts — an incredible number for a state of Maine’s size — nonetheless come out ahead? The answer is that the bill boosts the state’s mammoth $1.5 billion annual commitment by another $44 million, essentially redefining what 55% of school spending means.

Meanwhile, the Legislature confronted the school construction program crisis — its own study commission found an $11 billion backlog for new schools and renovations — and did exactly nothing. Once again, among dozens of districts applying for state building aid, a mere handful will be funded, and even those will have to wait up to seven years to open a new building.

The crunch is so severe some districts proposed bonds on their own, but most have been rejected, in large part due to the eye-popping property tax increases that would result.

The districts most in need of state assistance are least likely to pass local bonds; school buildings six decades old are simply patched up one more time. Many are in depressed rural areas, but not all, with Portland High School an obvious example. It’s seriously obsolete but apparently not replaceable.

One cannot predict that a renewed wave of school building would immediately improve achievement and public satisfaction, but it’s safe to say pumping up operating budgets yet again has almost zero chance of success. Starving infrastructure needs and padding operating budgets is bad educational policy and worse fiscal policy.

As predicted here, lawmakers again produced no bond issues for voters to consider in November. This time-honored way of investing in Maine’s future has all but disappeared.

Democrats produced their own $207.5 million bond package, and blame Republicans for not supplying votes necessary to achieve two-thirds. But it’s more complicated, and more depressing, than that.

Democrats under Mills gave up seeking the traditional two-thirds budget votes and instead crafted their own biennial and supplemental budgets. Republicans have repaid the favor by obstruction. Maine long resisted the national march to hyperpartisanship in Washington and many states, but no more.

Without a role, House Republicans — despite having near parity in numbers, and a relatively moderate leader — have been reduced to proposing symbolic bills, including abortion restrictions and across-the-board tax cuts that have no chance of passage but appeal to the party’s base.

There’s no obvious road away from this cliff except by the voters’ direction. With a new governor and numerous first-time legislators taking office in 2027, there’s a possibility of change. That’s what we should be asking candidates about.