AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) The Maine Legislature will vote later this week on a bipartisan $8.5 billion budget proposals that includes $300 for most workers and reaches the goal of boosting the state’s share of K-12 public education costs to 55%.
The Legislature’s appropriations committee announced the bipartisan agreement Sunday evening. The full Legislature is expected to vote on Wednesday, the last day of the fiscal year.
Rep. Sawin Millett, R-Waterford, said the one-time $300 hazard pay bonus is intended to acknowledge Mainers who worked during “stressful circumstances” and whose efforts helped “the economy afloat.” It would go to Mainers who filed a W-2 form last year and earned no more than $75,000, or $150,000 for joint filers.
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said the budget makes “important, meaningful, and historic progress for Maine people.”
“I applaud the members of the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee for their hard work in reaching this unanimous, bipartisan agreement,” the governor said in a statement.
The Democratic-controlled Legislature already approved a bare-bones budget earlier in the session. But the new budget revision reflects additional federal aid and better-than-expected revenue projections.
The extra funding allowed negotiators to restore municipal revenue sharing, expand the property tax fairness credit, strengthen the homestead exemption program and add $45 million to the school renovation fund. It also will expand access to preventative dental care to more than 200,000 Mainers.
The boost in the state’s share of K-12 funding to 55% has been a goal since Maine voters adopted the benchmark in a 2004 referendum.
The proposal achieves those goals while adding at least $60 million to the state’s rainy day fund, bringing the total to $328 million.
“We have gone through each line item of the budget carefully and the votes we took today reflect a strong, bipartisan agreement. That’s what Maine people want to see: bipartisan efforts to shape Maine’s recovery from COVID-19,” said Rep. Theresa Pierce, House chairwoman of the committee.
The committee also voted to move forward with Mills’ proposed transportation bonds worth $100 million.
However two other bond proposals related to conservation and forestry were scrapped in favor of spending $40 million over 10 years toward the Land for Maine’s Future conservation program.
