After the Legislature’s Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee voted out along party lines legislation to implement the Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan, Governor Janet Mills issued a statement urging lawmakers to continue working to achieve the 2/3 bipartisan support necessary to implement the plan and its critical investments immediately.
Although the parties agreed on 95 percent of the bill, the vote was along party lines, likely previewing a similar partisan vote on the floor of both the House and Senate. Without two-thirds vote from the Legislature, this bill loses its emergency nature and, as a result, would not take effect for ninety days, postponing the investment of millions of dollars.
Governor Janet Mills in her statement asks “both Democrats and Republicans to continue working, to compromise, and to reach consensus so that this bill may reach my desk with two thirds support and we can put its critical investments to work for Maine people today – not three months from now. Our state, our people, and our economy depend on immediate action. The work of finding common ground, of negotiating divergent and strongly held viewpoints, of giving on some priorities to achieve others is often painstaking and fraught with difficulty and disappointment because nobody wins everything, and everybody loses something – but when both parties are acting in good faith, it is how good governance is done.”
