Gov. Mills criticizes last minute funding changes to storm relief bill
AUGUSTA (WGME) – House Democrats have voted to remove last-minute additions to the Governor's storm relief bill Tuesday.
This comes after the senate passed a bipartisan amendment to add millions in non-storm related funding to the bill Monday.
But the House reversed Course after criticism from Governor Janet Mills.
In her original bill, Mills proposed taking $50 million from the state’s “rainy day fund” to provide one-time relief for damages from the December and January storms. That figure was later changed to $60 million.
But on Monday, the Senate voted to nearly double that figure. The bipartisan amendment added millions in funding to support nursing homes, mental health services, and other issues unrelated to storm damage.
"Disaster relief is not the only crisis that we are facing," said Sen. Rick Bennett (R-Oxford). "We’ve known in this building for a long time that we have a crisis in long-term care. We know that we have a crisis in mental health. And we really need to do a better job attending to those."
In a press release. Senate Republicans estimate the additions and storm relief combined would have totaled about $120 million, which they planned to take from the state's "rainy day fund" as well as the state's budget surplus.
But the Governor's office disagreed, claiming the changes would create a $150 million hole in the state budget.
In a statement the Commissioner of Financial Services Kirsten Figueroa wrote, in part, "I can guarantee you this: if this amendment were to pass, it would immediately sink the state budget. This is not good governing.”
But Bennett said it's the governor's office that did the math wrong.
"Her comments were completely out of line and she should know better," said Bennett.
Tuesday night's vote on the House floor removed the additional provisions, sending the bill back to the senate as it was before, a $60 million storm relief fund. The House also voted to amend the bill to remove the "emergency clause." That means the bill no longer needs a two-thirds supermajority vote to pass.