Lawmakers had little choice on revenue sharing vote

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer
    Trying to figure out what the Maine Legislature is doing from one day to the next is like playing Whack-A-Mole. Just when you think the critter disappears into the ground, it pops up from another crevice.

    Because of the local interest in the revenue sharing bill, we’ve tracked the progress of the legislation through both chambers to Gov. Paul LePage’s desk. He doesn’t like the bill and may veto it. On the other hand, he may not even bother since it passed with such an overwhelming margin — 114-21 in the House and 33-2 in the Senate.
    But it wasn’t easy. House Republicans introduced five amendments to the bill, all of which went down in flames on a party-line vote.
    However, LePage has another ace in the hole. He’s threatened not to release up to $100 million in transportation infrastructure bonds, even though the measure was passed by voters last November.
    Can he do it legally? Opinions vary, but just the threat of holding back funds to improve our pothole-riddled roads is risky, at best.
    But the path toward approval of the revenue sharing reprieve was interesting, to say the least. Here’s the Reader’s Digest version.
    Revenue sharing has been on the administration’s hit list for quite a while, but lawmakers seemed to take notice when the Maine Municipal Association warned local governments about serious cuts that were scheduled to go into effect in 2015.
    So a bill (LD 1762) was introduced to restore the $40 million in projected cuts. While some Republicans agreed that the cuts could put a crimp on many municipal budgets, they questioned where the money would come from.
    The bill took $21 million from the state’s so-called rainy day fund, $4 million from a fund designed to accumulate budget surplus with the goal of reducing state income taxes and $15 million from unappropriated new revenue.
    It was the last part that caused the most heartburn. How do you fund something based on “new revenue” if you can’t balance the current budget? Should you raid the rainy-day fund? And how can you accurately project future revenue when the economy is still in the trash bin?
    On the other hand, most municipalities have just about tightened their belts to the last loop. Revenue sharing is just what the term means. Local governments perform many services for the state, so they feel that they’re justified in being reimbursed for their work.
    So legislators took the path of least resistance. Even staunch conservatives like Paul Davis, Ray Wallace and Doug Thomas bit the bullet and voted in favor of LD 1762.
    Pete Johnson of Greenville, who’s termed out this year, voted against it.
    So the ball is in the governor’s end of the court. Maybe cooler heads will prevail and he’ll simply let it become law without his signature.
    It wasn’t a perfect bill by any means. But in the view of most lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, it was clearly the lesser of two evils.
    Mike Lange is a staff writer with the Piscataquis Observer. His opinions are his own and don’t necessarily reflect those of this newspaper.