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| 📷 State Sen. Eric Brakey greets voters at the polls in Lewiston while running for Maine's 2nd Congressional District on July 14, 2020. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett) |
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🇺🇦 Most Republicans in the Maine Senate back a Ukraine resolution.
◉ After 53 Republicans in the Maine House of Representatives opposed a resolution on Tuesday backing Ukraine in its war with Russia, only four of the 12 caucus members voting in the upper chamber on Thursday voted against it.
◉ Those opponents were Sens. Eric Brakey of Auburn, Matt Pouliot of Augusta, Peter Lyford of Eddington and Stacey Guerin of Glenburn. The top Republicans in the chamber voted against it, while House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham of Winter Harbor led opposition to it earlier in the week.
◉ Supporters of the resolution have centered their arguments on the U.S. role of ensuring democracies persist across the world. Arguments from Republicans ranged from what they called a misplaced focus on global issues and criticism of Ukrainian leadership. Brakey, a libertarian-leaning Republican who has run twice for Congress, gave an 18-minute floor speech savaging the measure.
◉ "This resolution on the war in Ukraine is riddled with half-truths, historical omissions and dangerous conclusion that urge our nation down the path towards a potential global nuclear war, the likes of which no one alive or dead on this earth has ever seen and one that humanity will never experience twice," Brakey said.
🧾 Legislative committees are quickly putting budget work together.
◉ This week, eight of the Legislature's 18 core committees submitted so-called report backs" on Gov. Janet Mills' two-year spending plan. These sets of recommendations on budget items are a key part of the budget process, triggering reviews and then votes from the appropriations committee.
◉ Mills and lawmakers have been saying they want a budget to pass with two-thirds majorities. But Democrats have until the end of the month to advance a majority-only budget as they did in 2021, and committees are making headway. Watch the speed of these reports for signs of their posture. |
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What we're reading
🚬 Maine isn't checking for underage marijuana sales like it does for alcohol.
📣 Bangor urges lawmakers to act on a sludge crisis.
🛍️ The state granted a $6 million tax abatement to an Ellsworth mall.
🤝 A local developer will buy the embattled Presque Isle mall.
💰 Lawmakers will be urged by a federal panel to increase indigent defense funding, the Maine Monitor reported.
🤔 The state is struggling to study short-term rentals in unorganized territories, Maine Public reported. |
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