The Maine Senate reconvened on Thursday, May 31 to vote on the confirmation of a number of appointments made by Governor LePage. After receiving unanimous approval from the committees of jurisdiction, the Senate voted unanimously on the reappointment of Gregory Campbell of Hampden as a District Court Judge and the appointment of Christine Foster of Portland as an Active Retired Judge of the District Court, Matthew G. Tice, Esq. of Scarborough as a District Court Judge and John-Paul E. Cote of China as the next Chief of the Maine State Police.

Congratulations again to each nominee on their appointment and thank you for your service to our state. The unanimous votes show just how dedicated and qualified each of them is.

I remain hopeful that the full legislature will return to Augusta for a special session before the end of June to finally address the important work that was left unfinished when we adjourned in April. I have always been a strong advocate of working across the aisle whenever possible, especially on matters of utmost importance to my constituents.

It is past time that we cast our differences aside to pass a number of these remaining bills that qualify as basic governance. Failure to do so will harm some of our most vulnerable residents and would be unacceptable.

Over the past few weeks, the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee resumed negotiations and they have reached an agreement on at least three of the outstanding bills before us. In my opinion, they are three of the most important bills left to address.

The first bill provides additional funding to support direct care workers who care for our community members with intellectual disabilities or autism. These people are among our most vulnerable and without this funding, their care would be in serious jeopardy.

The second bill increases reimbursement rates for home-based and community-based services provided to our elderly residents. Many nursing homes around Maine are in dire straits and without this funding, they will have to close their doors.

The third bill will provide needed funding to our county jails. Without this funding, county jails won’t have adequate resources to ensure public safety and property tax payers would likely have to make up the difference.

While it’s encouraging that these three bills have received unanimous support from the committee, they are a sampling of what was left unfinished in April. There are a number of other important bills that have strong bipartisan support, but are being held back because of partisan gridlock. Failure to move these bills, along with a number of other basic governance bills, would have far-reaching implications to our infrastructure, our schools and Maine taxpayers.

But I am confident that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle recognize the gravity of the situation and I am hopeful that we will return to business before the end of this month (which is the end of the state’s fiscal year).

In other news, the Primary Election is next Tuesday. In addition to deciding our candidates for federal and state offices, voters will be presented with yet another opportunity to vote on ranked-choice voting with Question 1, which asks, “Do you want to reject the parts of a new law that would delay the use of ranked-choice voting in the election of candidates for any state or federal office until 2022, and then retain the method only if the constitution is amended by December 1, 2021, to allow ranked-choice voting for candidates in state elections?”

Voting “No” on the People’s Veto keeps the Maine Legislature’s bipartisan law in place that puts ranked-choice voting on hold until the Maine Constitution is amended to make this form of voting legal for all races, with a sunset in 2022. By 2022, if this law is not yet compliant with the Maine Constitution, it would be eliminated. 

Voting “Yes” keeps ranked-choice voting in place for June primary elections and federal races only in the November election.

I hope to see you at Boothbay Harbor Windjammer Days later this month. I plan to participate in the Street Parade on Wed, June 27 at 4 p.m.