Capitol Ticker

Morning Briefing: E-veto, taxing carve-outs, powdered GMO & maniacal laugh

Angie Muhs Only — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:12:52 GMT

Veto watch: Republican lawmakers will be on the hot seat once again this week when the Democratic-led Legislature attempts to override Gov. Paul LePage's sixth veto of the session.

The governor on Friday vetoed L.D. 319, an e-fairness bill that directs Maine Revenue Services to determine if the state conforms with an agreement among other states seeking to tax online commerce.

The governor supports e-fairness legislation. In May he issued a press statement backing the e-fairness bill currently making its way through the U.S. Senate. However, in his veto message of L.D. 319, a bill by Democratic House leader Rep. Seth Berry, of Bowdoinham, LePage wrote that state lawmakers should get behind the federal legislation.

L.D. 319 had just one roll call vote. It passed 137-0 in the House. Other votes went under the hammer, meaning that both chambers approved unanimously.

The override vote could come up as early as Tuesday in the House.

Flipped: Interesting rhetorical maneuver by the Maine Democratic Party on the dust-up over Democratic leaders' plan to link Medicaid expansion with Gov. Paul LePage's plan to repay $186 million that the state owes its hospitals.

Early in the session Democratic lawmakers were getting pounded by LePage and Republicans for stalling the governor's proposal. It appeared to be an effective attack, at least until Democrats unveiled a counterproposal.

Now it appears Democrats are attempting to turn the tables on LePage and Republicans, who are opposing the Medicaid-debt payback combo.

Last week Maine Democratic Party Chairman Ben Grant claimed it was LePage and Republicans who didn't want to pay Maine's hospitals.

"... Now that Democrats have put together a plan that not only pays the hospitals but saves them hundreds of millions of dollars in the long run, (LePage's) ready to say 'No,' " Grant said. "This is exactly the kind of cynical, petulant behavior we’ve come to expect from LePage. I can’t wait to hear how he explains to hospital CEOs how he only cares about their bottom line when he can score political points at the same time."

No carve-outs: Rep. Gary Knight, R-Livermore Falls, the lead sponsor of the sweeping tax overhaul proposal backed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, on Friday shed a little light about his decision to vote against L.D. 1088, the 2009 tax reform bill despite originally supporting the measure.

Knight, one of three Republican co-sponsors of L.D. 1088, told the Taxation Committee that the new proposal was designed to avoid the mistakes of 2009 when the bill was altered to preserve sales tax exemptions for some services, but not others. Knight said the "carve-outs" in 2009 were ultimately what prompted him to oppose the measure sponsored by former Democratic Rep. John Piotti of Winterport.

"(Piotti) told me that the bill was going to be changed, that it wasn't going to tax anyone who would be upset," Knight said. "That's when I bailed on the plan."

Of course, plenty of people were ticked off by the 2009 plan, which was overturned by voters in 2010. The new plan has many enemies. As South Portland resident Sarah Hinckley noted in a recent letter to the Portland Press Herald, "each legislator can probably find one of her pet oxen getting gored by the proposal."

At least one ox won't be gored in the proposal: heating fuels. Knight told the Taxation Committee Friday that the group never intended to apply sales taxes to heating oil.

GMO update: The Legislature's Agriculture Committee last week approved a bill that would require food producers and retailers to label products that contain genetically engineered ingredients, but attempts to change the legislation, L.D. 718, continue.

Last week the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association, which is advocating for the bill, alerted supporters that the group representing the baby food industry was hoping to amend the proposal to exempt its products from the proposal.

According to MOFGA, the Infant Formula Council of America had drafted an amendment containing the exemption. The amendment is not yet included in the bill and it appears unlikely that the sponsor of L.D. 718, Rep. Lance Harvell, R-Farmington, will go along with such an exemption.

"I cannot understand why, of all things, baby formula should be exempt from GMO labeling,” Havell told MOFGA.

The bill is scheduled for final language review by the committee on Tuesday.

No 'C' in PBS: When the Department of Education announced its letter grades, King Middle School in Portland received a 'C.'

The school was recently featured on PBS News Hour for it's science-heavy curriculum. Watch the segment here.

Non-political item: OK, so Boston Bruins play-by-play man Jack Edwards is getting a lot of attention for his fabulous "kill the beast" call. But lest anyone think that was Edwards' best moment – or that Edwards is sane – I present readers with this:

Maine Morning Briefing 5.10.13: Tax reform, Michaud's party junk food & bad bands

Angie Muhs Only — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:20:13 GMT

Addendum: A couple of footnotes to Friday's story on the tax reform bill that will have a public hearing in the Taxation Committee.

One criticism of the plan that's not included in Press Herald breakdown is that many are questioning whether it's possible to determine the effects of exporting the tax burden from residents to non-residents. Sen. Dick Woodbury, the plan's architect, believes the proposal does this, but he'll be challenged to prove it.

Meg Gray Wiehe, state tax policy director for the Washington D.C.-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, is skeptical.

"It’s a little nonsensical that you could do this kind of massive reform in a way that magically every resident in Maine gets a tax cut and non-residents are paying more," she said. "I don’t see how you pull that piece off."

Also, the story devotes a lot of space to the sales tax exemptions that the bill's proponents plan to use help pay for the income tax cut.

Exemptions are an interesting topic, specifically how states measure their worth. As Wiehe notes, some exemptions have been added to sales tax laws, while others have been there since a sales tax was implemented.

Questions about the value of exemptions -- and the lost revenue -- have prompted some states to create policies that prompt a legislative review. California, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Louisiana, Oregon, New Jersey and Wisconsin have done this, however, the review programs have been criticized for being underfunded.

Coincidentally, Sen. Emily Cain, D-Orono, has a bill that would give the Legislature jurisdiction over the tax expenditure process and review exemptions in odd-numbered years.

Finally, below is a Google document I created for the story and the projected revenue loss in the next biennium according to Maine Revenue Services.

Potential Sales Exemptions Eliminated in Tax Reform Bill

Wrong party: U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, attended a campaign fundraiser on Thursday.

No, not a gubernatorial campaign fundraiser.

According to an invitation obtained by the Sunlight Foundation Political Party Time site, Michaud attended a fundraiser for his congressional campaign committee on Wednesday. The Lobster Bake at the Credit Union House in Washington, D.C. is an annual event, but that may not ease the anxiety among Democrats who hope Michaud will run for governor in 2014.

According to Party Time, Michaud has attended two fundraisers this year, compared to the six he attended in 2011 through the same period. Lots of caveats in that sample because it may not fully capture the number of fundraisers a candidate has attended. Party Time relies on people to anonymously turn in the fundraiser invitations.

Junked: Democrats on the Health and Human Services Committee on Thursday voted against a bill that could allow the state to prohibit food stamp recipients from buying soft drinks and junk food.

The bipartisan proposal was backed by Gov. Paul LePage. Proponents argued that the taxpayer-funded Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program shouldn't be used to purchase foods that could lead to obesity and health problems.

The 8-5 committee vote to defeat the bill means it will still likely come up for debate when the Senate and House take floor votes on the measure.

Non-political item: Rolling Stone conducted a readers' poll of the 10 worst bands of the 1990s. Happy to say that I agree with nearly all of the results, but sad to say that I actually paid to listen to at least seven of them when they were popular.

No, not Ace of Base. And definitely not Hanson.

Morning Briefing: Dem demands, GMO limbo, taxes & take a powder!

Angie Muhs Only — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:07:05 GMT

Medicaid melee: With the thumbs-up from their progressive allies, Democratic legislative leaders reiterated Monday their pitch to tie paying back Maine's hospitals with the expansion of low-income health insurance.

Democratic leaders issued a press statement calling on LePage "to stop making excuses for denying health care to thousands of Maine people."

"Governor LePage continues to play politics with health care for 70,000 Maine people," said House Speaker Mark Eves, D-North Berwick.

Said Senate President Justin Alfond, D-Portland: "We’ve heard one excuse after another from this governor. If he is serious about lowering our medical costs and addressing our hospital debt in our state, he should accept federal health care dollars now. It is the morally and fiscally right thing to do."

The statement follows LePage's weekly radio address during which the governor hammered Democrats for not voting on his plan to repay $484 million in backlogged Medicaid reimbursement payments to Maine's 39 hospitals.

The apparent entrenchment over Medicaid expansion aligns with battles in other states.

That includes Florida where Republican Gov. Rick Scott agreed to expand Medicaid, yet Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature are still duking it out. According to a story in Governing, Democratic legislators have taken to filibustering Republican attempts to defeat the expansion bill before it reaches Scott's desk.

And it looks like Florida Democrats have no problem dying on the hill for Medicaid. According to the story, Democratic Rep. Jim Waldman was asked if stalling the Republican vote could mean that other Democratic bills will falter before the end of the session.

Waldman said the risk was worth it.

“We could extend medical coverage to 1.2 million people. We could save 5,700 lives per year,” he said. “So the loss of legislation or perks for some of our friends, we compare that with the saving of lives. It’s a no-brainer. It’s a non-decision.”

GMO limbo: Lawmakers on the Agriculture Committee last week delayed a work session on the bill that would require food retailers to label products containing genetically modified organisms.

It's not yet clear why the bill wasn't worked last week, but lawmakers are still awaiting an opinion from Democratic Attorney General Janet Mills about whether the proposal would violate the constitutional provision governing interstate commerce.

Opponents of the bill, including agribusiness giant Monsanto, have said the bill is unconstitutional and have threatened to sue the state if the bill is enacted. Similar threats have been made in other states considering GMO-labeling legislation, including Vermont and Hawaii.

In March the Hawaiian Senate helped spike a GMO labeling bill. According to news reports, an opinion by Democratic AG David Louie that a similar bill was unconstitutional factored in the decision.

Feeling the heat: Now that U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, has declared that she isn't running for governor in 2014, all eyes are on U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine.

Exhibit A: The domain watch, displayed here by the blog The State of Maine:

Has @repmikemichaud made a decision on the Governor's race or did a domain squatter finally grab site? #mepolitics twitter.com/TheStateMaine/…
— The State of Maine (@TheStateMaine) May 6, 2013

Fire reax: Gov. Paul LePage visited Lewiston Tuesday, a response to a spate of arsons in abandoned buildings.

LePage has deep roots in Lewiston, the city where he was raised and where he spent some time on the streets after fleeing his abusive father.

Michaud won't be in Lewiston, but his press office issued a statement Monday about the fires, saying the congressman stood ready to assist recovery efforts.

DGA every day: Spotted on Portland Press Herald website, an ad from the Democratic Governors Association:

Institutional memory: There's been a lot of chatter among Republicans about Democratic leaders' decision to suspend the newspaper hearing notice requirement for the remainder of the committee work this session.

Actually, chatter may be understating it.

The Maine Heritage Policy Center and the Maine Republican Party last week issued statements blasting the Democrats secrecy. MHPC, a conservative advocacy group, also ripped the news media for not reporting it.

A quick review of legislative records shows that suspending the newspaper hearing notice happens. A lot. The 125th Legislature, the 124th, 123rd, 122nd, 121st, 120th .... you get the point.

Each one suspended the hearing notice requirement at one point or another.

Precedent doesn't make the practice ideal from a transparency perspective, especially when considering that the legislative website didn't track the hearings as closely as it does now.

E-fairness: Todd Gabe, an economics professor at the University of Maine, has produced some estimates showing how much money the state is losing in online sales taxes. Gabe's study was commissioned by the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, which is supporting so-called e-fairness legislation.

According to Gabe's report:

* Maine had an estimated $561.1 million in online sales in 2011.

* E-commerce sales had the potential to generate between $17.8 million and $28.1 million in state taxes.

* Collecting sales taxes from online purchases would have increased retail sales in Maine by an estimated $62.2 million and $98.2 million in 2011.

Non-political item: Jim Romenesko got his hands on a hilarious internal memo from the Wall Street Journal about reporters appearing on video. Hilarious, I suppose, if you're not one of the greasy, mustard-stained reporters targeted by the memo.

Snip:

"People are watching – and they are watching you. All of us appearing on-air should take care to present ourselves in the best light possible, and that includes physical appearance. As many of our regular guests already know, neat and professional dress, combed hair and a quick visit to our resident makeup artist on the 6th floor is encouraged before each appearance for both men and women – even for just a quick dash of powder. You want the spotlight focused on your stellar journalism – not shining off your forehead."

Shorter: Clean-up, slobs!