Gov. Paul LePage urged lawmakers on Thursday to avert a government shutdown on Independence Day weekend by passing a proposal offered by House Republicans.
The Republican governor is backing down from his demand for a two-year budget under $7 billion as the midnight June 30 deadline to enact a budget nears.
House Republican Leader Ken Fredette said the $7.055 billion budget proposal includes a one-time $125 million for education, funded by accepting proposed spending cuts and reaching into projected revenues.
Democratic House Speaker Sara Gideon said there’s still a big gap between the caucuses but she’s optimistic about the prospects for a budget deal.
“I’m confident we’ll be able to get closer together,” she said Thursday.
The House Republicans’ proposal includes ideas backed by LePage and long unpopular with Democrats, including a $5 million cut to an assistance program for asylum seekers.
The weeks-long impasse over a budget deal comes when the state is seeing strong revenues. The disagreement remains over education funding — how much to provide and where it should come from.
Fredette said his caucus is proposing to repeal the voter-approved 3 percent surtax on high earners estimated to provide $300 million for schools.
Democrats are open to nixing the tax but want a sustainable source of education funding that gets the state to provide 55 percent of funding for public K-12 schools, a benchmark set in statute.
Democrats and Republicans disagree over how to reach that benchmark, but Fredette said his proposal would do just that.
Fredette’s proposal includes a pilot program for a statewide teacher contract and a plan to eliminate hundreds of unfilled state government jobs.
Democratic Rep. Aaron Frey said the House Republican proposal rehashes “settled budget lines” and shortchanges “our schools so they can cut taxes for the wealthy.”
A group of six special budget negotiators is tasked with hammering out a budget deal after the 13-member appropriations committee couldn’t agree on a budget. The group and legislative leaders will spend the coming days working on a budget that can receive two-thirds support in both chambers.
The union representing state workers said thousands were locked out of their jobs without pay during a 1991 state government shutdown.
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