By Sen. Rick Bennett

Monday was Patriots Day, marking the first battles of the Revolutionary War and the beginning of our republic. However, the promise of self-government saw a setback this week with the disappointing close to this year’s legislative session.

Sadly, Maine’s Legislature has abdicated its responsibility of being the voice of the people. Instead, our state’s government has become a one-person show.

Hello, this is Senator Rick Bennett of Oxford County with this week’s Republican Radio Address. I wish I had better news to share; but what we saw this week only shows how broken Maine’s government is.

The decline of the Legislature began long before this. For decades, lawmakers have kowtowed to Maine’s chief executive when it comes to the state budget. It doesn’t matter whether it has been a Democrat or Republican sitting in the Blaine House – legislators have rendered ourselves not much more than puppets when it comes to how the state spends your hard-earned tax dollars.

But Maine’s current Governor has taken this assumption of power to new heights.

You will recall that for nearly a year during the pandemic, lawmakers sat back as Gov. Mills ran our government without impediment and without any limits. The power given to her during the COVID-19 state of emergency was unprecedented; and the Legislature refused to convene to check those powers.

This week, when some Democrats actually had the audacity – I call it courage – to defy her regarding her proposed budget, she displayed contempt for their independent authority in a letter to lawmakers. She wrote, “There are two crucial outstanding items that YOU WILL attend to today,” as if she were a parent telling a group of children what to do. “Send me this” and “Do not send me…” that.

In laying down the law of what she would accept and what she wouldn’t, she showed no respect for Maine’s co-equal branch of government – the one closest to its people. It was also quite apparent she couldn’t stand the fact that the Legislature actually stood up to her. That was new; and she didn’t like it.

In fact, her letter reads like one sent by Vladimir Putin to his Duma rather than by an executive who is charged with executing the laws of a state and respecting the independent branch of government that the Legislature is – or at least is supposed to be.

And while she was dictating her terms to legislators, she refused to do her own job in implementing laws already passed under her signature – like fulfilling promised help to parents for child care and aid to low-income seniors through the Medicare Savings Program.

When Democrats and Republicans in the Maine Senate did have the courage to say enough is enough, we crafted an amendment that addressed the critical issues WE thought were important. We hear from our constituents who are concerned about our seniors as nursing homes close. Concern about our veterans as our veterans’ homes go perpetually underfunded. About access to mental health care as resources dry up and waiting lists get longer. About our students as we can’t keep teachers, ed techs and school support staff.

The problem when it comes to addressing these issues is they are either ignored or we bow to the altar of one-time spending in order to gloss them over until next time. Meanwhile on the Senate floor, we even heard Democrats who are allies of the Governor say words of congratulations after they committed highway robbery of transportation funds, stole the milk money from our dairy farmers and raided pension income in the cover of darkness just the week before.

After making these major mistakes, they celebrated and patted themselves on the back simply for fixing them. Is this what the Legislature has been reduced to?

Unfortunately, the answer is yes. The budgeting process today essentially gives the chief executive and his or her administration whatever it wants without effective oversight. This appalling relinquishment of power will damage our democracy permanently if we don’t fix it.

To close, in a time of record surpluses, this budget was a failure in addressing any of the substantive issues that face this state. And there is something fundamentally wrong with a budget process that gives more weight to the Executive Branch rather than the people of Maine. That is not how this is supposed to be; but that is what it has become.

Again, this is Senator Rick Bennett of Oxford County. Thank you for listening.

Senator Rick Bennett (R-Oxford) represents District 18 and is the Senate Republican Lead on the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee. He is also a member of the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee.