By Sen. Marianne Moore

It’s officially over. The 131st Maine Legislature adjourned sine die at 10:15 p.m. on Friday, May 10. The term sine die is Latin for without a day, meaning the Legislature was adjourned without another day scheduled to return.

Hello, this is Senator Marianne Moore joining you for this week’s Republican Radio Address from Washington County. But as beautiful as the Sunrise County is, I can honestly say the legislative session that just ended was anything but beautiful.

Since the first day we arrived in December 2022, it has been nothing but chaos and confusion under Democratic leadership. We can also add in long unproductive waits, disorder, incompetence, dysfunction and – as we just learned on Tuesday – a lot of shenanigans to accomplish almost nothing.

State law requires the Legislature to adjourn on the third Wednesday in April in even-numbered years. This year, that day fell on April 17; and before it even arrived, we had already completed over three months of work this year on top of last year’s chaotic marathon that stretched well into July.

Yet on our final day of business in April, there was still so much unfinished work. In addition to a supplemental budget, over 240 unfunded bills sat in limbo. Still more hadn’t even been reported out of committee after having had a public hearing and at least one work session.

And just days earlier, Democrats on the Appropriations Committee had to fix a mess they made with the budget when they cut funding for dairy farmers, State Police positions and highway maintenance along with cutting pension deductions for retirees.

Democrats had made those bad decisions and others weeks prior in the cover of darkness at 3 a.m. on a Saturday. The public outcry was so strong that they had to reverse themselves. How embarrassing and what a waste of time, but I doubt they even care.

That kind of chaos and confusion spilled over to April 17. Hours upon hours went by as we waited while Democratic leadership tried to get their act together. We ended up finishing our work at 5:45 a.m. the next day as the sun rose over the State Capitol. Yet we still weren’t done for the year.

After the statutory adjournment date, the law allows the Legislature to return for one extra day – we call it “Veto Day.” It’s the final legislative day to consider bills vetoed by the Governor unless two-thirds of each body agree to extend the session for up to five additional days.

However, Democratic leadership apparently had other plans for Veto Day because it turns out the adjournment order passed on April 18 was intentionally vague. That shenanigan would allow the Legislature to consider more bills when it returned; and it caused quite a bit of concern among legislators and even members of the public.

While the Legislature has traditionally transacted other business on Veto Day, it’s been a longstanding practice that no new business is conducted. That didn’t deter Senate Democrats, however, who took 81 bills from the Special Appropriations Table and spent hours moving them through the Senate.

The only problem is there weren’t enough Democrats in the House to even have a majority to overcome Republican objections on the ones that were amended and had to be reconsidered. In fact, it was the first time since 2012 that House Republicans held the majority because Democrats decided not to show up.

Yet it took nearly six hours for Democratic leadership to figure that out before they called the House back to order to adjourn. Meanwhile, we just sat around watching and waiting much like we have done over the two years of the entire 131st Legislature.

Now, I said earlier that all of this was for nothing. Well, most of those bills died immediately upon adjournment. Then, Gov. Janet Mills said on Tuesday that she wasn’t going to sign 35 of them that were enacted on Veto Day and made it to her desk.

In fact, she refused to accept them at first but finally did so after realizing she had no constitutional authority to refuse them. However, she does have the authority to decline signing them, which is called a pocket veto that kills those bills.

Were there some good bills in there? Sure. One bill was a pilot program to improve our child welfare system, while another would hire more State Police troopers to assist counties such as mine with rural patrol. Still, most of the 35 bills were not good policy or fiscally responsible.

The bottom line is all of these bills died due to the poor time management and irresponsible leadership of legislative Democrats. If they had acted earlier and properly, those bills might have become law. It proves chaos and confusion is no way to govern; and incompetent leadership certainly doesn’t belong in the Legislature.

Again, this is Senator Marianne Moore of Washington County. I hope you have a great weekend.

Senator Marianne Moore represents District 6, which includes communities in Washington and Hancock counties. She is the Senate Republican Lead for the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee.