AUGUSTA — Maine lawmakers sustained all eight of Gov. Paul LePage’s vetoes that came up for votes on Tuesday. The House upheld five vetoes, and the Senate upheld the other three.
It take a two-thirds vote in each chamber to override a veto.
Up first was L.D. 531, a bill to ensure that any senior appointed officer in the Office of Adult Mental Health Services is a licensed psychiatrist, according to LePage’s veto message. He said the bill had an “understandable objective” and he has asked his commissioner to address the issue.
Rep. Linda Sanborn, D-Gorham, the bill’s sponsor, said before the vote that she hopes her colleagues will help her hold the governor’s “feet to the fire” to follow through.
Lawmakers also sustained LePage’s veto of L.D. 1290, a resolve directing the Department of Health and Human Services to develop an oral-health promotion program with existing resources.
LePage, in his veto message, said similar legislation had already passed.
Rep. Anne Graham, D-North Yarmouth, spent several minutes defending L.D. 1139, a vetoed measure she sponsored that sought to explore the possibility of teaching CPR and the use of automated external defibrillators in Maine schools.
The legislation had been unanimously approved in committee and in the House and Senate.
Though a nonpartisan analysis of the resolve said it would cause only a “minor cost increase,” LePage vetoed it because he disagreed.
Another vetoed resolve, sponsored by Rep. Kerri Prescott, R-Topsham, would have directed state officials to look into contracting to save money for fingerprinting required for criminal history background checks. LePage said he has already asked all departments to explore saving money by contracting with the private sector, so L.D. 296 was unnecessary.
The final veto that survived a House override vote Tuesday was L.D. 547, sponsored by Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, which would have created a group to study laws that exist to aid people who are negatively affected by outdoor wood boilers.
LePage said he was concerned that the measure would “have a chilling effect on Maine citizens and businesses.”
In the Senate, LePage’s veto of L.D. 398, “An Act to Require Criminal History Record Information for the Licensure of Nurses,” drew no debate and was sustained unanimously. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Chris Rector, R-Thomaston, said it will come up again in 2013.
The Senate voted 21-13 to sustain the veto of L.D. 566, “An Act to Encourage Transparency in the Department of Education.”
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Justin Alfond, D-Portland, said that as a member of the Legislature’s Education Committee, he had trouble getting information about how much money was being spent by the education department, so he put in a bill to require better reporting to lawmakers.
In his veto message, LePage wrote that the “stringent reporting requirements step over the line of legislating and oversight and into the management functions of the executive.”
Alfond failied to persuade senators to override LePage’s veto of L.D. 568 “Resolve, to Establish an Early Childhood Stakeholder Group.”
The Senate voted 18-16 to sustain the veto.
MaineToday Media State House Writer Rebekah Metzler can be contacted at 620-7016 or at: rmetzler@mainetoday.com
MaineToday Media State House Writer Susan Cover can be contacted at 620-7015 or at: scover@mainetoday.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
