A bill that would have forced the governor to cut $1 million in political appointees was left to die in unfinished business at the end of the legislative session last month – a tactic the bill’s sponsor said is unprecedented and could lead to political shenanigans down the road.
Sen. John Nutting, D-Androscoggin County, said his bill was the only one killed by a parliamentary process known as sine die, which means anything left as unfinished business when the legislature adjourns is dead.
“It’s the first time a significant piece of legislation was left on the table. They killed it that way because there was no other way to kill it,” Nutting said.
House Clerk Millicent MacFarland, said Nutting’s bill was the only bill left to die in the House this year, but said, “any member could have brought it back up” – a claim Nutting said is not true. He said the speaker would have had to call for action.
David Connerty-Marin, the spokesman for Speaker John Richardson, said any member of the House could have moved to take up the item. When it was the last bill left, it would have required only a simple majority to bring it up. He said the speaker did not intentionally kill the bill.
“The speaker certainly wasn’t supportive of it, but it wasn’t even on his radar screen at the end of session,” Connerty-Marin said.
The bill, which would have required Gov. John Baldacci to cut $1 million in salaries from the pool of people who serve at the pleasure of the incumbent governor, had taken on surprising life.
It passed the Senate with an 18 to 16 vote and made it through the House 76 to 70. Then it sat on the unfinished business calendar in the House until the Legislature called it quits on May 24 shortly after 11 p.m.
“This is a significant change in the way the Maine Legislature has ever done business before. To me, it needs to end right now or this could keep escalating and you could have 30 or 40 bills a session be tabled and killed,” Nutting said.
The bill was debated in April, before the Legislature took its three-week May break, and the governor’s commissioner of finance said at the time the administration was taking the legislation seriously, but thought it was a bad idea.
Leadership tried to kill the bill by passing around that Nutting – a farmer from Leeds – was just angry he wasn’t appointed the commissioner of the Department of Agriculture by Baldacci. That story was repeated several times to reporters by Senate leaders.
Nutting said he did apply for the job in 2003 because it was suggested he should. “I interviewed for the position and interviewed very well.”
But, he insisted, the bill was not aimed at Baldacci. Rather it was a general call to cut government spending.
“I introduced the same exact bill under the Angus King administration. He didn’t like it any better than Baldacci, but at least they didn’t resort to lying about me,” Nutting said.
When he was lobbing for the bill, Nutting handed out several documents that gave the salaries of all government appointed positions in Augusta, and showed a comparison between Baldacci and former Governors King and John McKernan on the size of their own special assistants staff.
That comparison showed Baldacci spending $2.2 million on special assistants this year as compared to $1.6 million at the end of the King administration and $1 million at the end of McKernan’s term.
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