Maine governor’s vetoes sustained while lawmakers address late spending proposals

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine lawmakers sustained vetoes of bills to institute a minimum wage for farm workers and to ban so-called bump stocks that allow a gun to mimic a machine gun on Friday as they attempted to dispatch unfinished business including 80 late spending proposals.

The Maine Senate failed to muster a two-thirds majority to override the veto on the gun bill, something sought by gun safety advocates 18 people were killed in a shooting in Lewiston, while the House failed to override the veto of the farmworkers’ minimum wage bill.

In the end, all eight of Gov. Janet Mills’ vetoes were upheld, including proposals to create a higher income tax for wealthy Mainers and to end a “three strikes” law on thefts.

But lawmakers were expected to stay late into the night to address spending proposals that the Democratic governor warned could push the budget “to the breaking point.”

The new bills to be considered would provide more money for free health clinics, African American and Wabanaki studies in schools and the establishment of a civil rights unit in the attorney general’s office. Other initiatives would provide one-time relief for blueberry growers and provide free entry to state parks to Indigenous people, among other things.

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