Maine GOP Gov. Paul LePage
Maine's Gov. Paul LePage has never had a good relationship with the state legislature, even though his fellow Republicans run the state Senate. LePage recently pledged to veto almost every bill that comes to his desk, pledging to "
waste a little" of their time. And last week, the legislature
unanimously voted to investigate the governor after he threatened to cut off state funding to a school for at-risk youths unless the school board rescinded their job offer to Democratic state House Speaker Mark Eves (they did). But things went berserk this week when LePage tried to pocket veto 19 bills ... and may have
accidentally made them law instead.
LePage was operating under the assumption that if he refuses to sign the bills while the legislature is gone, they don't become law. And if the legislature had indeed adjourned for the year, he would have been right. But both the Democratic House and Republican Senate decided to go to "at ease" instead, with the intention of returning on July 16. Assuming the legislature has not actually adjourned, the bills come into law if the governor hasn't done anything after 10 days. LePage's window to veto the bills has passed, meaning that, among other things, asylum seekers can now collect state aide for up to 24 months.
Of course, LePage isn't conceding that he accidentally signed off on a proposal he despises. The governor claims that the legislature actually did adjourn last month, so his pocket veto stands. The House clerk is admitting she's completely confused and genuinely doesn't know what she's supposed to do if LePage's office just returns them to her. House Majority Leader Jeff McCabe, a Democrat, is a lot less uncertain, arguing that LePage can't just rewrite the rules. For now, the state’s revisor of statutes is treating these bills like they're official laws, but it may take some time to sort out what happened. In any case, LePage has definitely succeeded in wasting a little more of the legislature's time.