A day after Gov. Paul LePage ordered the transfer of nearly $11 million out of a fund controlled by the Maine Attorney General’s Office, the attorney general is speaking out.
Janet Mills told Maine Public Radio that she’s still assessing the effects of the governor’s action and considering a lawsuit.
The account in question contained money the state of Maine received in successful lawsuits against Volkswagen and the financial ratings company Moody’s. In a written statement on Thursday, LePage said he ordered the funds transferred out of the attorney general’s office to another account that will require legislative approval before it can be spent.
LePage said it was wrong for Mills to have sole control over the money, even though state law gives her that discretion. But Mills said the governor is mistaken and his actions violate a court order, state law and the Maine Constitution.
“It would behoove him to pick up the phone and call me if he has concerns about a particular fund or a particular account. Call me and ask me what we are doing with it. I would be happy to tell him that,” she said.
Mills said money from the fund has gone to a wide array of programs over the last 30 years. It has also helped defray the costs of lawsuits brought against groups that have caused harm to Mainers.
For example, Mills is currently working with a group of attorneys general from across the country to investigate the practices of opioid manufacturers. Without money at her disposal, Mills said she may not be able to move forward with a lawsuit in that case or in others that have not yet been brought to light.
She has her staff assessing the effect of the governor’s action.
“Some of that money is allocated to salaries. I will be looking at whether we can continue to pay the salaries that we are budgeted to pay out of that account and the expenses we are budgeted to pay,” Mills said.
On Friday, the governor’s office released a statement from the state controller refuting Mills assertion that she is authorized to spend settlement funds. Mills disagrees. And she said she’s considering all legal options, including suing the LePage administration to get a court ruling on the issue.
Meanwhile, there has been some concern about $6 million in the attorney general’s account that is needed to balance the budget. Appropriations Committee co-chair, Democratic state Rep. Drew Gattine of Westbrook, said committee staff believe language in the budget makes it clear that even though the money has now been transferred, it can still go where it was supposed to go: to the state’s general fund.
“I’m hoping that he is going to honor the budget and move that money into the unappropriated surplus by Oct. 30. But that’s the deadline I am going to be watching,” he said.
Gattine says if the money is not transferred by the administration to the general fund the Legislature will have to act in the January session to ensure that the state budget remains in balance.
This story was originally published Oct. 6, 2017 at 5:13 p.m. ET.
