© 2024 Maine Public | Registered 501(c)(3) EIN: 22-3171529
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Scroll down to see all available streams.

Legislature Looks to Bypass LePage, Get Senior Housing Bonds Released

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is hoping to force the authorization of $15 million in voter-approved bonds for senior housing with a bill that removes Gov. Paul LePage from the process.

The governor has refused to release the bonds, which nearly 70 percent of voters authorized two years ago.

Republican Sen. Roger Katz told the Legislature’s budget-writing committee that lawmakers need to act if the governor won’t.

“When Maine voters have approved state borrowing at the ballot box no one, including the governor, ought to have the right to veto that decision,” he says.

Katz and others argue that the governor is using the bonds for political leverage, just as he did with conservation bonds two years ago. The LePage administration counters that state law gives the governor authority to authorize the bond.

The governor’s finance commissioner says the governor believes he’s fulfilling his role in the bond process.

“That there is a more active role than simply administerial one, one of judgment, one of applying a position. So that’s a fundamental difference of agreement there,” Richard Rosen says.

The bonds were designed to address an annual shortage of 9,000 units of new senior housing. That shortage is projected to grow to 15,000 units by 2022.

Journalist Steve Mistler is Maine Public’s chief politics and government correspondent. He is based at the State House.