EDITORIAL: Here are several vetoes lawmakers should override and one they should sustain
In addition to LePage's veto of Medicaid expansion funding, here are some bills the Legislature should closely consider for an override.
Last year, lawmakers approved much needed raises for direct care workers, those who care for some of the state's most vulnerable citizens. However, funding was only secured for one year. Without further legislative action, these workers may actually see their wages decrease.
Not only is this unfair, but the low wages paid to these critical workers also mean that many jobs go unfilled. That can result in long waits and diminished care.
After much debate, lawmakers passed a bill to avoid the pay cuts. LePage vetoed it. In his veto message, he wrapped his opposition to the bill into his misguided effort to reduce the required increases in the state's minimum wage. The governor erroneously argues that lowering wages will help fix the state's workforce shortage. The opposite is true, and lawmakers have so far rejected his efforts to change the voter-approved law that has raised the state's minimum wage from
In the same letter, LePage also voted a wide-ranging budget bill that included funding for improved opioid treatment, school health centers, assisted living, lead abatement and other issues that have nothing to do with the minimum wage. Holding all of this spending hostage to the governor's opposition to the state's minimum wage would be irresponsible, and harmful.
Lawmakers also passed a contentious bill that would allow a judge to require that a person who has been ordered to undergo progressive mental health treatment to surrender their firearms. The so-called "red flag" bill was sponsored by Sen.
Hundreds of customers of
The bill passed easily in the
There is one veto lawmakers should sustain -- that of a bill to arm forest rangers. Arming rangers, which has been debated for years, is costly and unnecessary. "Fireams will escalate the tensions between ranger and individuals they encounter while doing their duty," LePage wrote in his veto message. "The cautious use of discussion will be replaced by the force of a gun or other weapon. I cannot support this."
Lawmakers shouldn't support it either.
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