AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage continued his until now unprecedented use of line-item vetoes Thursday afternoon on the Highway Fund budget, just hours after he sent 64 line-item vetoes of the General Fund budget to the Legislature.
The Highway Fund, about two-thirds of which is funded by state and federal fuel taxes, covers the upkeep of the state’s transportation infrastructure including roads, bridges, ports, airports and railroads. It also funds certain portions of the Maine State Police. LePage said in his veto letter that the state needs to better prioritize how it spends money.
“Paying per-diems for legislators to meet in the summer, funding cold-case squads or computer crimes do not result in better roads and bridges,” wrote LePage, who called for cutting about $2.9 million of the $1.1 billion highway fund budget. The line-item vetoes called for reductions in equipment expenditures for the Maine State Police crime lab and eliminates funding for a new cold case homicide squad, $2 million in passenger rail funding and $450,000 in a fund that the state uses to loan municipalities money for transportation projects.
The House of Representatives was preparing to convene Thursday evening to take up 64 line-item vetoes on the General Fund budget and the Senate planned to take them up on Friday. By law, they must address all the line-item vetoes within five days. It takes only simple majority votes to overturn line-item vetoes.
The transportation budget passed 143-4 in the House and unanimously in the Senate.
