Portland Press Herald: Capitol Ticker: LePage still seething from budget committee rejection

By Steve Mistler

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Gov. Paul LePage has a score to settle with the Legislature’s budget-writing committee.

Democrats on the panel, and later Senate President Justin Alfond, D-Portland, and House Speaker Mark Eves, D-North Berwick, expressed frustration Tuesday when three of the governor’s department heads spurned a request to appear for a work session to discuss a $100 million transportation bond and ongoing problems with a MaineCare ride program.

Sen. Dawn Hill, D-Cape Neddick, the co-chairwoman of the committee, said Tuesday that the absence of commissioners was “shameful.”

LePage was asked Wednesday if he barred his commissioners from the meeting. He said that he did and acknowledged that the decision was related to Hill’s widely publicized move to prevent LePage from addressing the panel during a heated work session in May. LePage said Wednesday that the “state wasn’t going to be run by committees. It’s going to be run by the chief executive of the state.”

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