Darn.

They all skipped rather than vote against it, remember that.

If anyone needs it explained to them like they are 5, these Senators knew that not voting for this bill would make them look like heartless, cruel hypocrites (because they are). Staying away means it fails anyway, but that they don't get put on the record as opposing it.

I'm not excusing Chipman here either - dude is just begging for a primary challenger.

If your public representatives don't represent the public, you gotta ask: why are they doing the job in the first place? The guillotine is looking more and more attractive. Class solidarity now

Shameful

I highly recommend constituents let Ben know exactly how badly he fucked up at Ben.Chipman@legislature.maine.gov

He is termed out at the end of this term so there is no primary option.

I will never understand how these folks are allowed to just skip work.

Dang, no one wants to work anymore.

They are Cowards. Vote and face it.

Should have looked that up lol. Honestly to me that shows true colors.

Fucking say when. I'm ready and so is my torch.

Didn't make a difference in the outcome. He will vote the right way when it comes back.

They don't give a fuck about Maine or its citizens

everybody knows how the vote is going to turn out before the votes are actually cast. If the Ds thought that there was any chance that they could have carried the Senate, Mills herself would have driven down to Portland to drag Ben up to Augusta for the vote.

Useless politicians. Let’s vote them out.

[removed]

That special perk is reserved for the upper ups.. that make far too much money for doing jack and shit. and Jack left town.

What happens to the bill now? Is it just dead?

How about this: we propose a Maine law that if government officials don't show up and vote without a medical excuse or a death in the immediate family, they get replaced by the next in line and lose all their benefits.

How can we make it happen?

>Sens. Guerin (R) and Lyford (R).

Probably would have voted NO if they did bother to show up. But now they can technically say that they did not vote against it and not enough people will know they didn't vote at all.

​

>Cumberland Sen. Chipman (D) also couldn't be bothered on a party-lines vote, good job!!!

Wouldn't have made a difference. Especially of those two voted as well.

My damn senator voted against. He could've stayed home, for all of me.

Oregonians dealt with this by citizen ballot initiative that passed this year, which "amends the Oregon Constitution to disqualify state lawmakers from reelection if they have 10 or more unexcused absences from legislative floor sessions." Maine has citizen initiatives too, though it doesn't allow for constitutional amendments.

Those who didn’t vote should be recalled. They were there… they got sworn in today. They just… didn’t vote.

Worth noting that everyone who wasn't there for the vote is marked with an E in the roll call, which means they had an excused absence. When lawmakers miss a vote unexecused it's marked with an A.

> these Senators knew that not voting for this bill would make them look like heartless, cruel hypocrites (because they are). Staying away means it fails anyway, but that they don't get put on the record as opposing it.

This phenomena is called ghosting in the dating world.

Don't you go thinking I have any illusions on that score.

I wonder what excuses they had?

What if they had to recuse themselves. Maybe they own or are invested in fuel companies. How would it look if they voted for free government money for fuel companies? I don't know if that is the case, but not sure if that would be recorded either.

[deleted]

Details on the absences from the BDN: article

"Also on blast from Jackson were four of the five Republicans who were “excused” from Wednesday night’s vote. Only Sen. Bradlee Farrin, R-Norridgewock, had sought the “necessary permission” for that excused absence, along with Democratic Sen. Ben Chipman, D-Portland, Jackson spokesperson Christine Kirby said.

Republican Sens. Stacey Guerin of Glenburn, Peter Lyford of Eddington, Matthew Pouliot of Augusta and Jeff Timberlake of Turner had not, Kirby said.

Guerin said she had to leave the Senate early Wednesday to attend a funeral"

this was a vote to pass it on an emergency basis which requires a 2/3 vote to pass. it will come back in January when it will pass on a majority basis which will then take a certain amount of time to go into effect (30 days?).

The R senators delayed the inevitable for 2 or so months because they're betting that they can grandstand on some small provisions of the bill to score political points.

I think it is a bad bet on their part; it makes them look petty to me. But what do I know?

> How would it look if they voted for free government money for fuel companies?

Like normal government

You might wanna read up on the French Revolution and see how poorly that worked out

The complete farce of ‘democracy’ here is mind -boggling.

One party feels a bit guilty about the inequality in this country and state and the other doubles down the other way that they just don’t care about the people.

Who votes for them?

I’m a social worker and one of the biggest issues we are finding is the lack of heating resources for people. This really is a shame and a disservice to those who cannot afford heating this winter. It’s going to be a long and cold winter without heating assistance.

You got me there :D

Guerin is just like Collins. I wish this area wasn't so deep red. Most of her followers are just repeating the party line of "There is no free money. We will all have our taxes raised to pay for these people who don't work." etc..

Do state reps get paid that much money?

Hey, it only took them 150 years to get to the stable government they have today.

Agreed. Reestablish the absolute monarchy!

Indirectly. Not all of them though. But probably the leaders.

Not surprised by Guerin. But that aside, frigin idiots.

Unfortunately not thirty days. Non emergency bills take effect ninety days after the date of adjournment. Under normal circumstances the legislature wouldn’t adjourn until around June 15. It’s possible if they truly couldn’t get it done as an emergency they’d adjourn and then immediately call themselves back for a special session to do all their normal work. It’s a weird loophole and probably an administrative headache but has been done before. Even still, that would mean the funds wouldn’t be available until the end of March, which will be too late for a lot of folks.

In taxable income? No. In kickbacks and "campaign contributions"? Fuck yeah.

At the state level? In Maine??

Chipman was just elected 32 days ago!

Can't get there from here

They're all part time, have no staff, and make shit money for the work involved, for what it's worth.

I was listening to the piece on this bill on Maine Public yesterday morning. It was truly one of the most insane stories I’ve heard out of maine in a while. Top republicans urging their caucus to vote for it, republicans lining up saying “yes this is great”, not to mention the deluge of adds claiming that Janet Mills would freeze Mainers to death.

And THIS is what they do? At every turn, republicans never cease to lower the bar of human decency.

I'd dismiss the funeral if that's accurate.

She also needs her driving license taken away. Her pickup truck with the 20’ canoe on top has almost crashed into me 3 times, and it’s always her turning left onto Hudson road and never looking at the traffic that’s coming.

Glenburn gets some of the largest welfare in Bangor metro despite being the most Republican

Thank you for the explanation. Gives the Republicans more leverage. So what do you think their endgame is?

[removed]

There’s no reason to pass this on an emergency basis. It’s too big. Take a week or two and get it right.

Yes, it’s ridiculous! Newly elected and already not showing up for your constituents is shameful. Aside from calling their office to complain and voting them out next go round, what other methods do we have to keep those in the senate and the house accountable?

We could just abolish the Maine Senate altogether

Was Chipman 2 busy with "landlord work"

Pot, probably

It's $450. C'mon, say it needs to be "means tested." "More transparent." It's $450.

Honestly good for them for doing what's right. It's unfortunate that the democrats were successful in bribing the voters in the last election calling it "covid relief".

It’s half a billion dollars. This should shouldn’t be some slapstick plan.

What part's slapstick, Slappy? Be specific.

So did you return the money?

I didn't receive it. Despite paying into the budget surplus, our government felt a better use of my contribution was to distribute it to those who chose to be baristas over having an actual career.

Ah, so you make six figures but still want to complain?

"Chose to be baristas" you fucking twat, no one chooses that. What business did daddy hand you?

I'm complaining about the role of government. People have grown accustomed to having unearned money mailed to them but we've failed to ask where it comes from and what authorized the government to use their revenue this way. If there's consistently a budget surplus, they should be lowering taxes.

Coming from a guy who couldn't pass an economics course to save his life.

Why are we not using existing programs and processes? This option will directly drive inflation up, drive oil prices higher, and does nothing to solve the long term problem, while actually making it worse.

Seems like a lot of people on this thread have plenty of time to complain, not enough to go make more money. Interesting.

Besides that’s what the 850$ people apparently got was for. “Fill your tanks” all I got was a rock.

You’re saying that a constant budget surplus should be continuously doled out to others based on their income? Yes I’d rather have someone likely to go buy strawberry flavored things spending excess tax revenue that I’ve paid in to. I’m glad you feel so entitled to the surplus.I’ll sleep better knowing I helped 26 of you with your oil bill, while I pay for mine as well. Chances are this guys better at economics than you are bubba ^^

Funny thing is, these guys would be making six figures if they spent less time browsing reddit and more time learning a skill that's in demand.