The Second Regular Session of the Maine Legislature, this year beginning on January 7, 2026, is always meant to be a shorter session, technically dealing only with “emergency” issues. While these sessions are almost always shorter in duration than the first year, in living memory they have never truly been limited only to issues that can be considered an emergency by a common-sense standard.

There are 386 carry-over bills from last session to be disposed of in some fashion. Many are the bills sitting on the Special Appropriations table awaiting an allocation of funds. These will almost all die at the end of the coming session without funding. Positive thinking individuals are still hoping for a bond package that will include something for everyone but focused mostly on housing. Given that this will require a two-thirds vote in both chambers this is still highly unlikely.

A small portion of the carry-over bills are bills the Governor is thought to have not supported in their current form and legislators sent back to their respective committees for more work and negotiation. Many simply needed more consideration in committee and legislators felt they could not be given appropriate time before adjournment of the First Special Session in June. Many legislative committees have begun meeting this fall to hold work sessions on these bills in hopes of being able to consider them in the full legislature in January.

The Governor also held 61 bills that were passed by the legislature at the end of last session. The Governor, on the 4th day after the full Legislature reconvenes, must deliver a veto message to the chamber of origin or these bills becomes law.

As was the case last year, legislative leadership is committed to finally adjourning the upcoming session at the statutorily defined time, which is mid-April. This gives the legislators who are running for re-election time to get back into their communities to knock on doors.

Submission and Acceptance of Bills in the Second Session

Unlike the First Session when every legislative request from a legislator is drafted into LD form and given consideration by a legislative committee and the full legislature (unless the legislator voluntarily withdraws the LD), in the Second Session legislative requests proposed by legislators must receive the support of the majority (6 members) of the Legislative Council before the Revisor’s office will begin drafting them as bills.

The first step of this process happened on October 23^rd. The Legislative Council allowed 82 bills to advance out of the 258 bills submitted by the September Cloture date, meaning these titles will be drafted into LD’s by the Revisor’s Office. Of the 82 requests voted in, only 10 are sponsored by Republicans. Preti is happy to report that our clients did very well in getting the bills submitted on your behalf through the first round of voting.

Certain requests that did not get in on the 23^rd were appealed on or before November 5^th. The Legislative Council met to consider more than 80 appeals on November 20^th with 15 of those being successful in advancing. The Council also allowed one after deadline bill request in.

In addition to the bills submitted by State Legislators, there are 91 Legislative Requests from the departments and agencies within the Mills administration.

State Budget and Tax Conformity

A few months after last session had concluded the State announced a $152 million surplus. Almost all of this was passed through the “cascade,” which automatically distributes unallocated funds to the rainy day fund, the highway fund, and a few other discrete programs and services. The rainy-day fund is at the statutorily defined maximum of over $1 billion. The Office of Fiscal and Program Review continues to report revenues are above expectations. 

The Consensus Revenue Forecasting Commission and the Revenue Forecasting Committee, the latter meeting on October 30^th, are mostly focused on uncertainty. They are acknowledging the difficulty of making forecasts with so much chaos in terms of federal economic and trade policy, and either a lack of standard reporting from the Federal government, and/or the lack of reliability of such data if it is released. Preti will be monitoring the upcoming meetings and reports to get as informed a view as is possible in terms of the State’s budget planning.

A proposed Supplemental Budget is expected from the Governor in January. DHHS reported a need for additional funding for both technology and staff in order to meet the demands in the new Federal budget for Medicaid recipients and states. With significant Federal cuts to heating, housing, health insurance, and nutrition benefits, many legislators, if not the Governor, will be seeking ways to fill those gaps with State funds. The Federal government shutdown exacerbated these issues in the near term, but most of the deep cuts to healthcare and other programs in the Federal budget will not take effect until after the November 2026 elections.

This means that dipping into the rainy day fund this year will be debated in the context of future needs, funds for which cannot be allocated by the current Legislature, and the Governor running for U.S. Senate, thus being reticent to give up the biggest rainy-day fund in Maine’s history.

In addition to the above issues, the Governor has given limited direction on tax conformity with newly passed tax policies at the Federal level. Full conformity would reduce state revenue by over $360 million in fiscal year ’25, with impacts continuing into future years. Governor Mills has proposed an immediate conformity for qualified farm property and disaster loss, some small business R and D expenses, Section 179 expensing, and business interest deductions. This will reduce revenue by only $13.5 million in ’25.

The Governor is limited in what she can do in this regard by the Maine Constitution but did make changes to ’25 tax forms to lessen the need for businesses and individuals to file amended returns. 

The costliest tax cuts in conforming to the Federal policy is full conformity to R and D expenses, bonus depreciation, the senior exemption, the increase in the standard deduction, and eliminating the tax on overtime.  

Further action must be considered by the Legislature. Republicans have made clear that any legislation will need two-thirds support in order to go into effect immediately and they look forward to negotiations.

Next November’s Elections

As is always the case, the upcoming session will be in the context of the elections in November 2026. This year will be even more potentially impacted by those elections given that, not only will all legislative seats be in play, but also the Governor’s office, and the current Governor is running for the U. S. Senate.

Everything Governor Mills does this session will be viewed through the lens of her U.S. Senate campaign. She has both an unexpectedly difficult primary, and a general election that will be formidable for whoever wins the Democratic nomination.

Her primary challenger, Graham Platner, an oyster farmer from Hancock County who has served four tours as a Marine and Army infantry soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan, has attracted hundreds of supporters to event after event throughout the State. This is unheard of for any candidate of any party in a generation. He is now facing allegations related to past indiscretions that he will either come through with even more support from younger and disenfranchised Democrats and independents, or his campaign will wither, and Mills will have a clear path to the general election. The Senate Campaign Committee led by Sen. Chuck Schumer actively supports Governor Mills in this race, while Sen. Bernie Sanders and labor groups support Platner.

As outlined in our last memo, the Governor’s race will also have potential impacts in the legislative session. Two recent members of Governor Mills’ Administration (Hannah Pingree and newly announced, Dr. Nirav Shah) are running, as are two current State Senators (Sen. Rick Bennett and Sen. Jim Libby), one recent Senate President (Troy Jackson) and potentially a former Republican Senate leader, now lobbyist (Garrett Mason). In addition, our current Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is running for Governor, and our current State Auditor and long serving Secretary of State, Matt Dunlap, is running against former Governor Paul LePage,  in the 2nd CD, since incumbent Democrat Congressman Jared Golden has bowed out of the race.

These are all people Preti knows well, and everyone at the State House will be interested in their every move during the coming session.  Undoubtedly, re-election, election to leadership, control of the House and Senate at both the State and Federal level, and control of the Governor’s office will be on the radar every day during this next legislative session.