Maine Attorney General Agrees That Gov. LePage Massively Botched Vetos
epublican Maine Gov. Paul LePage's efforts to stop a batch of bills he intended to veto from becoming law were dealt another blow late last week when Maine Attorney General Janet Mills (D) released a letter siding with Democratic lawmakers who say the governor missed his deadline to veto the legislation.
Under the Democrats' and Mills' reading of the Maine constitution, since LePage did not return the 19 bills passed last month in the 10-day period he had to veto them, they have already become law. Since the Bangor Daily News reported on the lapse last week, LePage has dug in and insisted he could return the bills when the legislature reconvenes this week.
Another 51 bills are set to become law, the Portland Press Herald reported, as LePage refused to act on them by the 10-day deadline that expired Saturday at midnight.
At issue in the dispute is whether lawmakers took the formal adjournment that would have allowed LePage to return the vetoed bills whenever the legislature reconvened again for three or more days. Lawmakers say the break they took last month was not that kind of an adjournment -- known as an adjournment sine die -- as they had plans to return in mid-July to consider any outstanding legislation. In Friday's letter, Mills agreed.
more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/maine-attorney-general-veto-lepage
= new reply since forum marked as read
[img]
/revision/latest?cb=20121205194057[/img]
