MAINE PUBLIC • December 7, 2022
State lawmakers failed to pass a nearly $500 million emergency funding bill Wednesday night to help Mainers pay rising heating and electricity prices in what was an inauspicious and partisan start of the legislative session. The majority of the money in the bill would have been used to send $450 "relief" checks to nearly 900,000 taxpayers in Maine. After passing the House on a 125-16 vote with overwhelming bipartisan support, the bill failed in the Senate after Republicans blocked it.