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Appropriations committee sends emergency public-defender funding back to the Senate
Summary
The Maine Appropriations Committee voted unanimously to take LD 2059 off the table and return it to the Senate after members were told the public defender commission could not meet payroll. The bill would place general‑fund dollars into public defender compensation for two fiscal years.
The Maine Legislature’s Appropriations Committee voted unanimously to take LD 2059 off the table and send it back to the Senate after members heard the public defender commission was unable to meet payroll.
Senate Chair Peggy Rotundo introduced the request, saying the commission was “in a position where they can’t meet payroll,” and described the petition as an emergency measure to address that immediate staffing-and-pay issue. “This is the bill to fund public defenders’ salaries, compensation,” Rotundo said when she presented the request to the panel.
Representative Cameron Rennie moved to take the bill off the table; Representative Jack Ducharme seconded the motion. Office of Fiscal Program Review analyst Luke Lazaro clarified a procedural point during the discussion, telling members they should “vote it off the table” because the measure was already on the table rather than formally exempt from it.
Representative Jack Ducharme outlined the bill’s fiscal figures, saying it “has $13,000,000 in 2025–26 and $9,000,000 in 2026–27, all general fund money, to pay for legal counsel through the public defender services.” Committee members who spoke described broad bipartisan support for moving quickly so the judiciary and defenders’ offices could address payroll and staffing pressures.
The committee approved the motion to move LD 2059 back to the Senate and recorded the action as unanimous on the floor (the transcript did not include a roll‑call tally with names). The committee did not amend the bill on the floor and sent it back to the Senate for further action.
What happens next: LD 2059 will proceed to the Senate for continued consideration; committee members flagged the urgency as driven by an immediate payroll risk for public defenders.
