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In this week’s newsletter: The politics of the public power proposal; Maine Chamber steps away from anti-public power group; Gov. Janet Mills frets property tax increases.
As Maine lawmakers fast-track a bill that would replace Central Maine Power and Versant Power with a so-called public utility, Gov. Janet Mills is stepping up her calls to the legislature to look more closely at the proposal before attempting to send it to voters in November.
In a wide-ranging interview on Maine Public s Maine Calling program, Mills expressed a range of concerns about a 13-page bill that would effectively force the state’s two electricity providers to sell their assets and be replaced by a consumer-owned non-profit controlled by an elected board. Mills, a Democrat, didn’t say definitively that she would veto the proposal, but she made several comments that suggest that she views it as not ready for primetime, much less ready for Maine voters.