Mills acknowledged that performance of
“I certainly agree that change is necessary. No question about that. And I remain open to considering alternative proposals,” she said.
The bill’s chief sponsor, Rep.
And it isn't going away. A coalition will be launching a referendum drive to put the proposal before voters anyway next year, instead of this fall.
Supporters said it’s time to replace
The new entity,
Critics accused the bill’s supporters of underestimating the cost of buying the utility companies and said ratepayers would be saddled with billions of dollars of debt from the purchase and litigation.
The bill came at a time of frustration with CMP, the state’s largest electric utility, over a botched rollout of a billing system, slow response to storm damage and power outages, and a controversial utility corridor that would serve as a conduit for Canadian hydropower.
The bill won bipartisan support in the
The veto came a day after an independent audit conducted for the
But the report also said “it remains prudent to question the sustainability of the positive changes that have occurred.”
Berry said “modest improvements” cited in the report were in response to the bill that aimed to replace the utilities, and that those improvements will “go away as soon as this bill goes away."
The veto was not a surprise. Mills previously called the proposal “a rosy solution to a very complicated series of problems.”
On Tuesday, she reiterated her concerns about the bill, calling it "a patchwork of political promises rather than a methodical reformation of Maine’s complicated electrical transmission and distribution system.”
She said she had a number of concerns including who'd operate the grid, the potential loss of property taxes for several communities, and the bill's language that could affect the tax-exempt status of bonds.
She said she wasn’t closing the door on a takeover of the utilities but said she wants more time and effort to go into the vetting.
In the meantime, she said the state should step up its regulatory efforts through the
“Maine regulators cannot fix this problem any more than a mouse can tame a cat," Dunn said.
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