(The Center Square) — Maine lawmakers will begin the new year with fatter paychecks under a previously approved law that bumps up pay by more than 60% for members of the part-time Legislature.
Beginning this month, when the new legislative session begins, lawmakers’ salaries will grow from $25,000 to $45,000 for their two-year terms.
The raises, projected to cost about $1.7 million this year, will be phased in over the next two years. Lawmakers will be paid $25,000 for the first regular session, which ends on June 18, and another $20,000 for the second regular session, which ends on April 15, 2026. They will also receive an annual cost-of-living adjustment to their salary, allowances for meals and lodging and reimbursement for commuting to the state capitol.
Maine shelled out $1.7 million in reimbursements for lawmakers during the 2023 legislative session, according to state data.
The pay raises were approved in 2023 as part of legislation that also increased the governor’s salary from $70,000 to $125,000 beginning in 2028. Under state law, Gov. Janet Mills can’t benefit from the pay changes.
Maine’s governor has the lowest compensation in the country, according to the National Governors Association. It was last increased in 1987.
Meanwhile, many Maine workers will see their paychecks shrink beginning with the New Year as a new payroll tax that funds the state’s new paid family and medical leave program goes into effect.
Under the new law, workers can take up to 12 weeks of paid leave a year when the benefits kick in beginning next year, including for the birth of a child, a medical condition and caring for family members with serious health conditions. Workers and businesses with 15 or more employees will split the cost of a new 1% payroll tax. The new tax will impact more than 90% of the state’s workforce.
Republicans said they plan to file emergency legislation to defund the paid leave program, which the Democratic control and state Legislature approved.
“Mainers are still dealing with the effects of high inflation, high gas, grocery, healthcare, and energy costs caused by Democrats’ out of touch big government policies,” the proposal’s primary sponsor, state Rep. Joshua Morris, R-Turner, said in a statement. “Republicans must fight harder than we ever have against these costly bad ideas and on behalf of Maine’s workforce.”