We saw this coming, but it's official now: Maine Governor Paul LePage is a loser.
LePage missed the 10-day window of opportunity to veto a collection of 65 bills, but the governor insisted he still had the authority to do so after the deadline.
After the state legislature and the state attorney general both disagreed with the governor, he took his case to the state supreme court which has now ruled against him.
In an advisory opinion released by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday, the justices said that the bills in question became law without the governor’s signature, and that the Legislature should not be required to consider his attempted vetoes. [...]
On July 16, the last day of the session, LePage attempted to deliver vetoes of 65 bills the Legislature had enacted before it recessed on June 30. House Speaker Mark Eves, a Democrat, and Senate President Michael Thibodeau, a Republican, both rejected the vetoes as out of order.
It's undoubtedly good news that this collection of bills will become law. The collection of 65 bills includes contentious legislation the governor pledged to veto, such as a bill that will fund municipal broadband and a bill that will grant assistance to refugees and asylum seekers. The even better news for state residents, however, is the state budget won't be invalidated today.
In this battle over legislative process which began a month ago, LePage came dangerously close to throwing the entire state into chaos by inadvertently invalidating the state's biennial budget.