AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine lawmakers have failed to override Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of a bill that would have canceled his administration’s contract with a consultant examining the state’s Medicaid program.
The Democratic-led House voted 83-63 in favor of overriding the veto on Thursday, falling several votes short of the two-thirds majority support it needed.
Democrats say the administration’s contract with the Alexander Group is a waste of taxpayer dollars and that hiring the group was politically motivated. The group led by the former welfare chief in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania concluded earlier this year that expanding Medicaid under the federal health care law would cost the state more than $800 million over the next decade.
But LePage said in his veto message that the bill is “nothing more than partisan politics.”
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