AG: ME Gov's plan to pay off hospital debt is constitutional

AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine's attorney general signaled Tuesday that Gov. Paul LePage's proposal to pay back the state's $484 million hospital debt using a revenue bond backed by future liquor sales could stand up to constitutional scrutiny in court. Attorney General Janet Mills' signoff on the bill's constitutionality addresses one of the remaining concerns voiced by Democrats about the hospital debt payoff portion of LePage's bill, which proposes using future proceeds from a renegotiated state wholesale liquor contract to pay down Maine's outstanding debt to its 39 hospitals.