Cost for Maine State Legislature meetings at Augusta Civic Center

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - The legislative session in which lawmakers were sworn in at the Augusta Civic Center cost just over $145,000, including tablets for lawmakers, other technology, lunches and rent.

The cost going forward will be $4,025 a day for rent.

The Maine Legislature has no standing contract to continue using the space, but the auditorium is set up for the lawmakers’ return next month, the civic center’s director Earl Kingsbury, told the Portland Press Herald.

The civic center will be unused if it isn’t utilized for legislators because of the state’s cap on gatherings of 50 people, he said.

In the first year of the previous Legislature, lawmakers held floor sessions in the Statehouse on 57 days.

The cost to taxpayers will be about $229,000 if lawmakers gather that many days at the civic center.

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