The Maine Public Utilities Commission has approved higher electric rates for Central Maine Power customers.

Under the new rates, which take effect July 1, a typical residential customer using 550 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month should expect an increase of $4.91 per month, according to the PUC.

Philip L. Bartlett II, chair of the commission, said the increase is “driven primarily by storm recovery costs.” To soften the blow, costs associated with storms where damage exceeded $15 million will be spread over a two-year period, according to the PUC.

Other contributors to the increase include renewable energy contracts; net energy billing; adjustments to the Efficiency Maine Trust assessment rates; and changes to transmission service rates, which are set by the regional transmission operator and reviewed by federal regulators, according to the PUC.

From 2014 to 2024, Maine’s electricity rates increased at the third fastest rate in the country, from 12.65 cents per kWh to 19.62 cents over that decade, peaking at more than 20 cents in 2023.

A Maine minor was taken into custody and transported to the Long Creek Youth Development Center on Wednesday after two bodies were discovered at a Chelsea residence.

At around 8:37 p.m., Maine State Police troopers arrived at the Windsor Road residence, and found two dead adult men, according to Maine Department of Public Safety spokesperson Shannon Moss.

The bodies were transported to the Maine medical examiners office, where autopsies will be conducted.

The male minor found at the scene was arrested at the Chelsea residence and charged with murder. He is being held at Long Creek Youth Development Center.

Officials do not believe there is a threat to the public at this time. The investigation remains ongoing, and further information was not immediately available Thursday afternoon.

AUGUSTA, Maine — Democrats on the Legislature’s budget committee voted Wednesday to raise the cigarette tax by $1.50 per pack, going further than Gov. Janet Mills’ original proposal and revealing a centerpiece of their upcoming spending bill.

The party-line change would mark the first time Maine has raised that tax in 20 years. It would rise from $2 to $3.50 per pack of cigarettes with a corresponding hike in taxes on other tobacco products. It is expected to generate $111 million over the next two budget years.

That money will be crucial to a planned addition to the $11.3 billion state budget that the Democratic-controlled Legislature passed over Republican opposition in March. After doing that, lawmakers had only $130 million in projected revenue available to spend with $120 million of that earmarked for a budget gap in the Medicaid program.

It sent Democrats scrambling for more money to neutralize cuts to certain programs that Mills made in her January budget proposal and to fund new bills piling up in the State House. They turned to the tobacco tax that Mills proposed raising by $1 per pack in that original plan.

Public health groups pushed for the change by noting that Maine’s tax is the second-lowest in New England despite the state having a higher-than-average cancer rate. Matt Wellington, the associate director of the Maine Public Health Association, called it “a long overdue step that will save lives” and reduce cancer in the state.

Yet critics have noted the tax falls hardest on low-income people. Some Democrats banded with Republicans to kill a flavored tobacco ban last year. Convenience stores have led an aggressive lobbying effort against a tax increase, and conservatives were incensed after the committee vote on Wednesday.

“This is a tax-and-spend budget,” Rep. Ken Fredette, R-Newport, an appropriations committee member, said Wednesday night.

Democrats have taken several party-line votes on the budget in the appropriations committee this week. On Wednesday, they voted against Mills’ proposed cuts to child care subsidies. They have also opposed controversial ambulance and pharmacy tax increases in the governor’s original budget offer.

The budget panel expects to vote on the final budget early Thursday, Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, the committee’s co-chair, said. The full cost of the spending plan won’t be known until then.