AUGUSTA — Despite the fact that most of Gov. Paul LePage’s budget priorities were pushed out of consideration weeks ago, his influence over negotiations was evident even in the final moments before the House and Senate took their long-awaited enactment votes early Wednesday morning.

And now that the budget is back in LePage’s hands, he is likely to exert his will again. Just as he has established during his four-plus years in office, LePage will veer toward the unprecedented.

Late Monday night, legislative leaders announced that they had forged a deal, but last-minute maneuvering by LePage threatened to unravel the tenuous accord.

The sticking point turned out to be welfare for immigrants, but a new conflict over details erupted.

The battle over asylum seekers

Part of the budget deal involved the availability of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, food supplement and Supplemental Security Income benefits for asylum seekers and other immigrants. LePage, backed by a solid bloc of Republican legislators, has tried to cut off those benefits, a concept that Democrats have fiercely opposed.

A provision negotiated into the budget would have capped those benefits at 240 days, which was thought to be enough time for asylum-seeking immigrants to be granted work permits or citizenship by the federal government. Until that happens, they are by law not allowed to work.

For LePage and some Republicans, it was a win because it meant Democrats had finally agreed to eventually cut the programs. For Democrats, it looked better than just cutting those people — estimated to number close to 1,000 in Portland alone — from the social service rolls immediately.

Then late Tuesday, LePage’s office indicated in a letter to lawmakers that the governor now saw the provision as a potential expansion of the program because many asylum seekers have citizenship granted in fewer than 240 days. That change in position followed a Maine Superior Court decision last week that found the state does not have to reimburse cities and towns for the aid that they give to asylum seekers and other immigrants. So it appears that LePage sees a path to accomplishing his goal outside the budget bill.

It was a tough concession for Democrats, particularly the Portland-area delegation, who fear that too many immigrants and their families will be forced into dire situations if they lose benefits during their transition to citizenship and the American workplace. Several lawmakers from the Portland area voted against the budget.

The budget has been sent to LePage. Now what?

The governor has 10 days, not including Sunday, to sign or veto the overall budget, or let it go into effect without his signature. But there’s another method of opposition that LePage can exercise: the line-item veto.

Late last week, LePage exercised the line-item veto on LD 856, which involves funding for a scholarship program. On Tuesday, the Senate made history for taking up a line-item veto for the first time ever on a non-budget bill. The line-item vetoes were overridden.

LePage said Tuesday afternoon that he intends to use the line-item veto on the biennial budget bill.

“I’m going to line-item veto a whole lot of stuff and keep them here to do that,” said LePage on the Howie Carr radio show.

How line-item vetoes work

According to the law, LePage will have to act quickly if line-item vetoes are his intent.

• He must issue his line-item vetoes within 24 hours of receiving the budget bill, which was enacted in the Senate at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.

• The governor can only reduce dollar amounts with line-item vetoes.

• Unlike vetoes of entire bills, which require two-thirds votes to override, the fate of line-item vetoes are determined by simple majority votes.

• The Legislature must vote on each line-item veto individually.

• After the Legislature votes on the line-item vetoes, the governor can still veto the entire bill, provided he does it within 10 days of when the bill originally came to him from the Legislature.

“So you’re going to veto all the tax increases and fee increases?” asked Carr of LePage.

“Sure,” said the governor. “I’m going to go back to my budget and we’ll see what happens.”