After vowing to veto all bills until his hospital debt payment plan was enacted, Gov. Paul LePage today signed the St. Patrick's Day bill.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) _ Gov. Paul LePage has signed a bill to allow bars to serve alcohol a few hours earlier on St. Patrick's Day, which is this Sunday.

The governor had vowed to veto any bill that reached his desk before his proposal to pay a state debt to hospitals passed. But he signed the St. Patrick's Day bill Friday as a goodwill gesture to Democrats, who moved closer this week toward agreement with the Republican governor on how to address the state's $484 million Medicaid debt to hospitals.

Current state law prohibits the sale of liquor on Sundays between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. The bill would roll back the earliest opening to 6 a.m. when St. Patrick's Day or New Year's Day falls on a Sunday.