Analyzing the governor’s proposed budget
By Rep. John Martin
(D-Eagle Lake)
I am again serving on the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee. The committee oversees General Fund appropriations and general fiscal policy, federal funds allocations and financial evaluation of agencies of state government.
We are currently working on the biennial budget, which will guide our state’s spending over the next two years. Gov. Paul LePage’s budget proposal is complex and includes major changes to state tax policy that warrant careful analysis.
We have been listening to and reviewing testimony from the public as they offer their insights about the proposed budget. Hearing from constituents helps us as legislators to make thoughtful and informed decisions about the policy we are crafting.
Producing a balanced budget that works for the people of Maine is one of our most important jobs as legislators. As we seek to make state government more efficient and cost effective, we must make sure that vital services stay intact.
Members of the committee must work together to form this budget. It takes a bipartisan approach to balancing a budget that is representative of all Maine people.
The impact this budget would have on rural communities, their residents and their small businesses is a great concern.
Two key components in LePage’s plan are to tax non-profit organizations and eliminate revenue sharing for towns and cities.
Revenue sharing has been in place for more than 40 years. The governor’s proposal would end the practice in which the state returns a small portion of sales and income taxes revenues to communities. The elimination of revenue sharing could result in our towns having to raise property taxes or cut critical local services such as police departments and funding for schools.
The governor claims that his elimination of revenue sharing can be partly offset by imposing new property taxes on certain non-profit organizations. The new taxes would apply to non-profits with property worth more than a half-million dollars.
However, more than 400 Maine towns do not have any non-profits of that size to tax. In fact, most towns in Aroostook County would not benefit from the governor’s budget.
I have serious reservations about the impact some of these proposals will have on property taxpayers. I am also concerned that many Mainers will be affected because of proposed cuts to programs that help the elderly pay for health care and medication and that serve children with mental illness and autism.
The suggested cuts to the Medicaid Savings Plan and the Drugs of the Elderly Program drew particularly intense criticism during our public hearings.
Both programs assist our most vulnerable citizens. The Medicaid Savings Plan helps low-income seniors and individuals with disabilities pay for some of their health care costs, such as doctor visits, preventative care, ambulance services, outpatient care and, in some cases, with prescriptions and deductibles. Drugs for the Elderly helps very poor seniors – those under 185 percent of the federal poverty level, or $21,774.50 for a household of one – pay for their medication.
An estimated 40,000 elderly and individuals with disabilities would be harmed by the governor’s proposals.
We should not be balancing the budget on the backs of Maine’s most vulnerable citizens. Cutting funding to education and assistance for our elderly is not the way to run our state.
I will continue to work with my colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, to reach a compromise that represents the best interests of all Maine people.
