Now that days are long and hot, it’s great to be back in Presque Isle enjoying summer. It was a busy six months in Augusta and the first session of the 127th Maine Legislature is coming to an end. Legislators worked hard together to tackle policy issues that support and strengthen Maine’s way of life.
Last month, in an act of strong bipartisanship, we successfully overrode the governor’s veto of the state’s two-year budget.
By overriding his veto, we prevented a government shutdown that would have devastated people across Maine. If the state had shut down, not only would our dedicated state employees have been affected, but nursing homes, schools and towns would not have received their funding and state parks would have closed right when tourist season was taking off.
When I ran for the Legislature, I promised that I would work hard to ensure that Maine families were taken care of. This budget helps to do just that.
The bipartisan budget compromise was reached after the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee worked for months and listened to testimony from people all over the state who stressed the need for property tax relief and ensuring that the hardworking people of Maine were taken care of.
It was a proud moment in the Legislature to see both parties come together to ensure our state remained open and working for the people of Maine.
The budget we passed ensures that vital services such as our police, fire department and public works are protected. In the governor’s original budget proposal, he wanted to eliminate revenue sharing completely, which would have required critical services to be cut and result in higher property taxes.
For more than 40 years, this agreement between the state and municipal governments has helped keep property taxes in check by providing funds to support public works programs, education for students and other local services. I am glad that we protected this critical program because now more working families will be able to keep more money in their pockets rather than paying higher property tax bills.
In addition to maintaining revenue sharing, we doubled the Homestead Property Tax Credit from $10,000 to $20,000 for all Maine families. There is also a fully paid-for $135 million tax cut per year for 579,000 Maine families, with 75 percent of the benefit going to the bottom 90 percent of families. The Earned Income Tax Credit is now refundable and we nearly doubled the standard deduction, bringing it up to $11,600.
It is extremely important to support Maine’s working families, but we also want to attract and keep young people in our state to work and raise their families.
This budget invests $80 million in K-12 public education, $10 million for scholarships to help Maine students and workers pay for college through the Maine State Grant program and $28 million to the University of Maine System and Maine Community College System. We also invested $1 million in job training.
Investing in higher education and job training means that our workers have the skills necessary for good-paying jobs that benefit our state’s economy.
We cannot forget about Maine’s older adults. Our seniors worked hard in Maine for years and it is time we give back to them. To this end, we rejected $48 million in cuts to the Drugs for the Elderly Program and Medicare Savings Program. We also increased funding to nursing homes by $16.2 million to ensure that our loved ones are well-cared for.
Despite the difficulties that arise with partisan politics, this budget demonstrates the hard work of lawmakers in both parties, who came together to do what is right for Maine.
If you have any questions about the budget or related to state government, please contact me. You can reach me at: SaucierforPI@gmail.com.
