House enacts budget compromise

State budget closes $190 million structural gap: restores cuts to health care, no new taxes, no rainy day fund

March 31, 2008

AUGUSTA – The Maine House of Representatives passed the supplemental state budget to be enacted by a vote of 84-55 at around 9 p.m. Monday evening. The budget will now go to the State Senate for final enactment and then to Governor Baldacci, who has said he will sign it into law.

Governor Baldacci proposed his changes to the state budget early in the year in response to a $190 million structural gap due to a struggling national economy and cuts to health care from the federal government. His budget proposal contained a number of severe cuts, including elimination in some cases, to a number of state programs in the heath and human services section of the budget – including funds for domestic violence prevention, prescription drugs for the poorest Maine people, the Maine AIDS alliance, mental health services for children, higher education and a number of other services.

The Governor made it clear early on that he would not sign a budget that raises taxes or dips into the State’s rainy day fund, so the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee was left tasked with adjusting the budget in order to prevent the worst cuts in the proposal without adjusting revenues. Working well into the night every day for more than two straight weeks and plagued by the flu, the Committee worked toward a budget compromise that had bipartisan agreement on all but the last few million dollars.

The parties split over a Republican proposal to close the budget largely by taking away health care from around 22,000 Maine people living in poverty. Democrats worked to find savings throughout other portions of the budget to protect that health care, saying that it was a difference of party morals and priorities and that taking health care away from people will only hurt all Mainers down the road.

“Their average income is less than $5,000 per year,” said House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, on the House floor. “They’re often in the early stages of psychosis, they’re homeless, they’re in substance abuse programs, and they’re sometimes battling serious illnesses like cancer.”

We’re going through an incredibly difficult economic time in our state and country,” Pingree continued. “I’ll go to bed and sleep well tonight knowing that I was able to stick up for those people.”

Today both chambers passed the House bill but removed an amendment that aimed to support rural hospitals through a rebasing of the hospital tax structure, with an aim to pass that measure as a separate bill the same night.

Pingree, a third-term member who served on the Appropriations Committee in 2003 when the State faced a $1.2 billion shortfall and as Chairwoman of the Health and Human Services Committee in 2005, said that this supplemental budget was the most difficult she’s faced but Democrats led in making it as responsible a budget as possible.

“We’re keeping domestic violence shelters open,” she said. “We’re continuing to provide home care for elders to make sure they don’t end up in nursing homes. We’re providing mental health care for our kids.”

As of 10 p.m., the State Senate had not convened to take a final vote, but is expected to pass the bill. It will then go to Governor Baldacci to sign into law.

Contact: Travis Kennedy, Communications Director, 287-1433