State mental health consumers and advocacy groups are trying to convince members of the Legislature's Appropriations Committee to restore $20 million dollars in state cuts to mental health programs for children and adults. They say when federal matching dollars are factored into the equation, the effect of the governor's proposed budget cuts to those services is closer to $65 million dollars.

Elaine Ecker stepped to a podium at the State House flanked by volunteers carrying pennies in five-gallon plastic containers. Ecker is head of the Consumer Council System of Maine, an organization that advocates for the mentally ill. "Any population that is hurt by these proposed cuts, we ask to join us in our 'take our pennies, not our services' campaign," Ecker said at a rally today.

Pennies added to the state' sales tax are what Ecker and other mental health care advocates say would eliminate $20 million in proposed state cuts to mental health services for children and adults. Federal matching dollars for many of the programs packs a wallop that quadruples the impact.

Ecker and her supporters let the pennies flow to demonstrate what a few pennies contributed by Maine's residents could accomplish. "We are willing, and the low-income populations that we represent, are willing to have the sales tax raised a penny so they don't have to bear the whole brunt of this situation, and everyone shares in it equally according to their ability," she said.

"This governor ran on a promise to make Maine the healthiest state," said Valerie Gamache, a board member for the Maine Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Gamache was among the scores of critics attending the Legislature's Appropriations Committee's hearings on Gov. John Baldacci's $438 million supplemental budget.

Gamache said the governor's cuts go too far and aren't applied equitably when compared to other health care reductions in the budget. "This budget eviscerates the MaineCare budget and is particularly hard on mental health. Policy-makers at the state and federal level have for the past 10 years, consistently recognize that mental illness must receive the same coverage as other deadly illnesses like cancer, HIV and heart disease," she said.

The cuts to the mental health programs will almost certainly result in an influx of demands on the state's hospital emergency rooms, according to Dr. Harry Grimmintz, a staff physician at the MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta. Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross agreed, saying that in his more than 30 years in law enforcement, he has never seen such a surge in prisoners with all forms of mental illness.

Ross says cuts to mental health programs will only increase overcrowding at Maine's county jails. "Our local agencies already strapped for manpower are dealing with more and more mentally ill incidences in our communities. Because there are oftentimes no services, those situations end up on the doorsteps of our county jails."

Legislative leaders and rank-and-file lawmakers from both parties, however, agree that now is no time test the governor on his pledge to veto any budget with a tax increase to offset his proposed cuts. State Rep. Linda Valentino, a Saco Democrat, says the 2007 people's veto repeal of the beer and soda tax to fund the Dirigo program shows how strongly Mainers feel about new taxes.

"The people have said 'no,' the governor has said 'no,' and it's up to us now to work the budget and do the least amount of damage possible," Valentino says.

Critics of the cuts suggested that they might seek a people's veto of the governor's budget if mental health spending does not remain frozen at current levels.