January 5, 2009     Reported By: A.J. Higgins

Lawmakers on the Appropriations Committee began their first week of the new legislative session with dueling budget shortfalls - one that must be solved now and another that will require further study.  A 140 million dollar supplemental budget is expected to go to the floor of the House later this month in an effort to keep the state in the black through June 30. And on Friday, the governor will unveil his new two-year budget that is expected to impose broad spending cuts to close a projected an 850 million dollar revenue gap.

It's difficult to imagine a $140 million shortfall as a small problem.  But all things are relative and a $140 million budget gap today is only a fraction of the $850 million deficit lawmakers will face six months from now. State Representative Emily Cain, an Orono Democrat, says it's hard for all parties involved in the budget process to separate one shortfall from the other.  "So far we're seeing that members of the public and advocates are gauging what they're bringing forward to us now based on what might be looming in the biennial budget. So far we're running pretty streamlined public hearings today and we hope to continue that in the next three days.  The bottom line is we're asking the commissioners to keep their testimony to a bare minimun this week so we can hear from every member of the public who chooses to show up."

Cain serves as House chair of the Appropriations Committee which has adopted an accelerated three-day schedule for reviewing proposed spending reductions due to a projected $140 million drop in state revenues during the final six months of the current budget cycle that ends on June 30.  Governor John Baldacci would like the committee to complete its work quickly to allow the state to receive the benefits of his proposal that includes 40 state worker layoffs and a $45 million transfer from the state's Rainy Day Fund. Cain says it will be difficult for the committee to shape its recommendations until it receives Baldacci's plan for the next two-year budget cycle.

"I think our questions will really revolve around how is this setting us up to do our work on the biennial budget?" she says.  "The biennial budget is going to be released on Friday afternoon.  We're going to have a briefing immediately following the Governor's press conference in our committee room, because really that biennial budget is the context for the supplemental budget.  So I think it's too soon to say today exactly how we'll be judging the Governor's proposal in this supplemental budget until we hear about the biennial budget on Friday."

Although there are several far-reaching cutbacks contained in $26 million in cuts to the state Department of Health and Human Services, Commissioner Brenda Harvey generated some significant response from one particular area.  "This is a reduction of $62,000 to a variety of contracts as a result of the Governor's curtailment order.  The Maine Medical Center, providing employment supports the NAMI, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, and the Maine Center on Deafness by 10 percent each."

Harvey's proposed $10,000 reduction to the Maine chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness was challenged by several speakers who argued that the agency had already made major concessions in the last state budget. Charles Veit, who serves on the board of the Amistad group in Portland that assists those with mental illness and their families says the impact of the reduction would be felt statewide.
"We implore you to take a moment before taking the cut to NAMI's budget this year.  Ten thousand dollars seems like a lot of money but the cost of hospitalization, emergency response services, the quality CIT training that the state would lose.  Most importantly, the quality of support and care for people in Maine would suffer immensely."

And while committee members assessed the impact of the governor's proposal to close one of two housing units at the Charleston Correctional Facility, Corrections Commissioner Marty Magnusson warned more changes are coming. "And I know it looks like Charleston is sticking out.  Unfortunately, when you all see the bienneial budget on Friday Charleston won't be sticking out anymore.  There will be recommendations to the Legislature of several other downsizings.  Charleston came first in the supplemental, but that's not all that's going to be required that we're going to be presenting to you."

Hearings on the governor's supplemental budget are scheduled through Wednesday.