The public’s chance to weigh in on the proposed 2009 supplemental budget begins at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 5 when the Legislature’s Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee is scheduled to oversee three days of hearings in room 228 of the State House.
The supplemental budget bill’s purpose is to account for an unforeseen reduction in revenue of approximately $140 million, which much be absorbed between now and June 30.
Among a lengthy list of cuts proposed across state government are 94 positions, $27 million in state funding for education, an inmate housing facility in Charleston and psychiatric center in Bangor, and reimbursements to small hospitals and hospitals that employ doctors. Gov. John Baldacci proposes to use $45 million from the state’s cash reserves as a means of avoiding more reductions in services. That fund has about $169 million in it.
As next week’s public hearings progress, the relevant policy committees will join the Appropriations Committee to hear and receive testimony. Because of the long agenda, speakers will likely be limited to five minutes or less, though written testimony is welcome, according to an analyst for the Appropriations Committee.
Unless the Legislature opts to make major changes to Baldacci’s proposals, next week’s meetings constitute the only public hearings on the supplemental budget, which Senate President Libby Mitchell (D-Vassalboro) has said she hopes is adopted by the end of January.
The hearings begin with the departments of transportation and public safety, followed by the Dept. of Health and Human Services, which are scheduled to last most of the day until hearings for the Dept. of Corrections begin at approximately 4 p.m.
Hearings resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday for the Dept. of Economic Development, followed by the Department of Labor at 10 a.m. and the Dept. of Education at 11 a.m.
Beginning on Wednesday at 1 p.m., 1 p.m., hearings will commence on numerous budgets, including those for natural resources, financial matters, veteran’s affairs, the judiciary and the Legislature itself. A detailed schedule of the hearings is available on the Office of Fiscal and Program Review’s web site at www.maine.gov/legis/ofpr/appropriations_committee/schedule_agendas/index.htm.
(Statehouse News Service)