The grim work of crafting a spending plan for the next two years began Monday with the first of four weeks of scheduled public hearings, which kicked off a process that could consume most of the legislative session.
Despite the infancy of the deliberations, lawmakers from both parties said they already have ideas about where the discussions should lead.
Sen. William Diamond (D-Windham) who co-chairs the Appropriations Committee -which is where many of the budget decisions are made – said he expects many changes to proposals made by Gov. John Baldacci, who presented his spending plan to the Legislature last month. The biennial budget, which will run from July 1 of this year through June 30 of 2011, must account for more than $800 million in reduced revenues due to the sinking economy.
Baldacci’s proposal would cut 219 positions from state government, require state employees to contribute to their health insurance costs, reduce tax rebate programs, increase some license fees, flat-fund public education, reduce spending on healthcare, close Dept. of Corrections facilities in Warren, Machiasport, and Windham, and send some inmates to private prisons outside Maine.
Diamond, the former Senate chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee, said Monday that the Department of Corrections proposals in particular have little chance of making it through the process unscathed.
“I really find that to be a very difficult prospect,” said Diamond of closing corrections facilities. “The fact is, we need those beds, and we’re not going to send any prisoners out of state. That’s not going to happen. There’s no support for it.”
Diamond also said he and other lawmakers will consider the proposal to have state employees pay part of their health insurance costs carefully.
“It’ll be the end of an era if that happens,” he said. “The old days of protecting the classes will be over.”
Sen. Jonathan Courtney (R-Springvale), the assistant Senate minority leader, said he’s hopeful that the bipartisan teamwork exhibited during deliberations over the 2009 Emergency Supplemental Budget will continue.
“No one party has all the solutions,” he said. “We want to evaluate the whole thing to see where we can save some resources. It takes discipline to do that… but people are looking for a redesign of government.”
The Appropriations Committee’s budget hearings, which take place in Room 228 of the State House, are scheduled for a minimum of three days a week between now and March 6. Diamond encouraged anyone with concerns or ideas to attend.
“You’re going to be heard,” Diamond said. “You won’t be wasting your time coming here. We want to hear everybody.”
A host of budget documents, along with the Appropriations Committee’s detailed meeting schedule, are available at the Office of Fiscal Program and Review’s Web site, www.maine.gov/legis/ofpr/appropriations_committee/index.htm, by clicking on the Appropriations Committee’s link. Audio of all hearings is broadcast online at the link www.maine.gov/legis/ofpr/appropriations_committee/audio/index.htm.
“This budget will have some very difficult cuts to nearly every aspect of state government,” said House Speaker Hannah Pingree (D-North Haven) in a press release. “We laid a solid framework for bipartisan cooperation on the supplemental budget last month and I am hopeful that spirit will continue.”
(Statehouse News Service)
