The closure of a section of Charleston Correctional Facility and a reduction in state payments to hospitals were on a track toward being spared last week as legislative committees scrutinized spending cuts proposed by Gov. John Baldacci.
The Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety chose to delay the controversial closure of a housing unit at Charleston Correctional Facility, opting instead for other reductions that save the same amount of money.
The Health and Human Services Committee, meanwhile, spent much of last week wrestling with proposed cuts in funding for hospitals, but as of Friday had not reached consensus about what to do.
Both of these changes – and the rest of the supplemental budget – faced the scrutiny of the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee, which aims to submit the revamped budget package to the full Legislature by Friday. The measure is necessary because of a $140 million revenue downturn that affects money already budgeted. Legislative leaders have said they aim to approve the budget package by the end of January so its effects can be spread over as long a time as possible.
Sen. Peter Mills, R-Cornville, who is part of a subcommittee that has been focusing on the hospital funding issue, said Friday that he and other legislators needed the weekend to sort through “a number of options” that would avert funding cuts for small hospitals and hospitals that employ doctors.
“They’ve flooded us with information,” said Mills of various groups who have testified against the proposals. “We’re looking at a number of ways of getting out of this biennium (without making the cuts), but they’re only temporary solutions. Some of us would like to solve the problem permanently.”
Mills said he and many other lawmakers are convinced that the proposed cuts would threaten health care services for too many Mainers, particularly those who go to small hospitals.
Hospital administrators, along with various health care advocates, have rallied against the cuts, which would cost hospitals almost $13 million in state and federal funding between now and June 30, according to Baldacci’s budget document. Mary Mayhew of the Maine Hospital Association estimates that the loss to hospitals would be close to $33 million a year if the proposals become permanent.
“We await the recommendations of the subcommittee,” states a written report of the Health and Human Services Committee’s findings. “We have delayed making decisions on these items since they have the potential to significantly impact access to acute care, specialty care and primary health care services across the entire state.”
The Health and Human Services Committee was scheduled to present its findings to the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee this week.
In a series of work sessions last week, the Criminal Justice Committee developed an alternative to closing a housing unit at Charleston Correctional Facility, which has been operating as a temporary measure to ease overcrowding. The facility’s fate remains in question, however, because portions of at least three other Department of Corrections facilities are proposed for closure during the next biennial budget, which begins July 1.
Sen. Stan Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick, who chairs the committee, said it will be more appropriate for the facilities cuts in the Department of Corrections to be considered as a single budget item instead of being spread between two separate debates. That will allow a new state Board of Corrections, which was formed last session as part of a reconfiguration of county jails, the time and opportunity to weigh in on the issue.
Rep. Anne Haskell, D-Portland, who co-chairs the Criminal Justice Committee with Gerzofsky, agreed.
“We’d like the Board of Corrections to have the opportunity to be a part of the discussion,” said Haskell. “It seems like we are pre-empting their decision.”
Closing the Charleston facility would have saved approximately $560,000 in the current budget. The committee continued work on an alternative proposal over the weekend but last week had identified several other cuts that help make up the difference. They included reductions in prisoner advocate positions and training funds, curtailments of several third-party contracts and savings in utility, vehicle and boarding costs.
The Appropriations Committee had work sessions scheduled all this week and a goal of completing its work on the supplemental budget by Friday.
(Statehouse News Service)
