MECEP Newsroom

AUGUSTA — I learned long ago that I better look before I leap.

It may seem like a simple adage, but asking a lot of questions about proposed policies has served me well through life.

Just because someone promises an easy answer to a problem, is it, in fact, the best answer? Does one solution bring with it more problems down the road?

I've been asking a lot of these questions recently and the answers I am getting are leading me to question parts -- though not all -- of the proposed supplemental state budget.

In two recent editorials ("D.C., Augusta tale of two budgets," Feb. 5 and "State should act more like cities and towns," Feb. 7), the MaineToday Media newspapers' editorial board has essentially been advocating for the Legislature to stop asking inconvenient questions and rubber-stamp the governor's proposal to balance the state budget.

But I am here to say that I think the founders of our nation were right to propose separate, co-equal branches of government and that the Legislature will review the governor's request, ask tough questions, and then weigh the answers we receive.

As the House chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, I sat through many hours of presentations on the governor's proposal to address closing a $438 million budget shortfall. In the area of human services, there are about $62 million in proposed cuts. In work sessions this past week, some members of the committee voted to reject portions of those cuts, but not all of them.

We simply have too many questions about how clients and employers will cope with the reductions.

It sounds easy to tell Maine's nursing homes that they will just have to get by with 10 percent less funding. But when you know that will probably mean that they can no longer make payrolls, pay for heat and power, I wonder if this is the best answer to the problems we face and also what set of problems we are trading this for.

In the last 12 months, state revenues have fallen by $1.15 billion. Despite what you may hear from critics, the Legislature has made significant cuts in state spending to adjust to these shortfalls and improve efficiency.

Last session, we cut $556 million from the budget, making it the first time since 1974 that a budget was smaller than the prior year's.

While significant efficiencies were found last session and in previous years, many state programs and services have been cut to the bone, leaving the Legislature with difficult choices as we look to balance the upcoming budget.

The Department of Health and Human Services has 300 fewer employees than it did in 2005, but their caseload in MaineCare, Maine's Medicaid program, has increased by 120,000 in the last eight years.

We've combined state agencies and departments, school administrations, and county and state corrections facilities to cut costs.

The state also implemented spending caps at state, county and local levels of government in order to control spending and promote transparency in budgeting.

The cuts are significant. And the consequences may be, too. We must think long and hard about what future cuts may mean for the preservation of our safety net and for the ability of our state to recover from this recession.

The Maine Center for Economic Policy reviewed the budget proposal and has done an analysis on its impact on employment in Maine.

With cuts to local school aid, Maine's public colleges and universities and health care, Maine could see support for as many as 10,000 jobs disappear.

Funding for many health care initiatives receives a nearly 3-to-1 match with federal dollars. So, for every dollar that the state cuts, businesses see the loss of four dollars.

Should the Legislature approve all of the proposals to make cuts in health care, the state would see as many as 6,500 jobs eliminated from the state.

The cuts would not only cost jobs at Maine's hospitals, nursing homes and other health care settings, but throughout our state's economy.

There are some glimmers of hope that we are slowly emerging from this recession. But adding 6,500 to the jobless rolls would only keep Maine in a longer, deeper recession.

It may feel good to say that we should rubber-stamp the governor's proposals, but the Legislature's job is to hear from those impacted and consider the ramifications.

Some of these cuts go too far. The Legislature is grappling with alternatives and it is too early to predict how this will end.