Stuck in a Budget Mess, a Government Shutdown Looms in Maine
State Capitol Building in Augusta, Maine Joseph Sohm / Shutterstock.com
Partisan politics could withhold vital state services from citizens and visitors in the Pine Tree State.
Maine’s state government hasn’t shut down in 24 years, but lack of compromise on income tax cuts and welfare reform threatens to derail budget negotiations before the June 30 deadline.
Back in 1991, the sticking point was worker’s compensation, and government remained closed more than two weeks—suspending a number of citizen services.
State parks and beaches might close right when summer tourism picks up, though Republican Gov. Paul LePage hasn’t said yet what government functions will cease.
“The department has faced similar situations in the past,” Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry spokesman John Bott told the Portland Press Herald. “At this point, we do not want to alarm our dedicated employees, who are doing great work to make visits to Maine State Parks and historic sites enjoyable outdoor experiences.”
While Mainers and visitors found they could sneak into public parks and beaches for free during the 1991 shutdown, a 65-year-old man collapsed and died at Popham Beach State Park without lifeguards to help him, the Press Herald reported, and returning state employees had a lot of cleanup work and vandalism to contend with.
Around 10,000 state workers were furloughed, halting vehicle licensing and permitting; slowing Medicaid, food stamp and welfare application approvals; limiting the abuse and neglect cases Health and Human Services could take on to emergencies; and stopping the issuance of new unemployment benefits.
This time around, an estimated 5,000 state government employees would lose pay immediately in the event of a shutdown and 6,000 more if it runs longer than a week, Bangor Daily News reported.
“Our members are very worried,” Maine State Employee Association Political Director MaryAnne Turowski told the newspaper. “We have to take it seriously because we’ve been here and done this. The consequences were dire. So we have to take it seriously and have to ask our members to contact their legislators and tell them how critical it is that they support a bipartisan budget.”
Turowski was union president in 1991.
Essential personnel kept on during a shutdown typically consist of public safety personnel, and while LePage has floated the idea of passing an interim budget to keep all services going, state Attorney General Janet Mills shot that down saying Maine law requires a balanced budget for government to function.
July 1 marks the start of the new fiscal year, which is why the $6.6 billion budget must be approved a day earlier and really by June 18, so the legislature has time to try and overturn LePage’s veto—assuming he waits the full 10 days he has to take action on the bill.
LePage threatened to veto if the budget lacks income tax cuts and limited welfare, Republicans pushing for decreased spending to offset the loss in tax revenue.
Before Wednesday, it seemed like a deal to expand Maine’s 5.5 percent sales tax to cover more services while slightly cutting the income tax was close, but Democrats want that cut to benefit the middle class and not wealthy residents.
“We have an opportunity and a responsibility and that window of opportunity and responsibility is closing fast,” Republican Senate President Mike Thibodeau told The Washington Times. “We don’t have days and days to do this before we get ourselves in a situation where we don’t have a budget and people aren’t going to work.”
Some outsiders looking in expect a budget to be passed before deadline and don’t appreciate the political stalling tactics and fear-mongering currently pervading the legislature and executive office.
LePage proposed his budget on Jan. 9 without any counters for three months, Maine Heritage Policy Center CEO Matthew Gagnon pointed out:
Yet since 2007, we have consistently brought it down to the wire, passing budgets in June three times (2007, 2011, 2013), and late May once (2009). This year, we are already into mid-June, and we may not have a final budget until the very last moment.
The result? A frantic mess, whereby lawmakers start fiddling with (and adding) tens of millions of taxpayer dollars in their Excel spreadsheets like it is a game, without having more than a very superficial knowledge of what those numbers mean.
So, what will state lawmakers end up doing then to resolve the situation? Gagnon continued that the legislature “will feel obligated to pass something that is clearly a bloated mess simply to avoid the supposed apocalypse that is a government shutdown.”
Stay tuned.
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