AUGUSTA — Here is a look at some of the major issues that will confront the second regular session of the 117th Maine Legisla- ture:
Productivity Realization Task Force — The controversial cost-cutting panel will attempt to complete its work by finding $20 million in additional savings. That would bring the total saved by the panel’s recommendations to $45 million in the current two-year budget period.
Last month in special session, the Legislature approved the first $25 million in savings recommended by the task force. That included the elimination of 809 state jobs, many of them vacant.
Observers think finding the last $20 million will be more difficult, but the task force can count on another substantial amount of savings from the Department of Human Services.
Two of the departments that have proven most controversial to cut — Education and Mental Health and Mental Retardation — remain to be considered by the task force. Also remaining are several other state departments and the state court system.
The law creating the task force gives the Legislature little leeway. Once Gov. Angus S. King forwards the task force recommendations, the Legislature has only three working days to accept the package or come up with its own plan with equivalent savings. Otherwise, King can implement all of the task force recommendations.
Revenue shortfall — Revenue forecasters have predicted a shortfall by June 30 of about $16 million. Through the end of November, revenues were $8.4 million below projections.
King will try to remedy the shortfall with a supplemental budget that takes effect before the end of the fiscal year. His legislative aide, Kay Rand, said the supplemental budget will not be built on laying off state workers. King already imposed an order curtailing discretionary spending that may take much of the sting out of the shortfall.
Federal cuts — When the federal budget impasse is finally solved, Maine could be looking at some major cuts in federal aid. The area of greatest interest is Medicaid block grants in which the state would get less money but have more freedom in deciding how it is distributed. A big federal cut could require budgetary changes in this session.
“We think we may be in relatively good shape for the budgeted two years, even though there may be cuts down the road,” said House Speaker Dan A. Gwadosky, D-Fairfield.
Closing AMHI — While nothing is definite right now, King could introduce a bill to close the Augusta Mental Health Institute sometime in the coming year. That would leave Bangor Mental Health Institute as the only state mental hospital.
King has said the state can afford only one state mental hospital and Mental Health Commissioner Melodie Peet has recommended that AMHI be closed and BMHI left open. The Legislature has banned the productivity task force from taking up the hospital closing issue.
Advocates for the mentally ill strenuously oppose any hasty closing of AMHI, arguing that facilities for mentally ill people to live in communities have not been set up.
Sen. Joan Pendexter, R-Scarborough, Senate chairwoman of the Human Resources Committee, favors a speedy closing of AMHI, saying it would save the state money that could be spent on community services for the mentally ill.
“I think the time has come for AMHI to close its doors,” said Pendexter. “I think by July, there will only be about 50 patients there. It’s going to be a big political fight. The right thing to do is to close it.”
Magnet school — Gov. King opposed the Maine School for Science and Mathematics, which opened in September in Limestone, because he said the state couldn’t afford to create special schools for exceptional students. But King finally relented and the school opened with state funding.
Now a new battle could erupt over a magnet school for the arts, the Maine School of Visual and Performing Arts, that is proposed for the Portland area. Money may be hard to find for that school, which is due to open in 1997, but southern Maine lawmakers are likely to put up a strong fight on behalf of the school.
Widening the Maine Turnpike — Senate President Jeffrey H. Butland, R-Cumberland, is sponsoring a bill to give the Maine Turnpike Authority permission to sell bonds for the widening of the southern portion of the Maine Turnpike.
Maine voters defeated the $100 million widening project in a 1991 referendum, but lawmakers paved the way for the project last year by removing some of the impediments to the project contained in the referendum.
Relaxation spas — A bill sponsored by Rep. Edward Povich, D-Ellsworth, would make it illegal to touch the genitals during a full body massage. Genital massage has been allowed under a loophole in a previous state law.
A profusion of relaxation spas offering genital massage prompted Bangor, Ellsworth and other communities to enact ordinances banning them.
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