BACK IN THE BUDGET

Well before the beginning of the legislative session in January, members of the King administration were predicting that the budget shortfall would be nowhere near the projected $250 million. Their anticipation of a gap that revenue forecasters this week put closer to $160 million gave the administration the advantage of being ready with a list of proposed programs to rejuvenate and deferred tax cuts to meet. Some important items weren’t included in the governor’s list, however, but should be.

First up is the less than $3 million that is required to get back the barest services for community programs for many adult mentally ill Mainers. Almost no one doubts that the state programs require considerably more than that to serve all who qualify, but this money would restore community nonpriority services – those are the General Fund dollars used for services to people who don’t qualify for Medicaid but need community services – and community optional services – which are state programs not required under federal Medicaid and include therapy, skilled teaching, in-home supports and clinical therapy.

Second is the $9.2 million Education Committee members have requested to allow the state to fully fund special education for state wards and state agency clients. Gov. King’s proposed savings under his shortfall budget would shift 20 percent of the cost onto local communities, a step that contradicts state policy and raises questions about the responsibility of service centers to provide for regional education costs. The King administration has indicated all along that it understood the problem and now has the resources to do something about it.

Third is health care funding for poor adults without children – the so-called noncategoricals – who get sick and need care just like everyone else. Medicaid traditionally has not covered this population of uninsured residents. Instead, the cost of their care has been shifted to private payers or absorbed by physicians and hospitals, unless the person simply went without needed care. The cost to the budget is $4 million; the savings to everyone else must at least equal that.

Advocates for the Fund for a Healthy Maine – created by the tobacco settlement money – say they’re tired of the programs in the fund being used as a backup Rainy Day account, and they have a point. Lawmakers properly expect each of the programs in the fund, such as tobacco cessation, child care subsidies, Head Start support, substance-abuse testing and treatment, to stand on their own merits, but often look as them as a group when it is time for cuts. The start-and-stop nature of the funding for these programs has made it difficult for them to hire and retain qualified employees. While the unexpended balances from some of these programs are fair game for closing the shortfall, the programs going forward need and deserve budgets that allow them to operate effectively.

The above programs put about $22 million back in the budget. Gov. King’s list includes needed Medicaid restorations worth $26.6 million and income-tax indexing, worth $6.8 million. Federal tax conformity with estate and education costs would add several more million, still plenty left to put back in the Rainy Day Fund. That leaves a fight over General Purpose Aid to Education, a debate that won’t be fully resolved unless revenue forecasters find another $91 million to patch the budget.