Budget panel swiftly OKs cuts Second round of votes trims $10 million from aid for schools

AUGUSTA – Legislative negotiators opened deliberations on Gov. Angus King’s $229 million budget-balancing package Thursday by approving initiatives to close the gap by more than $60 million in a flurry of unanimous votes.

“It’s a love fest,” said Rep. Paul Tessier, D-Fairfield, as the rapid series of tallies began.

Without debate and with few words spoken, Appropriations Committee members rolled through the first round of voting in about 15 minutes.

The swiftness of the panel’s initial action offered a sharp contrast to the long lead-up to this month’s public hearings on the budget package.

For weeks, Democratic and Republican leaders had sparred over when the committee should be put to work.

Leaders have yet to agree on when King should call the full Legislature back to the State House for a special session, at which any budget package would have to be enacted.

No one took the speed of the panel’s first votes Thursday as a sign that a final accord could be reached easily.

“Oh, we have a ways to go yet,” Tessier said shortly before the committee paused for more private meetings among Democrats and Republicans.

Independent Sen. Jill Goldthwait of Bar Harbor, a co-chair of the committee, pronounced herself pleased with the panel’s early pace but added, “I don’t know if you can extrapolate from that.”

Potentially more contentious items lay ahead.

But on a second round of votes, a $10 million cut in general purpose aid for local schools won endorsement without debate or dissent.

Among other large items winning approval Thursday was a $10 million transfer from a working capital reserve to the state General Fund. Another $9.3 million was green-lighted for transfer to the General Fund from the state Highway Fund.

Committee members voted to book $6.7 million in salary savings identified by the King administration and $5.1 million in savings from lower interest rates identified by state Treasurer Dale McCormick.

Also approved were projected savings of about $4 million generated by three so-called furlough days planned by the King administration.

The first two furlough days, on which most state offices were closed, took place July 5 and Oct. 11.

King’s package was designed to offset a revenue shortfall in an overall fiscal year budget of $2.7 billion.

One major King initiative would net an estimated $48 million by rescheduling payments under Maine’s business equipment tax reimbursement program.

Others envision savings of $17 million from the delay or elimination of planned tax reductions and gains of nearly $14 million from Medicaid provider taxes.

In total, King wants lawmakers to endorse nearly $60 million in temporary curbs on spending that he has already begun to implement.

Additional legislative action would be needed to generate savings or revenue worth about $170 million more.

Even assuming approval of the governor’s package in its entirety, the King administration projects a “structural gap” – or imbalance between anticipated revenue and spending demands – of more than $787 million for the next two-year budget cycle.

Saying he was speaking in relative terms, Republican Rep. Tom Winsor of Norway suggested that Thursday’s smooth opening could soon give way to more difficult issues.

“That was the easy stuff,” he said during the panel’s second break.

Some panelists also wondered if other legislators, who would be called on to consider a final Appropriations Committee product, were paying attention.

“We’re fiddling down here while Rome is burning upstairs,” said Sen. Peter Mills, R-Skowhegan.