Statecorrections costs widen budget deficit Staff, inmate expenses add to revenue shortfall

AUGUSTA – Budget problems continue to worsen by the week for the Baldacci administration, which confirmed Friday that a new shortfall of as much as $6 million had been identified for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

Jane Lincoln, chief of staff for Gov. John E. Baldacci, said the latest revenue shortfall means the governor’s budget writers may have to cut up to $23 million over the next four months in order to balance the books for the state.

The administration’s spokeswoman said new expenses of between $4 million to $6 million were found in the state Department of Corrections stemming from added staffing expenses and insurance premium increases for health care services provided to prison inmates.

“The department cannot completely self-fund its collective bargaining costs – largely because of the issue of overtime,” she said. “The health insurance contract is experiencing a cost increase, and we’re meeting on that to determine whether there are different alternatives to reducing the costs.”

The overtime is necessary because of a shortage of corrections officers and the need to cover work shifts at the state’s prisons.

Last week, the state Revenue Forecasting Committee concluded revenues in the current budget cycle would fall $17.3 million short of targeted goals because of lowered expectations for retail sales – particularly automobile sales – and for personal income growth.

Lincoln said the administration was aware of the potential for the added budget costs when the new revenue figures were released last week. She said Friday that she did not foresee any new current budget problems on the horizon that could further deficits.

The administration has yet to identify how it plans to plug the new holes in its current fiscal year budget package. Lincoln readily admits that nearly all of the significant lapsed balances in department accounts were swept clean on Feb. 13 when Baldacci signed a $44 million supplemental budget fix.

The governor remains steadfastly opposed to introducing any new or temporary tax increases as a revenue solution. Instead, Lincoln said Baldacci is asking his department heads to identify further savings through streamlining and reconsolidation.

Ten years ago, Gov. John R. McKernan solved his own budget crisis, in part, by pushing some state payments due to municipalities and agencies for the month of June into July, the first month of the new fiscal year. Lincoln doesn’t like that option, but added the administration isn’t ruling it out.

“We would make an effort to avoid that,” she said. “It has not been a basis of discussion or under consideration in the deliberations that we’ve had.”

Baldacci’s budget writers are also looking at the governor’s next $5.3 billion budget, which would become effective July 1, to determine whether there are some savings that could be moved forward into the current budget cycle.

“That way, we could start the savings earlier,” Lincoln said. “But we know we’re going to have to take a far more surgical approach to this because we are nearly in the last quarter of the fiscal year, so the funds that are available are limited. We’re taking a very careful review.”