BREWER – The working poor in Penobscot County can now earn more money and still qualify for General Assistance for help with housing, food, medical or heating costs. Other areas of the state, however, have seen little or no change to the program.

The increased income guidelines for this “last resort” emergency assistance program, which is run through the town office of each community in the state, also mean these municipalities could spend more money and consequently ask for a bigger reimbursement check from the state at the end of the year, town and city officials affected by the change are saying.

The taxpayer-supported program ran in the red last year when nearly 25 percent more was spent by the state helping more Mainers than expected.

Even so, state officials flat-funded the program at $4.3 million for fiscal year 2005, which ends June 30.

“It doesn’t seem reasonable” not to fully support General Assistance, Sen. Richard Rosen, R-Bucksport, said Thursday. “My guess would be it’s nothing more than wishful thinking on the governor’s part” to expect fewer GA requests.

“It’s not good management of the program,” he said about the flat funding. “It’s simply not being realistic.”

Recent reports issued through the State Planning Office indicate poverty is on the rise in Maine, said Rosen, who sat on the Appropriations Committee last year. He now represents 22 communities in Penobscot and Hancock counties.

“The result of all of this is the failure of the state to recognize the need and fund it in a timely way,” he said. “[That] creates an additional burden on the property taxpayer.”

Indications are good that the 2005-06 budget amount will be around $5.5 million, Cindy Boyd, the state’s GA program manager, said Thursday.

Local spending

For the most part, the state reimburses towns and cities half of their GA amounts. Anyone who qualifies under income guidelines cannot be denied GA assistance.

Locally, both Bangor and Brewer spent more on the poor than they expected in 2004, and city officials are saying they expect to be over budget again this year.

In Brewer, the GA program gave out double what was budgeted last year. With the new increased income guidelines, Nathalie Perry, the city’s Health and Human Service director, said she expects the same trend for this year.

Last year’s budget was $55,240; the actual amount spent in Brewer was $90,375.90.

“Is that normal? No, that’s very high,” Perry said this week. “Usually we stay within the budget.

“It just seems to be, in the last several years, there are more and more requests,” she said. “It’s more households with one person with no income.”

In Bangor, the city placed $1.1 million in coffers for GA for 2004 and spent $1.38 million.

Housing accounts for the biggest portion of Bangor’s GA allocations, with around $1 million in annual costs, Shawn Yardley, Bangor’s director of health and welfare, said.

This year, the city budgeted $1,202,000, and had spent $786,601 as of the end of December. “So we’re over budget at this point in time,” he said.

“We try and do our best at projecting, but if people come through the door, we’re obligated to provide the service,” Yardley said.

How GA works

Each community in the state annually sets the GA amounts based on federal Housing and Urban Development figures. These amounts need to be approved by ordinance or amendment annually in each individual town or city.

“Every fall we receive the HUD Fair Market Rent [figures],… then we multiply that by 110 percent to get the [guideline] maximums,” Boyd said. “[The GA amount] really varies by county.”

Communities that pay GA costs which exceed 0.003 percent of the community’s tax base receive state reimbursement of 90 percent of the GA given out. Only nine communities in the state qualified for the 90 percent in 2004.

“Bangor and Portland are both one of these, and they both have shelters,” Boyd said. “A lot of the GA [in these communities] is spent on homeless people.”

Yardley noted that Lewiston, Bangor and Portland account for about three-quarters of the General Assistance in the state of Maine.

The Bangor area has been designated as a metropolitan area because of population, and includes the communities of Brewer, Eddington, Glenburn, Hampden, Holden, Hermon, Kenduskeag, Milford, Old Town, Orono, Orrington, Indian Island and Veazie.

People in these communities can now earn 18 percent more money and still qualify for GA, thanks to annual updates to the income guideline amounts. The GA income guideline for the metropolitan area rose from $404 a month last year to $479 for 2005. For two people, the income allowed is $520 a month.

People in the rest of Penobscot County can earn about 24 percent more and still qualify, from $388 to $483 a month.

Aroostook County has the same guidelines as last year, and those in central Maine changed only slightly, Boyd said.

In Kennebec County, income guidelines stayed the same for one, two or three people, but went up when a household includes four or more. In some areas of the state, the income guidelines were lowered, but the amount of money provided by General Assistance wasn’t affected.

Those people who walk through the door for assistance are first directed toward other federal-, city-, or state-run aid programs before being provided General Assistance, Michael Starn, Maine Municipal Association’s communication manager, said Wednesday. MMA helps cities and towns with income guidelines and questions concerning GA.

Any cuts to these other aid programs aimed at helping the poor also mean more people turn to the GA program, he said.

“One of the things about General Assistance and General Assistance administration is they try to be aware of all the [federal and state] assistance [programs] out there, and when there is nothing available, then the General Assistance program comes forward,” he said.

“We call it the safety-net program.”

The good news is that Maine Care, the state’s low-income health insurance, has reduced the need for GA to cover medical costs, Antoinette Mancusi, GA technical adviser for MMA, said Thursday.

Even though the state ran $1.1 million in the red for GA reimbursements last year, the the program was flat-funded for 2005.

“Last year, the total amount spent [by towns and the state] was $8.6 million,” Boyd said. “What the state ended up reimbursing at was $5.4 million. We had to actually go back and get a supplemental $1.1 million in order to reimburse the towns.”

With the same flat funding for 2005, another supplemental budget may be required this year to cover costs. That will depend, however, entirely on how many requests are submitted by the end of June.

Rosen stressed that the state is under an obligation to pay the communities for the GA program.

“Considering the history of the budget year … you’ll [probably] see a repeat of last year,” Rosen predicted.