Panel approves $89M supplemental budget Baldacci plan faces vote in Legislature March 1

AUGUSTA – Members of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee unanimously signed off on the governor’s $89 million supplemental budget request after a brief discussion Tuesday afternoon.

The spending plan, designed to keep the state in the black until this year’s fiscal cycle ends on June 30, was debated until about 11:30 p.m. Friday when lawmakers on the panel gave the proposal preliminary approval.

The committee’s House chairman, Rep. Joseph Brannigan, D-Portland, said Tuesday the budget bill will be sent to the full Legislature for a vote March 1.

Rebecca Wyke, chief of finance for Gov. John E. Baldacci, said the administration’s budget proposal had emerged from the committee process largely unscathed, with the exception of a $4.7 million reduction resulting from a revision of the state’s Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement account.

“Actually, there’s almost no changes with the exception of five amendments, several of which were technical in nature,” she said.

Democratic leaders hailed the cohesive atmosphere on the Appropriations Committee, speculating it bodes well for the larger discussion of the governor’s pending $5.7 billion, two-year budget plan.

In a prepared statement, House Speaker John Richardson, D-Brunswick, said the $89 million supplemental budget honored the state’s commitment to public health and safety, the environment and property tax relief, while addressing long-standing accounting problems in the state Department of Health and Human Services.

Senate President Beth Edmonds, D-Freeport, said she was “gratified” by the committee vote.

“I’m pleased that the Appropriations Committee has been able to work together to come up with a good solution that all people are getting behind and we look forward to this same kind of cooperation throughout the rest of the legislative session,” she said.

The supplemental budget covers health care accounting problems at DHHS that go back to the 1990s and provides additional money needed to fund property tax relief programs and other state needs.