The governor wants to balance the state’s budget. Good idea! However, dismantling our social services will not save money. I work with the mentally ill homeless. I have watched our services shrink with the latest cuts and he wants to cut more. The fat has been eliminated and now the muscle and bone are going. The emergency rooms are now and will increasingly be the place for the forgotten to get medical care. Jails are now and increasingly will be the mental hospitals. Every town’s general assistance is now and increasingly will be swamped with pleas for help. The population will not disappear.

In the governor’s attempt to control cost he has added another layer of bureaucracy to social services. This managed care entity costs about $8 million a year and will squeeze out of the system those who can’t jump through the bureaucratic hoops or meet the ever-increasing restrictive criteria. That’s $8 million that won’t stay in our state or go to help those who have been falling behind in our limping economy, and creates bigger holes in our “safety net,” contrary to the governor’s assurances. It didn’t work in California, and it won’t work here.

There are other ways to approach our financial challenge. I like his ideas for creating jobs in the renewable energy sector and shrinking some of the state’s bureaucracy. Other possibilities are playing hardball with the pharmaceutical empire, building programs that allow those we help to give back to our society in some way, taking a hard look at the ever-expanding gap between the rich and poor and adjust the tax laws accordingly, petition the federal government to end the war in Iraq – an enormous drain on our budget. Dismantling social services is not the answer.

Doug Crate III

Winterport