BANGOR – Angry residents rallied outside the Merchants Plaza offices of Northeast Occupational Exchange Friday in protest of proposed slashes in Maine’s Medicaid program.

About 100 people gathered to call angrily for the impeachment of Gov. John Baldacci, chant slogans against MaineCare, as Medicaid is known here, and walk the sidewalks carrying signs and banners to express their disapproval.

Northeast Occupational Exchange Director Charles Tingley stood on a park bench to address the crowd. “We found out 48 hours ago that we were being ambushed by the governor and BDS [the Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services],” he said.

The cuts to programs and services, which amount to about $62 million, will “eviscerate” MaineCare’s mental health benefits, he said.

Tingley said the cuts will profoundly affect the 2,600 clients Northeast Occupational serves, the 140 employees who work there and the professional relationship between agencies like his and the state. State officials crafted the changes behind closed doors and without telling agencies or consumers about what they were up to, he charged.

“We met with them three days ago and they never said a word about these cuts,” Tingley said. “They’ve done this with no collaboration from the consumers or the providers.”

The proposed cuts to physical and mental health services are designed to carve almost $62 million out of the MaineCare budget for the fiscal year that begins July 2004, part of more than $160 million in cuts throughout the supplementary budget proposal. A primary objective is to close a projected $138 million shortfall in Medicaid costs by tightening the range of services covered, stringently limiting some programs and services, and totally eliminating others.

Trish Riley, chosen by Baldacci to head his Office of Health Policy and Finance, said Friday that her staff did meet with the MaineCare consumer advisory board as they worked on restructuring the MaineCare benefit. “This hasn’t been a secret,” she said.

Riley said her office remains “extremely receptive” to alternatives, but emphasized that the state budget must be balanced without raising taxes. “We have to balance the needs of MaineCare consumers against what the state can afford,” she said.

A public hearing of the Medicaid budget is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Monday March 15 at the Augusta Civic Center. A large crowd is anticipated; several groups, including NOE, have hired buses to take clients and staff to speak in opposition.

“The mood is angry, the resolve is firm and we will proceed strongly to Augusta,” Tingley said at the rally. “These cuts leave us no alternative but to take off the gloves, and we will, on Monday.”