AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Gov. John Baldacci ordered Maine state departments Friday to curtail spending by $63 million to make sure the budget is balanced.
Gov. John Baldacci speaks at a news conference last January where he unveiled a two-year state budget that proposes deep cuts due to the recession. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Baldacci issued the order for the fiscal year ending in mid-2010 as preliminary estimates showed an approaching shortfall in the two-year $5.8 billion budget of $400 million, or nearly 7 percent.
Education and Health and Human Services are the hardest-hit departments, accounting for about 80 percent of the cuts.
The governor's order stands until the Legislature returns in January for its 2010 session and modifies the current two-year state budget. Lawmakers passed a budget this year that slashed spending by $500 million, giving Maine the first budget in three decades that was smaller than the previous one.
Similar patterns appeared in 34 other states, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers.
"It's clear now that we will have to do even more," Baldacci said. "It's not pretty but it's necessary. The days and weeks ahead are going to be difficult."
States continue to struggle even as the national recession eases, he said.
The National Governors Association, citing a survey by the budget officers' organization, said state revenues overall dropped 7.5 percent in fiscal year 2009, roughly on a par with Maine's decline. Revenues were below expectations in 41 states during that period.
"States are currently facing one of the worst, if not the worst, fiscal periods since the Great Depression," says the report by the national budget officers.
As he issued his order in Maine, Baldacci pledged not to support increased taxes to close the budget gap. He plans to submit a budget reflecting the plunging revenues to lawmakers in December. Cuts that have been recommended by department heads will first be evaluated to avoid affecting the state's most vulnerable, he said.
Much of the $38 million in education cuts he ordered Friday will affect school subsidies. Baldacci said the depth of the cuts are tempered by a bolstering of school aid before the recession hit.
"We are trying to limit the impact in the classroom as much as we can," the governor said.
Health and Human Services Commissioner Brenda Harvey said the $11 million in cuts to her department avoid programs that draw federal matching funds and target those funded exclusively by the state. Officials also tried to spread the cuts among many services rather that eliminate any outright. Funding for the mentally retarded, child crisis services and maternal and child health services are among those affected.
Baldacci said that state government payroll has been reduced by 1,000 employees during the past six years and that many programs have been restructured to reflect falling revenues.
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Have you ever tried or known
Have you ever tried or known someone who has tried to report medicaid fraud? I spent weeks trying to report a doctors' office that regularly called Mainecare recipients in for needless appointments. The office than billed Mainecare $320 for the 3 minutes of the combined staff and doctors or PAs time. Usually they did not even bother to take the patients blood pressure. The whole point was to bill Mainecare $320. The response fron DHHS and other state agencies was if I did not like it to change the patients primary care provider. That may stop it for my party but not the hundreds if not thousands of others going through that multi-practitianer office every month. At 3 minutes per patient and four full-time and a couple part-time practitioners, just the full-timers can run 3200, 3 min appointments in a 40 hour week. that is an easy potential of $!,024,000 billed to Mainecare every week.
I also asked for copies of all billings submitted in the patients name so I could varify that Mainecare was not being billed for services not rendered.. I was told that was not possible. If I questioned a specific bill on a specific date they could send me that but not all claims for that patient. This makes no sense. If they do not send me the claims how am I supposed to come up with a date of service to question that never took place? Without doubt the providers no they are not being checked up on. They know they can bill for services never rendered with absolutly no fear of being caught. They know they can keep bring people in needlessly and provide no useful service and get paid over $106 a minute by taxpayers guaranteed. It would be extremely easy to save 100s of millions of dollars from Mainecare with no reduction in benefit to recipients simply by sending them statements and cracking down on the fraud. The problem is DHHS a/d Medical Board workers would have to act.
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You can't lump together all state workers and say they are worthless. My husband works for the state and donates at least 20 hours (usually more) every week to you morons. He has a long commute (because we can't afford the houses closer to his office) and an incredible work ethic. He's been furloughed (even though he still works well over 40 hours on those weeks), his salary (which doesn't even come close to compensating him for the work he does) has been capped, and his/our insurance cost is about to go up.
Get over yourselves.
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She has you pegged 100%. Truth hurts, doesn't it?
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Lisan180. If we had more workers like him working for the State we would not be having this discussion. There are a lot of deadbeats in the State gov. No one said all State Workers were.
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Then you haven't read the previous comments for this article, along with every other news story written about the state budget. I'm tired of it.
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Before they make specific cuts in Education and DHHS, we need some major changes in how the Baldacci Administration has been "managing" the state workforce.
In particular; if you read the overly generous “ARTICLE 63. SICK LEAVE” (pages 57-59) of the state employee’s contract
(http://www.mseaseiu.org/forms/admin07-09.pdf),
you’ll find one large example of fraud/abuse/waste at the taxpayers’ expense. The cozy Baldacci-SEIU relationship needs to be terminated now!
IMO, state workers should receive a maximum of four (4) paid sick days per calendar year, period. In addition, the unused days should not be rolled over for the next year. There also needs to be some type of incentive program to reward state workers whom don't use all of their sick days, and we must stop the widespread abuse of the current system (e.g., using sick days as extra vacation days).
The political games and BS with our tax dollars must be stopped, but that would require an administrative team which has a spine... or a pro-active voter base.
Are you ready for some positive change yet? Find the solution at
www.MaineTaxpayers.com
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Fact!!!!! every state worker, city, or County worker earns at least 32 thousand dollars............................Oh forgot to say IN BENEFITS!!! NOT SALERY!!! We are being robbed TAKE ALL YOUR FLUSTRATION OUT ON THEM THEY DESERVE MUCH WORSE !!!! They are as bad as the bums who dont want to work and stay on the system to give jobs to half these creeps!!! BEST IDEA.....PRIVATIZATION of STATE GOV. WITH JOB BIDS EVERY 4 YEARS (differant company and any headway the union gets to over burdon us will cease... Oh yeah YOU THINK these people will give up a job that will still be decent instead of leaching off the taxpayer I dont think so!! they need this wake up call ASAP!!!!
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The Governor should be ashamed of himself !! To cut education just isnt right !!! Ohhh unless its from the top which Idoubt will happen !! Dump the liberals that put us here
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so hurricanium, is it state workers fault that you chose a crappy employer? Seriously, you sound more jealous then anything! The damn job exists, and you had every chance to get it too! I know bankers that pay absolutely $0 for the entire families health care with eye care and dental! But I bet you still use the bank! Its not state workers fault that you have a crappy job! But I bet it makes you feel better to complain about it!
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Not at all Travis. I like my job and I do make pretty decent money and am thankful for that during these economic times. My gripe with stateworker is getting on here complaining about how much they spend on benefits when in reality it is so very little compared to the private sector. They have it pretty easy and its on our tax dollars. Also your agruement is flawed. They may pay taxes but it's not even close enough to pay their own salaries and benefits, not by a long shot.
Fact is our State (and federal) goverment is way too big. Cuts need to be made. I don't want to see anyone unemployed. However this needs to be done.
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Complain about state workers all you want... until you start to vote in conservatives into state government, which hasn't been done for 25+ years, you can forget about a shrinking government! Maine has the government they deserve, and voted for...don't like it...then do something about it! Vote for small government and that means non moderate republicans, conservatives, even libertarians! I won't be holding my breath! Also to note, every single state employee pays taxes just like you do! So in essence they pay their own salary! And whom do you think created every damn state employee job? State employees? Not one gets created without approval from the legislature! again, your fault, not the state workers...that's for sure! Seriously, not even 1/5 of the entire state budget is employees salaries. The free money we give away at DHHS is bigger by 2 times! And education is the biggest chunk! The funniest thing is, you people complaining about state workers are the first to complain when they wait in line at the DMV, or when the roads get plowed so late or that pothole unfilled for days. You cannot have both!
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I agree not all people are on welfare voluntarily but that fact is there are too many people and too little money. Cuts need to be made.
Stateworker . LMAO 500.00 a month for 3 people...I pay 1500.00 dollars a month for 3 people because I have to purchase my insurance individually...I gurantee my take home pay is probably not much more then yours.
You have it easy compared to most workes in this state who pay two times what you pay even though they have health insurance through their employers and I guarntee you pay way less out of pocket!
Why take it out on stateworkers? Don't get me wrong your just trying to make a living to. But you all have had it too easy for too long. UM System also needs to be cut. Remember you work for us!
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I would have to agree, cut back the welfare. If my daughter, who is a single mom, can support herself, her son, and help me (because I was injured on the job and am only allowed to work 2 days a week) without ANY help from ANY welfare program, then others can do it as well. She works 2 jobs and is dead tired most of the time but she says she will NOT take welfare. It does make us angry to see overweight people with overweight children whip out the card and pay for so much unhealthy food and junk, and I don't believe that it's all they can afford with their foodstamps. We buy fresh fruits and vegetables in place of chips and soda and while we don't have much money left over we at least are assured that my grandson eats healthy and our bills are paid. Budget, budget, budget instead of whine about what the system doesn't give you.
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The solution is more involved than just throwing numbers around and pointing fingers at State workers and calling people deadbeats!! I am astounded to hear the percentage of people on welfare, but there is a lot more to the matter than I can fathom at this point. Not all of the people on welfare are on it voluntarily, they just can't find jobs because they don't exist. The unemployment level is too high. I agree that there is much waste in the benefits of many deadbeats, and just look at how much we are spending on foreigners to come into our State and live free for the most part, and/or take the jobs of those proud Mainers who WANT to work and do NOT want to be on welfare.
I have a feeling that the numbers would show a huge increase in jobless rates and welfare recipients since the Somalians started invading the State of Maine in throngs (and sarongs!!). We have so many native Americans homeless and jobless in this State as well as in the USA, and it seems like the immigrants have more rights than we do. We pump trillions of dollars into protecting other countries from have differing views than us Americans, but yet we can't feed or protect our own children.
I see homeless people rumaging through trash cans for empty bottles so they can survive, and then I see immigrants at Wal-Mart with carriages full of food, handing a card to the cashier and paying for their goods with MY tax dollars!!! Where would I like my tax dollars to go???? When I watch the news, I see reports about billions of dollars going overseas to build houses and schools for people who will just burn them down next week, and then we will rebuild them again, and again. I see friends of mine struggling to buy a box of macaroni and cheese with their unemployment checks, sweating the fact that they can't afford to pay their light bill, and they need to go to the doctor, but have no insurance.
Let's not point fingers at the people who are working to make this world a safer place to live for you, me and our families. Especially the ones that ARE working and still have jobs. Let's focus on making America and MAINE the home we used to know. Let's point the fingers at the people who are spending all of our tax money on all the wrong people and for all the wrong reasons!!!!
Will someone show me the immigration numbers and compare them to the unemployment rate and welfare rate in Maine??? I don't mind having new neighbors. But having to give them my front lawn so they can have a family get together and making me stay inside my own home watching them feast, knowing that I am paying for their meals just ain't right!!!
God Bless America, Home of the Free and Host to the Unappreciative World
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Wow, why don't you say how you really feel? Actually, don't do that because there'd be a few too many inappropriate words involved, and of course you're identity as a bigot wouldn't help your attempt at political dialouge. In times like these, most people would rather not accept the obvious (that Americans with money got us in to this economic mess) and instead look to pass blame on someone else. They ignore the storefronts owned by our immigrant neighbors, forget that many are not immigrants at all but rather refuges from a war zone, and even let their own ancestry as immigrants (most everyone in America had to come here from somewhere else, post-1492) slip away.
Do we have foreign-born citizens manipulating the Welfare state? Of course, but I know that their numbers pale in comparrison to the number of "proud Mainers" doing the same...
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How about cutting back on the benefits that the state gives to the employees ? Cm'on, the taxpayers who pay the salaries of state workers don't have any where near as many holidays, vacation days, sick leave, retirement programs, or insurance benefits.. The State needs to make the employees pay for half of their insurance premiums. They would still be way ahead of most of us.
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Saltty, even if you took away 3700 employees and asked them to pay another $100 every two weeks for health insurance or through other cuts (and even then only if their mighty union said ok), thats a million bucks a year, but congratulations, thats a million no longer taxed as income, no longer spent in stores and for their needs, you might just create another class of needy folks (said tongue in cheek). What really needs to happen is to take the income guidelines and roll them back to federal standards, no exceptions, and make it need based for those who truly can't work. Use the federal poverty guidelines and then phase out the approvals at 150% of poverty rates, not at 200% of poverty. Then you eliminate DIrigo program and stop taxing the insurers who simply pass it on to you and I in premiums. Then you see what you really need for staffing at DHHS and most likely eliminate one or two layers of management. We must be willing to make tough choices that will make real change and save real money.
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Please!!! You clearly do not have a clue! We pay about $500 a month for health insurance for a family of 3!!! When there are so many people sitting on their butts collecting food stamps and MaineCare, we work hard for the money we have and definitely do not get free insurance. Why do I have a feeling you aren't one of the taxpayers who is "paying my salary"? Have you heard about the "days off" unpaid we have received?? The fact that we get no more overtime, even though there is no way we can get our jobs done without it? Some of my co-workers who have been with the State for over 20 years have been let go because their job no longer exists?? Who do you think is going to do that extra work with no added benefit? It's getting worse everywhere, so I don't understand why you think the state workers should continue to pay the price???
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I agree with you Robert to a point. The issue with DHHS is not just the amount of workers which has declined but the amount of clients and big welfare programs the department handles. That is where the money is being wasted. Based on your figures Robert that means that approxmatley 19% of the State is either on welfare or in a social program (basically welfare). This is based on a rough estimate of 1.6M residents and 318k clients. This is too many people to support. I think we need to start cutting the dead weight and stop paying people that stay at home with their children just so they can party all day, AFDC is being abused. It's okay to help those who are having trouble making ends meet or the disabled but not deadbeats.
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I completely agree with you hurricanium!! How do we do it???? It's so frustrating to see them showing up at Wal-Mart and whipping out their food stamps card when they have a nice cell phone, awesome jewelry, clearly manicured fingernails, nice clothes and their shopping cart is full of food/toys that I can't afford. So frustrating when you know for a fact they are taking advantage and yet you are struggling to make ends meet!
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I think the population of Maine is closer to 1.3 million people. That leaves 1 in 4 residents getting some sort of DHHS support. It is going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. Transfoming America, we are.
All the best,
Bob
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1.3 Million is a fairly accurate number in the states eyes, thats 24.52%, my apologies for saying 21% earlier.
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a private non-profit study.. i tired to find it to pull up for you
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As someone who has to deal with the state workers on a daily basis for my job, I would think that a staff reduction of 1k for over 6 years is a joke. In DHHS in particiular, there are 34 workers for every consumer of DHHS. They are talking about shutting complete programs and the like but none about a reduction of their INEFFICIENT WORKFORCE who constantly passes the buck.
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Jaygirl, don't know where your stats come from -according to the Comissioner of DHHS there are now 3,700 employees serving 318,678 clients/consumers. I'm not usually one to defend that department, but thats One employee for every 86 clients/consumers. 10 years ago they had 4,000 employees serving 180,000 clients.
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