AUGUSTA (AP) – The Legislature’s Appropriations Committee opens public hearings Monday on Gov. John Baldacci’s plans for closing a budget shortfall for the fiscal year that begins on July 1 and, expecting a large turnout of people wishing to state their views, the session is scheduled for all day at the Augusta Civic Center.

Monday’s sessions will focus on proposed budget adjustments affecting programs within the departments of mental health and human services.

Saying they want to allow as many participants as possible to offer testimony, lawmakers plan to set a time limit of three minutes per speaker.

The Baldacci administration has estimated a Medicaid shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year at $128 million and proposed a benefit redesign package to help cover the gap through June 2005.

According to a Democratic legislative analysis, the supplemental budget package would eliminate Medicaid coverage for a variety of services for adults, including: dental services, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech and hearing services, social worker and attendant services, prosthetics and rehabilitative brain injury services.

Nursing home reimbursements would be reduced by 7 percent and financial arrangements affecting hospitals would be revised in a number of ways, according to the analysis.

The Baldacci administration’s approach to Medicaid cuts has already come under criticism from a Maine Can Do Better coalition.

According to administration officials, the state Medicaid program known as MaineCare offers coverage to about 250,000 people and works with about 7,000 billing providers of service.

As part of the supplemental budget package, the governor has proposed repaying $10 million to a retiree health insurance fund and spending about $22 million on a variety of departments and programs, including a $9 million hike in general purpose aid for education.

Last month, over Republican opposition, Baldacci and his Democratic legislative allies enacted a plan for offsetting a $109 million Medicaid shortfall through June.

One year ago, lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a $5.3 billion budget package that set in place a blueprint for financing state government operations through June 2005.

The new supplemental budget proposal, according to an Appropriations Committee staff analysis, would deappropriate $73.1 million in fiscal 2005 for a number of MaineCare program areas to help offset the looming shortfall.

According to that analysis of elements potentially affecting the Department of Human Services, the package relies on $22.9 million from reductions in services for MaineCare-eligible adults, $23.1 million from an expansion in the hospital tax, $14.4 million from savings in MaineCare and elderly prescription drug programs, and a $5.8 million cut in budgeted payments to nursing homes.

The same analysis pegs proposed deappropriations for the Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services at $16.1 million for fiscal 2005, with cost-saving measures including the establishment of rate caps for certain services.

House Minority Leader Joe Bruno, R-Raymond, argues that Baldacci’s Medicaid cuts are wrong-headed.

“Services are not the problem. The expansion of the eligibility has created a system Maine cannot afford,” he said in a statement last week.

Baldacci and his top health policy aide Trish Riley say the package was designed to maintain eligibility for subsidized health services while scaling back the array of services offered.

AP-ES-03-13-04 1205EST