By Bonnie Washuk,Staff Writer

AUGUSTA – An anxious Gov. John Baldacci said he will release details Wednesday on how Maine will be hurt by President Bush’s proposed federal budget.

Then, said Baldacci, he plans on rolling up his sleeves and becoming a top lobbyist for Maine in Washington.

“We’re getting our facts and figures together and preparing to put on a full-court press in Washington, in the halls of Congress and with the administration,” he said, noting the lobbying will be done “with other states and the National Governors Association.”

During his two years as governor, the federal government has “cut Medicaid again and again and again,” Baldacci said. He complained that Bush and his administration are making the states responsible for providing health care to the elderly, the disabled and children – by law, a federal responsibility.

“They’re just putting this all on the backs of the states, who are having a tough time financially,” Baldacci said.

State legislators are now holding difficult hearings on cuts to Medicaid because, for the second year in a row, the federal government is cutting millions of dollars from the program, he said.

“And that’s not even counting (more Medicaid cuts) in the new fiscal year,” Baldacci said.

Then there are looming job losses at Bath Iron Works if a Bush proposal to cut defense spending on destroyers passes.

“You’re talking about … hundreds of jobs at BIW (and) losing the industrial base of the country at a time of war,” Baldacci said.

If the nation has only one shipbuilder for DD(X) destroyers, in Mississippi, instead of a second in Maine, “and we need to ramp up because of war or violence, you’re going to have all your eggs in one basket. I just don’t think it’s good for a national security policy,” the governor said.

Add to the worry list potential base closures at Brunswick Naval Air Station and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, he said.

After Baldacci pulls together an analysis of how Maine will be affected, department by department, he pledged to begin his lobbying effort.

“We will work with our congressional delegation, Sen. Susan Collins, Sen. Olympia Snowe, Rep. Tom Allen and Rep. Michael Michaud. We’re going to engage and try to form a partnership” with other states. All states are in the same situation, he said.

Other areas where the federal government has either cut funds or is not living up to promises, Baldacci said, include the No Child Left Behind Act, special education, homeland security and emergency management programs, Medicaid, drug enforcement and programs reducing violence against women.

Rep. Sawin Millett, R-Waterford, said Tuesday that as a member of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee, he is concerned about how the Bush cuts will “impact jobs and our tax revenues.”

In the last two years, Maine has expanded the practice of taxing hospitals and nursing homes to attract more federal Medicaid dollars. That, Millett said, has made Maine more dependent on Medicaid dollars.

How Maine is affected by Bush’s budget will depend on whether the president proposes real reductions in Medicaid money or proposes to restrain the rate of growth, Millett said.

Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, co-chair of the Appropriation Committee, said Bush’s cuts will have “serious impacts on our schools, health care for our most vulnerable, services for the disabled and the elderly. … As you begin to connect the dots from the federal budget to our state and local communities, we know there’ll be significant impact. We’ll just going to have to wait and see more details to see the full extent.”