AUGUSTA (AP) – Gov. John Baldacci’s prime focus will be on the dollar-sign aspects of state government this week.

Baldacci is slated to start off Monday morning at the New York Stock Exchange where, accompanied by State Treasurer David Lemoine and Wright Express chief Mike Dubyak, he will ring the opening bell.

Later, the governor is scheduled to meet with representatives of Wall Street rating agencies. Similar sessions are to follow over the next few days for Lemoine, Baldacci administration budget chief Rebecca Wyke and other state officials.

Maine is facing scrutiny on Wall Street.

In February, Moody’s Investors Service said it had placed the state of Maine’s general obligation bond rating, Aa2 with a stable outlook, on its Watchlist for a possible downgrading.

Since then, Lemoine has said the potential for a people’s veto referendum on a borrowing provision in the pending state budget could have an almost immediate negative impact.

Lemoine said uncertainty over the viability of a key provision of the two-year budget designed to take effect July 1 would have the effect of making it difficult to avoid a rating reduction.

Back in Augusta, the administration is looking to unveil follow-up budget legislation by Friday. A top priority is addressing a looming cut in Maine’s Medicaid reimbursement rate.

A federal adjustment timed for October could cost the state as much as $80 million over the upcoming two-year budget cycle, according to preliminary warnings from administration officials.

New talks within the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee will play out against the backdrop of continuing dispute over the handling of the so-called Part 1 budget. The party-line schism over that measure led to the people’s veto campaign now under way.

Before a new budget package is unveiled, the governor will get a public hearing before the Taxation Committee on Monday afternoon for his Phase II tax reform plan.

As outlined on April 29, the governor is calling for an immediate downward nudge to Maine’s highest income tax rate and suggesting broader reductions in the future. He also has proposed a gradual elimination of the personal property tax on business equipment.

Baldacci has cast his proposal as the next step after the enactment earlier this year of a school funding measure meant to curb local property taxes.

Specifically, the governor’s plan calls for an initial cut in the state’s top marginal income tax rate from 8.5 percent – higher than all but five states, according to administration officials – to 8.45 percent.

Baldacci also is urging an increase in low-income tax credit, saying such a step could move 40,000 people off the income tax rolls.

The governor said individual income tax rates could be reduced by 12 percent over 13 years.

To help pay for the proposed income tax changes, the governor would suspend the indexing of individual income tax brackets for five years.

On the back burner are what began as nearly $1 billion in new borrowing requests, including nearly $200 million from Baldacci.

After disagreement over borrowing hamstrung the last Legislature, advocates have been pressing as hard as ever for projects ranging from bridges and highways to public land acquisition.

An Appropriations Committee staff analysis found that proposals worth $367.9 million out of a total of $965 million in proposals that were put forth had won endorsements from other committees who held hearings with the Appropriations panel.