Nuggets from the notebook while reviewing the mandate for Gov. Paul LePage’s proposed new state agency . . .

Starting Tuesday LePage’s proposed $221 million in cuts in the state’s MaineCare program will take center stage as the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee begins its review of the governor’s restructuring plan.

But flying under the radar is another proposal by the governor that warrants some attention.

Sometime Tuesday morning a working group tasked with finding ways to reassign the duties of the soon-to-be-dismantled State Planning Office is expected to present its reorganization plan to the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee.

Beyond reassigning the SPO’s duties to other agencies, the working group is also proposing to create the Office of Policy Management. According to its authorizing legislation, the OPM is designed to act as a permanent streamlining agency that will evaluate potential savings in state government and departmental requests for federal dollars (The OPM, however, can accept federal funding.).

The OPM is borne from a mandate to reduce government, although critics say the agency is government expansion; five positions eliminated in the planning office will be used to fund “six to 10” OPM positions.

Additionally, the OPM’s annual $1 million budget will be funded by finding an equivalent amount in annual savings elsewhere, every year. In other words, absent unanticipated allocations from the General Fund, the OPM’s mere survival as an agency appears to hinge on its discovering savings and efficiencies elsewhere in state government.

Perhaps there’s $1 million in inefficiencies to be had. Perhaps there’s much more than that.

But what happens if there isn’t? Will OPM staff, motivated by self-preservation, find ways to cut state agencies anyway?

That remains to be seen.  What’s immediately apparent is that the OPM would become a powerful agency. It will be endowed with subpoena powers. All state agencies must answer to it. State and quasi-state agencies must submit to OPM proprietary and confidential information upon request.

Such powers are not unlike the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee, which can order the Legislature’s watchdog agency to conduct investigations and audits of various state and quasi-state agencies.

The OPM, however, will answer only to the governor, who will determine which of the agency’s recommendations will be implemented. Such recommendations may include rejecting federal dollars that match state spending on programs. The latter are myraid in state government, including environmental, energy and social services programs.

The OPM should have plenty of cost-cutting options. The question remains: How popular will those cuts be?

Dunlap fires up campaign

Democrat Matt Dunlap, the three-time former Secretary of State and recent head of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, formerly launched his campaign for the U.S. Senate on Saturday.

Dunlap’s candidacy was made official several weeks ago when he filed candidate papers with the Federal Elections Commission. However, his public presence had been limited until Saturday when he kicked off his campaign in Old Town.

Dunlap is targeting longtime congressional stalwart U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, but first he’ll have to defeat fellow Democrat state Rep. John Hinck, D-Portland, in a primary contest next June.

Hinck has been actively campaigning over the last several weeks. Dunlap had been waiting for a successor to take over at SAM before dialing up his efforts.

Dunlap, 47, took several shots at Snowe during his announcement. 

“When my wife and I talk about it around our kitchen table, Senator Snowe is on the wrong side of every bread and butter economic issue that matters to our family and working families across Maine,” Dunlap said during his remarks.

Dunlap cited Snowe’s recent votes on the payroll tax cut as well as her “present” vote to block the confirmation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Snowe claims that her recusal was due to a perceived conflict with her husband John McKernan’s Education Management Corp., which would be overseen by the CFPB.

Dunlap, however, said Snowe was pressured by tea party groups to block the confirmation.

Said Dunlap, “Let me be very clear. When I am your senator and I believe something is critical ‘to ensure we avoid another financial catastrophe,’ no Washington politician — Democratic, Republican, Independent, Coffee, Tea, or Bull Moose party — will be able to prevent me from showing up and voting a clear ‘yes’ on behalf of Maine people.”

LePage goes green

It didn’t get a lot of attention, but the governor signed an executive order requiring any new or expanded state building construction to use an expanded set of “green building” standards.

According to the governor’s office, the order broadens the kind of certified “green” wood products that can be used in state building construction, which the administration believes will buoy Maine’s forest-products industry.

“Our state is a national leader in the manufacture of ‘green’ construction materials that meet a number of national and international standards,” LePage said in a news release. “By requiring state building projects to use ‘green’ materials under more certification programs, we are increasing the amount of Maine-produced wood available for public construction projects. This will have positive benefits for Maine wood products producers and our forest industry workers.”

smistler@sunjournal.com

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