My family runs a small business and we have struggled through a tough economy. We have to prove our income often to maintain our MaineCare eligibility because our income is barely enough to sustain our household and certainly not enough to afford private health insurance. Our health care expenses that are not currently covered by MaineCare are difficult to manage already; without MaineCare, we would simply be lost.

Our governor is working to cut 65,000 Mainers from MaineCare in his budget proposal. This would not only harm working families such as ours, but it would put thousands of health-care workers out of a job and would deal a substantial blow to the health-care industry which currently comprises fully 18 percent of Maine’s current jobs. It is also currently the largest sector employing Mainers.

Why enact a budget that would harm the state economy more than it would help it?

This budget reform is not just bad for working families, it is bad for business. Period.

Our state needs to stop cutting taxes on the rich only to cut our social safety nets that protect Maine’s poor. Maine should focus on bringing education in competitive fields with better pay to our state and give its people a chance for a better way of life with a living wage.

By giving health and education, instead of denying those things to the most fragile only to reward the wealthy, would allow prosperity and a positive future for all.

Laurrel Chute, Lewiston