AUGUSTA — House Speaker Sara Gideon, D-Freeport, will introduce a new bill Monday that would expand and enhance Maine’s social services safety net, largely funded with what Gideon said is $150 million in federal funds that Gov. Paul LePage’s administration isn’t spending.

Among the elements of Gideon’s wide-ranging bill are requirements for the state to use federal grants to expand access to child care; establish a housing voucher program for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients and families whose housing costs exceed 50 percent of their income; increase the maximum TANF benefit to the average of nearby states; expand transportation programs; and create the Addiction Prevention and Family Stabilization Program.

Gideon will present what she calls the Leveraging Investments in Families Today, or LIFT, bill during a noon news conference and then at a 1 p.m. hearing with the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee. She said the number of Maine children living in deep poverty — less than $10,000 per year for a family of three — is increasing eight times faster than the national average.

“This initiative will stabilize families by ensuring basics like housing and heat, create economic opportunities for families to get ahead and make it easier for people to get back to work,” a news release from Gideon’s office reads.

The impact on the state budget of using federal funds in these ways isn’t clear, but Gideon is sure to receive intense push-back. Social service cutbacks — through rulemaking and laws that have tightened eligibility and established limits on benefits — have been a priority for LePage and most legislative Republicans. Another example of that is LePage’s pending proposal to reduce the lifetime limit on collecting funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program from five years to three years.

Gideon’s proposal of the bill is a component of Democrats’ push this year to halt or reduce austerity measures by LePage in a year when state revenues exceed expenses. Supporting low-earning Mainers — particularly children — is at the core of the Democrats’ Opportunity Agenda, a set of goals designed to counter many of the elements of LePage’s biennial state budget proposal.

How these proposals and the budget will shake out in the coming weeks will be interesting to watch. Republicans are intent on repealing the 3 percent surtax on income above $200,000, which was enacted by voters last year to support public schools, but Democratic leaders have made it clear they will go to the mat fighting against that. Meanwhile, Democrats have taken a page from the LePage playbook by holding town hall meetings all over Maine in recent weeks touting their Opportunity Agenda.

With the release of Gideon’s bill, perhaps the battle lines — and stalemate issues that could last well into June — have been etched.

Maine Republican Gov. Paul LePage, right, and House Speaker Sara Gideon, D-Freeport, attend the Electoral College vote at the State House on Monday, Dec. 19, 2016, in Augusta.

More political coverage….

Copy the Story Link