I have an observation that I made after reading the article about Gov. Paul LePage’s budget proposal (May 9). He would like to use part of $16 million his current budget had previously left for lawmakers to allocate as they saw fit to fill a $60 million revenue gap.

I saw the governor on television just a few days ago when he said there was no discretionary money available to help the victims of the recent fires in Lewiston. He said, basically, that the community should pull together and deal with it.

LePage has proposed using $13.3 million of the $16 million toward filling the hole in anticipated state revenue, leaving a remainder of $2.7 million.

It would seem that there truly is money available to help with the needs of the displaced members of the Lewiston fires.

Neil Banta, Norway