The students who serve on a state advisory council, just two years old, are unpaid.
The Maine Legislative Youth Advisory Council has no money to operate next year.
During the state’s budget crisis last year, lawmakers slashed the council’s budget from nearly $48,000 a year to $34,000 over two years. However, just $26,000 for two years was sent to the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service to pay for a part-time coordinator and other expenses.
Those involved with the Youth Council say it costs at least $30,000 a year to run the group. The council has used nearly all of its two-year, $26,000 budget in one year and is now struggling to “eke out” the rest of the year, said Nancy Connolly, a Muskie School of Public Service employee who coordinates the Youth Council.
The council has no money at all for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.
“The funding has just been a major struggle,” Connolly said.
Created in 2002 to advise the Legislature, the 22-member council has been touted by state lawmakers as a first-in-the-nation way to investigate youth issues and produce solutions. Legislators have hailed the group’s recommendations regarding teenage drivers as both innovative and workable.
Comprised of 18 high school and college students, and four legislators, the Youth Council meets three to six times and year, holds public hearings and conducts seminars. It has the power to submit legislation.
Although the Youth Council has few major expenses, its budget pays for the part-time coordinator and secretary provided by the Muskie School. Those workers spend their time coordinating meetings and hearings, keeping people informed about the Youth Council’s work and writing the annual report required by state statute.
The budget also sets aside $1,500 to reimburse the unpaid council members for their travel and meals. The remainder is spent on printing the annual report and other miscellaneous expenses.
Without a budget, members say, the Youth Council would not be able to do its job.
Staff support
To make up for the funding shortfall, Connolly has spent the last 10 months furiously searching for grants from Maine foundations. So far, though, no one has offered any money. She is now looking outside the state for funding.
It is unclear what will happen to the Youth Council if it doesn’t get a grant. The University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School has been charged with managing the group, but Connolly said the university may not be able to pay Youth Council expenses out of its own pocket.
“The university has sustained a massive budget cut, too,” she said.
To help with the problem, Rep. Ross Paradis, a Frenchville Democrat and co-chairman of the Youth Council, plans to co-sponsor a bill that would make the Legislature’s own Office of Policy and Legal Analysis – not the Muskie School- responsible for providing the Youth Council with staff support. That would effectively eliminate the council’s major expense.
That office currently helps Youth Council members draft legislation, but does little else for them.
“We believe the Legislature saw fit to approve the council, they should fund it,” Paradis said. “It’s a wonderful thing. We’ve got to keep it going.”
He expects to submit his legislation in the next week.
Members say they don’t know what will happen to the Youth Council if Paradis’ bill fails and if the group doesn’t find enough money to operate next year. Many don’t like to think about one possible outcome: close down the Youth Council altogether.
“We haven’t faced that,” Connolly said. “We’re just not entertaining that as a possibility.”
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