Lawmakers may have reached a bipartisan deal to close a budget gap at the Department of Health and Human Services, but health care providers are still bracing for deep cuts. Members of the Legislature’s budget committee pushed back against Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal to drop coverage and tighten eligibility for some MaineCare beneficiaries, but left […]
Maine Legislature
Posted inLocal & State
School choice, public funding for religious institutions headline LePage education plan
AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage on Wednesday unveiled sweeping reforms to the state’s education system, including public funding for religious schools and a school choice initiative. The proposal also includes teacher and administrator evaluations and an expansion of career and technical education. LePage made the announcement at the Somerset Career & Technical Center in Skowhegan. […]
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AG files 8-count indictment against Alfred lawmaker
AUGUSTA — The Maine Attorney General’s Office has filed an eight-count indictment against a former Alfred lawmaker. The indictment filed in Maine Superior Court accuses David R. Burns, 44, of multiple counts of forgery, theft, falsifying reports and misuse of public funds in the Maine Clean Election Act. Burns, a Republican, was elected to the Legislature […]
Posted inLocal & State
Lawmakers endorse bipartisan deal on immediate DHHS shortfall
AUGUSTA — Weeks of intense backroom negotiations, work sessions and partisan distractions over a funding shortfall at the Department of Health and Human Services have subsided, at least for now. Next comes the hard part for Republican leaders: selling the compromise to Gov. Paul LePage and his loyalists in the conservative caucus. Lawmakers on the […]
Posted inLocal & State
‘DeCoster’ bill returns; Senate passage uncertain
AUGUSTA — Lawmakers in the House of Representatives could soon take up a bill that would take away workers’ right to unionize at a Turner-based egg farm and its subsidiaries. Republicans in the House appear poised to green-light the bill, which was carried over last year after several postponements and heated debate. But the bill, […]
Posted inLetters
T. Shields: Republicans proving their worth
The Legislature’s majority Republicans are doing their job responsibly. They inherited unaffordable Department of Health and Human Services programs from the previous eight years of Democratic majority. Those programs have run out of money. There are no more one-time federal stimulus grants or withholding-hospital-payments tricks, which the Democrats used to balance the budget and pay […]
Posted inLetters
G. Mason: Legislature doing its part
Marilyn Burgess of Leeds recently wrote (Jan. 13) that asked if, in these difficult times, “legislators also were willing to share the misery?” I am pleased to report when control of the Legislature changed hands in 2010, the new leadership immediately took steps to demonstrate that we are all in this together. Mindful that we […]
Posted inLocal & State
LePage says GOP should use majority power to pass Medicaid cuts
AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage reiterated Tuesday that he’d prefer Republican lawmakers to use their majority power to adopt his budget, which eliminates government-funded health care for many low-income Mainers. Republican leaders, however, continued to hope LePage would review the developing bipartisan plan before rejecting it out of hand. Leaders in both parties confirmed Tuesday […]
Posted inLocal & State
Maine turnpike projected budget $4.3 million less than this year
AUGUSTA — Officials at the Maine Turnpike Authority on Tuesday presented to lawmakers on the Transportation Committee a 2013 budget with a 10.4 percent reduction in spending from the current year. MTA Executive Director Peter Mills told the committee that reforms at the agency had achieved millions in current and long-term savings. The spending plan dropped […]
Posted inLocal & State
Maine treasurer responds to ethics complaint, mum on tax, constitutional issues
AUGUSTA — State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin says an ethics complaint filed by the Maine Democratic Party is “unwarranted” and “politically motivated.” In a nine-page response to charges that he failed to disclose income designed to guard against potential conflicts of interest with his duties as a constitutional officer, Poliquin on Friday provided additional information about […]