Posted on 06/15/2005 6:39:14 AM PDT by SheLion
Dems propose $125M in cuts
AUGUSTA - Majority Democrats on the Legislature's Appropriations Committee repealed a $250 million, budget-balancing loan Tuesday, replacing it with $125 million in spending cuts and a $1 hike in the state cigarette tax.
At $2 per pack in taxes, Maine would have the third highest cigarette tax in the country, according to Dan Riley, an Augusta-based lobbyist for the tobacco industry. The increase would effectively drive up the over-the-counter price for a pack of premium cigarettes like Marlboro from $4.19 to $5.19.
"We have selected some new revenue to bring us to the $250 million target," said Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston and co-chairman of the Appropriations Committee. "We cut as far as we felt we could."
Gov. John E. Baldacci said Tuesday he will support the cigarette tax increase as the best available solution to eliminating the $250 million state revenue bond included in the two-year, $5.7 billion state budget to take effect July 1. Like the 8-5 vote on the budget panel Tuesday, the state budget was advanced in March by majority Democrats who believed the $250 million loan was an acceptable alternative to deep spending cuts in state programs.
The proposal now goes to the printer, where it will be assigned an LD number. Legislative leaders essentially abandoned a planned Wednesday adjournment and anticipated debate on the new tax-and-spending package would begin sometime Thursday in the House.
Republicans on the panel have prepared their own proposal to reach the $250 million target that relies on severe cuts to state health care services and defers salary increases to state employees. The package also restores numerous proposals that were rejected by Democrats on the Appropriations Committee.
"A lot of our initiatives are about the size of state government and the costs associated with state employees," said Sen. Richard Nass, R-Acton and the senior Republican on the budget panel.
Republicans were essentially bypassed by Democrats in March when the majority budget was passed. The GOP responded by launching a people's veto of the borrowing component with the hope of overturning the provision at the ballot box in November. About 40,000 of the required 51,000 signatures have been gathered, according to Sen. Peter Mills, R-Skowhegan. In response to Tuesday's vote by the Appropriations Committee, Mills indicated final approval by the Legislature of either proposal to eliminate the borrowing provision of the budget was all that was needed to terminate the people's veto effort.
"When it looks like this has passed in the House and Senate, we'll declare victory and the signature-gathering effort will stop," Mills said.
In a closely divided House and Senate, however, such conclusions cannot be presumed lightly. Republicans and some Democrats were not sure how the majority report from Appropriations would be received by rank-and-file Democrats in the House. The Democratic plan:
. Cuts $10.4 million from mental health programs by revamping the delivery of those services.
. Saves $5.9 million by delaying school construction projects by one year.
. Cuts $2.2 million from the DirgoHealth program.
. Cuts $5.5 million from the Veterans Tax Reimbursement program.
. Cuts about $7.2 million from the Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement program.
By contrast, the GOP plan:
. Delays $20 million in state employee salary increases until the next budget cycle.
. Cuts $20 million in health care services to poor working Mainers.
. Transfers $32 million from the DirigoHealth program to the General Fund, leaving DirigoHealth with a balance of about $6 million.
. Eliminates the governor's Office of Health Policy and Finance with a $2 million deappropriation.
. Eliminates the reduction to the BETR program proposed by Democrats.
Rotundo said Democrats could not support the level of cuts Republicans wanted to make to the state's social service programs.
"In order to cut more we were going to have to get into those programs that provide health insurance for some of the poorest people in the state - the working poor," she said. "We just didn't want to go there. We did not want to remove thousands of people from programs that were providing them with some kind of health care."
It's true, so help me. One of the nicest guys I ever met, had me in stiches all through the interview.
Sounds like a great tag line.
Should all of those be privatized? Yes.
All that happens with government providing services is that the efficiency and quality of the services decrease. In addition the, by subsidizing these inefficiencies with confiscated funds, we put availability at risk.
Think of the power problems in California over the last few years.
How often are your roads available for full use? How many options do you have at your airport? Has the quality of student learning increased as education costs have skyrocketed?
You need to read "Applied Economics" by Thomas Sowell.
I had some doozy interviews wehn I was a reporter, but nothing to compare to that one of yours! What a hoot.
CSM - you and I are usually in total agreement - but here is a time when I can't go with you 100%
Are there parts of government bureaucracies that could be privatized or totally eliminated? Of course there are and lots of them should be. But definitely not all of them.
I completely and totally agree with Gone GF that privatizing areas such as support personel for critical government responsibilities (public safety, military, etc) is not the way to go. The list can go on and on about the areas that should not be privatized..........
We can expect an upturn in cigarette-related violence.
Do you consider Halliburton to be privatized? What advantages should we realize by keeping some functions as direct government employment?
Im not being snide - I truly do not understand your Haliburton reference.
What a profound statement!
Ronald Reagan, is this that guy who is on MSNBC with Monica Crowley? ; )
I wonder how tobacco grows in Maine.....
If you think the cost of private education hasn't skyrocketed, then you haven't checked out the cost of a private high school or college lately. Astounding.
I'm not saying nothing can be privatized. But I can tell you that in my state we tried privatizing a large portion of the DOT and parts of it -- not all -- had to go back to public control again.
OIC! Ok. Thanks for the link. Since I roll my own I can buy all of that locally, except the machine. But I am sure someone out there will see the link and it will be of value to them. :)
I will keep the link for future reference though.
Oh yes! There is already a site on the Net about the killings/muggings and violence now over cigarettes. It's chilling.
Hahha! No, I don't think so. hehe!
With our weather, I wouldn't even attempt it.
The farmers couldn't even start planting this season until June because the whole month of April and May was cold and raining every day. :(
JZelle is the one that posted the link earlier and I thought it was you. No no, don't post a link if you think it will jeopardize the company, that's for sure.
But it was my mistake. Sorry. :)
Who needs Ipecac when these people are around?
No problem, I would never consider you snide.....
The Haliburton reference was just an example of military support being performed by a private company. I was wondering if you consider their role to be privatized or still under the control of the gov't enough to be considered government employment. I can see how it would be considered either way and it would depend on an individual perspective. Personally, I consider them privatized, but I can see how someone may think of them differently.
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