5 days to resolve budget: Chambers disagree over health care, OPEGA cuts

The two legislative chambers cannot agree on the state budget. If they don’t come up with something by April 1, it could result in a curtailment order from the governor.

The state Senate went in just after 8 p.m. Thursday night and adjourned at 1 a.m. Friday morning after approving the budget with several amendments.

The final product from the Senate included $3 million in cuts for health care to adults with no children – or non-categoricals, restored funding to OPEGA, established a commission to eliminate funding for mental health programs and cut 13 positions in state departments.

The health care cuts won’t fly with the House Democrats, House Speaker Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, said after Thursday’s debates.

The debate centered on these cuts, where the Democrats were persistent in maintaining funding, and cuts to the state’s Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability, which the Republicans didn’t want to see.

Diamond amendment

The Senate started taking up the 17 amendments two hours into the four-and-a-half hour debate. They discussed the first amendment, presented by Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, for more than an hour. It passed 22 to 13.

Diamond worked with two other Democrats and three Republicans to come up with the amendment, and he introduced it touting bipartisanship. Click here, or scroll down, for video of him presenting the amendment.

The amendment takes $3 million from the non-categoricals program, but provides $150,000 in funding to study the program to determine its future needs. It also takes funding from out of state travel, the Circuit Breaker program, and accounts for money saved by shortening public notices in newspapers and a $3.4 million unexpected balance from the Fund for a Healthy Maine.

It restores full funding -- $1,187,000 – to the Office of Program Evaluation and Governmental Accountability. It also takes out an item that would have generated $9 million from the treasurer’s sale of escheated securities.

The amendment passed, with 12 Democrats and one Republican opposed to it.

While proponents of the amendment spoke to the necessity of bipartisanship, opponents were concerned over the cuts to the non-categoricals program. Senate Majority Leader Elizabeth Mitchell, D-Vassalboro, said the proposal for cuts to OPEGA came out of the need for self-sacrifice.

“Hospitals have paid, schools have paid, businesses have contributed, the elderly,” she said.

Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, criticized the way the amendment came about.

True bipartisanship, she said, is “when you come together in the public. Transparency is missing in this amendment. The group was sworn to secrecy, the amendment hasn’t been discussed publically,” she said.

Other amendments

The Senate approved two other amendments Thursday night, of the 17 submitted.

The chamber narrowly approved an amendment by Sen. John Nutting, D-Leeds, which cuts 13 positions in eight state departments, the funds to be used to offset the elimination of funding for community integration services for consumers not eligible for MaineCare. The cuts generate $922,599 in savings. Click here for a list of positions involved, and more details on the amendment.

Nutting was the only Democrat in favor of the amendment. A vote to kill it failed 17-18. After the vote, slight chatter broke out on the Democratic side causing Senate President Beth Edmonds to bang down her gavel and snap at Nutting, “I’m running this show, not you, and I mean that.”

Sen. Kevin Raye, R-Perry, submitted an amendment which established a Blue Ribbon Commission on Mental Health. The commission will do an assessment of the state’s mental health system to find efficiencies and ways to maximize resources without eliminating services. The chamber also failed to kill this bill with a 17 to 18 vote, with Nutting voting with the Republicans to keep it alive.

Earlier in the day, the House had adjourned with two amendments to the budget. The Senate struck down one, which restored partial cuts to OPEGA. They approved the other, which restores some proposed cuts to hospital-based positions.

What’s next

Friday morning the House will enter partisan caucuses, and then meet to discuss this bill. House Speaker Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, said House Democrats will not support any cuts to health care. Period.

“The House caucus will be very concerned about the results here tonight,” Cummings said.

Assistant House Minority Leader Robert Crosthwaite, R-Ellsworth, said he could not speak yet as to what the House Republicans will do Friday, but the Senate’s version of the budget “will be a surprise to some of our members when they come back in.”

He said House Republicans will try to have a united voice when they come back to the floor.

If the House does not approve the Senate’s version of the budget Friday, it will continue to go back and forth between the chambers until an agreement is reached. If they cannot come up with a budget by April 1, then it will be up to Gov. John Baldacci to resolve the cuts.

And, according to Senate Majority Leader Libby Mitchell, D-Vassalboro, “A curtailment order will be much more severe than anything you’ll see here.”