Think Tank Unveils Legislative Tracking Website MaineVotes.org

Increased Transparency in Government to Promote Greater Accountability

The Maine Heritage Policy Center (MHPC) has launched a new website that allows users to easily track legislation and monitor legislative activities at the State House.  The website, www.MaineVotes.org, is part of MHPC's Maine Government Integrity Project, a bold new effort to introduce greater transparency in state and local government.

Governor and Legislature, Heal Thyself - Why the State House is a good place to look for budget savings

by Stephen Bowen

As the Maine Legislature looks to complete the supplemental budget bill, it would do well to look for additional savings within the walls of the venerable State House itself, which, upon its opening in 1832, housed all of Maine state government. Today it is home to only two state agencies, the legislature and the governor’s office. Those two, however, have among the fastest growing budgets in state government. The legislature’s budget was more than $13,800,000 in 1998, ten years ago, but it is budgeted to spend more than $25,000,000 in the fiscal year starting this summer, an 84 percent increase.  The governor's office spent a little more than $1,400,000 in FY 2000, but appropriated a $2,900,000 budget this year and is budgeted to spend more than $3,000,000 next year — more than double what the office spent just eight years ago.

 What can be done to find savings? Plenty.

 Click here to read the report.

Maine Issue Brief                                           No. 31

Senator Strimling's Minimum Wage Proposal is Unnecessary and Destructive

by J. Scott Moody

LD 1697, “An Act to Ensure Fair Wages” sponsored by Senator Ethan Strimling, is currently winding its way through the legislative process in Augusta.  In its recently amended form, the bill would raise the current $7.00 minimum wage to $7.35 by October 1, 2008, $7.70 by  October 1, 2009, $8.00 by October 1, 2010 and then index the minimum wage to inflation forever after.  However, LD 1697 is both unnecessary and destructive and will result in fewer new jobs in Maine.

Click here to read the report.

The Maine View                                 

Vol. 6, Issue No. 1

$217 Million in Reasonable Spending Cuts to Close Budget Gap

by Stephen L. Bowen, Tarren R. Bragdon, and J. Scott Moody

A recent Market Decisions’ public opinion poll noted that some 86 percent of Maine people believe that taxes are too high, and that 80 percent state that increasing taxes and fees must not be an option to eliminate the current $225 million budget shortfall.  Maine voters realize that this budget gap exists because spending is too high; not because taxes are too low.

Maine has an opportunity to lead by advancing real changes in costly programs to maintain a government which still provides a safety net for the poor, elderly and disabled.  This involves making changes that create a government the people of Maine can afford. 

Click here to read the report.

NEW! Click here to read the list of vacant state government positions.

Transparency - Shedding Light on Government Activities II: The Hidden LD 1 Cost-shift

by Stephen Bowen

In the spring of 2005, the Legislature passed LD 1, which promised to ease property tax burdens by increasing the state’s share of K-12 spending statewide. While the state did increase its financial commitment to education, it also shifted much of the funding for a number of education programs from the state to local school districts. Since LD 1 was enacted, local  property tax payers have been asked to pay for more than $120 million worth of Department of Education programs that were previously paid for with 100 percent state funding.

Click here to read the report.

Maine Issue Brief                                  No. 29

Transparency-Shedding Light on Government Activities I:  How Will Maine Afford Retiree Health Care Benefits for State Employees and Public School Teachers?

By J. Scott Moody

Maine is abuzz with recent news that the state government's budget deficit has doubled from $95 million to $190 million.  While legislators frantically try to plug this hole in the ship, a much larger iceberg looms in the distance--the funding of retiree health care benefits for Maine's state employees and public school teachers.  In fact, retiree health care will be one of the fastest growing parts of the state budget skyrocketing by a projected 155 percent from fiscal years 2007 to 2016.  The best solution for Maine taxpayers would be to reduce the promised level of retiree health care benefits--a necessary step many states have already taken.

Click here to read the report.

Medicaid Watch                           Vol. 5, Issue No. 1

Maine's Choice:

Have Medicaid Take Care of the Truly Vulnerable or Give Away Medicaid to the Middle Class 

by Tarren Bragdon

As state legislators in Augusta work to close a $200 million budget shortfall, they would be well advised to take a careful look at the state's enormously expensive Medicaid program.  Once designed to provide health care to only the state's most needy and vulnerable, eligibility for the program has grown dramatically.  In fact, almost $146 million a year could be saved by establishing more reasonable eligibility limits for non-disabled adults under the age of 65.

Click here to read the report.

As Legislators look to rework the troubled school district reorganization law, one of the components of the law which has become the subject of some debate is the so-called "budget validation process."  This procedure, which requires voter referendums for the approval of school budgets, has been characterized by critics such as the Maine Education Association as being "excessive, costly, and burdensome."

Evidence shows, however, that the budget validation process is not only highly effective at controlling the growth of school budgets, it is overwhelmingly popular with voters in those school districts where it is now in use.

Click here to read the report.

New! Click here to read Steve Bowen's testimony on budget validation before the Education Committee.