AUGUSTA, Maine — The Legislature’s budget writing committee abruptly canceled a Friday meeting on proposed cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services. Members of the Appropriations Committee said they needed more information from the department before continuing deliberations on the proposed cuts.
Last month, Gov. Paul LePage released a supplemental budget for DHHS, which reduced its state funding by $220 million over the next year and a half. There has been much opposition to the cuts, especially those affecting facilities for the elderly and those with disabilities.
Lawmakers have been frustrated by a lack of clear information from the department about the size of the gap between its spending and its allocation of state funds. Questions also remain about the causes of the shortfall.
Because of this, a work session scheduled for Friday was called off late Thursday.
Rep. Ken Fredette, R-Newport, a member of the Appropriations Committee, said it was more important to have accurate information than to finish a supplemental budget quickly.
I hope they get their facts before they make cuts. I voted for the Gov and I don’t believe what he says half the time
My mom voted for him and now sees what a mistake that was.
Come on Legislature…impeach him before he costs you all your jobs.
There has been no impeachable offense committed.
The fact that the word “impeach” is being used is certainly disconcerting and worry some.
What has he done that he should be impeached. It will never happen because their is not enough votes to impeach him. Just more hot air coming from the Libs because they have presented no alternative plans for job creation, lowering spending, lowering the amount of folks on welfare, lowering taxes for Mainers. Just like the “61% ers” claim they are going to recall him when Maine has no recall law for state officials. The Liberals (Far left Democrats) are finding out what is like to be in the minority and not have their voices heard. Now you know how Blue Dog Dems, Republicans, Tea Partiers, Green Party, Libertarians and Independents (myself) feel like when our voices haven’t been heard on anything the last 36 years.
Is that all you got? Whining about how bad you been treated?
Think on this one. We don’t have enough population or industry to sustain our economy. We need to bring in more business and more qualified people to run them and then our piddly little welfare bill will shrink in comparison.
Other soloution. Less people and just cut the bills altogether. Keep Maine wild and a tourist destination. Do we want to come into the modern age or regress to the 1700’s?
Opps! The LePage crew STILL can’t get their numbers/”story” straight. Guess it will be a while before they actually get around to actually DOING something. Mary Mayhew has every appearance of being over her head just as much as her boss. Sometimes “Getting a real job” means getting one that you’re actually qualified to do. What we are seeing here is a perfect example of pathetic incompetence.
I assume Ms. Mayhew thought she was making a clever career move transitioning from some type of Head Start job. Her boss said they could not afford someone he wanted so they hired Ms. Mayhew. If that is the standard little could be expected except for her to get in line and just do the boss’s bidding. We all have done things we would have chosen not to do and then there are those who chose to do those things. I do like her wry smirk when she tell you something that she cannot explain and says “should I be concerned about you”. Nice touch.
The Peter principle at work.
Is it really incompetence or is the LePage administration withholding much needed information from the committee on purpose? Either way it speaks poorly of the LePage administration. I can not imagine a committee member daring to vote on a proposal of this importance and magnitude without adequate information. Judging by what we have seen to date LePage feels that all that is needed is for him to say it has to be and that should be enough for the committee to make a decision. I don’t care if you are on the left, right on in the center we expect our elected representatives to act in a responsible manner when it comes to legislation. How can anyone say that they can make a responsible decision without the proper information.
It’s a combination of incompetence and dishonesty. The Penguin administration has been playing a shell game with DHHS pretending that the only way to solve problems is to make drastic cuts that will hurt people. They’re these lies to justify power grabs. For example, Penguin wants the ability to take control of quasi-government agencies like Maine State Housing and he’s lying about the DHHS problem in order to try to make it happen. The reality here is that they got caught lying and couldn’t pony up the facts to support what they have been saying. That’s the part that requires incompetence – if you’re going to base an administration on lies, you need at least to be smart enough to cover them up.
Agreed. That’s what I was implying by adding “Story.” With this bunch it will always be hard to tell the difference between what might be manipulative lies that serve their “Own” purposes or flat out incompetence. I would “Assume” this is all a manipulative lie but am not in a position to prove it. I KNOW that it’s a blatant example of incompetence. Either way Mainers will have to put up with this situation until the state House and Senate majorities are returned (Thank Paul for all his help here) to the Democrats in the next election cycle.
Either way Mainers will have to put up with this situation until the state House and Senate majorities are returned (Thank Paul for all his help here) to the Democrats in the next election cycle.
I don’t think that is necessarily true. I think we are seeing the beginnings of a split between LePage and some republican legislators (the ones with brains that function) already. I really think he expected the committee to rubber stamp his proposal and then when that didn’t work he made an attempt to intimadate them and found out that didn’t work either. Time will tell, but I agree with you completely that come November there will be a major shift in the control of both the house and senate.
I have a great idea! why doesn’t the Appropriations Committee, as a whole, storm into the Governor’s office and just …..have a seat? What goes around comes around….and it’s coming around for this particular Governor. Who, since the announcement by the repubs. has said, NOTHING publicly, I’m sure he has had much to say on a phone.
I don’t blame them, and as I said before, if I were a representative of the people; I would tell my leadership that I will not vote on the matter, in committee or on the floor, unless I have all of the pertinent information and all of my questions answered.
The uniformed state trooper he pulled off the road to stand guard at his office door would probably stop them.
Snow is unpredictable, its a like like gardening. Plant the seeds water them and expect them to produce. The winter recreation business is hurting due to lack of snow. The weather can be unpredictable…always has been. The business of people who are sick, uneducated and poor for the most part has been very predictable and growing at an alarming rate. The underclass will continue with high hunger and misery index. The Gov. seems to come across in a nasty way to blame and add to the already suffering of many Mainers. It seems to be all about money and budgets. We know its more about people though. Let the politicians in this state stand tall and spend what is neccessary for the sick, weak, elderly and innocent so they can sustain themselves for an extended period…lets say through this decade. Its not all about money! The reason you the business men and women will not prosper is not because of the money being spent on your poor neighbors. Its much more complicated than that. It may be because the weather is unpredictable.
Do Your Part to Reduce Costs by Reporting Fraud in Maine
Allegations of fraud or attempted fraud involving funds, including Food Stamps,
administered by the Department of Health and Human Services should be sent to:
Fraud, Investigation and Recovery
11 State House Station
Whitten Road
Augusta, Maine 04333-0011
Phone numbers for DHHS Fraud office are:
1-207-287-2409 and 1-800-442-6003
Further questions and suspicions can also be submitted by e-mail.
Fraud.Dhhs@maine.gov
Contact the Office of the Attorney General
Phone: 207-626-8800
Mailing Address:
Office of the Attorney General
6 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333
http://www.maine.gov/ag/contact.html
Do All three, Phone, E-mail and send a Letter.
Follow-up in 30 days with a Certified letter if no response.
Send a letter Directly to the Governor’s Office, that should get their attention.
Keep a written log of actions and attempts to notify. Hold them Responsible!
Have you ever considered that some people may call for different reasons. That there maybe , in the reporters opinion, be fraud. But what’s the REAL reason? In other words, what is the motivation for someone calling, you and I both know that it’s not a civic duty oriented action. It’s done out of spite. The problem lies within the state.
I think that fraud is fraud, you will see welfare fraud. But you haven’t mentioned in any of your references about corporate fraud, why not? There are two banks in Maine that were bailed out, and have not paid a penny towards their public debt, and yet, continue to make loans, forclose on properties, and issue credit cards. Isn’t that fraud?
Seems like “Hold them Responsible” can apply to both the State officials as well as potential fraudulent recipients of the programs.
I’m sure if the proper verifiable evidence is provided then corrective action can be taken.
No matter the incentive for the communication, the fraud Must be stopped.
If you have evidence of banking fraud, don’t keep it a secret, I urge you to report it to the correct Federal agency.
Thank you.
LePage’s budget numbers are the real fraud – someone needs to send him an anonymous FAX and straighten him out.
liar, liar, pants of fire! Sometimes it is hard to make the “facts” fit the claims. Hold them accountable for their statements. Did Mayhew and Big Paulie think everyone would just accept their claims as to the cause and “final solution”?
Let’s see — last spring Mr LePage provided a budget that by law was to be a balanced budget which would seem to mean that one has planned on enough funds to meet the coming year’s expenses — this fall came the cries of a 30, no 60, no 200 million dollar short fall all due to all of the lay abouts — well that is not quite true we didn’t really budget enough money this spring to meet the needs — but we can fix this by just cutting benefits this winter and kick the elderly and other institutionalized people out onto the street — well we really won’t have to due that because we stuck some money in a slush fund to take care of them — now we know the legislature is going to have to appropriate money to cover this shortfall but they will have to make this dicission in a vaccum because we will just with hold the information needed to make an informed judgment — maybe Mr LePage and crew did not and still do not know what that infomation is
You know the last time I saw the likes of this was the carney at the fair who ran the shell game — even as a youngster I knew that was a losing proposition
LePage and his incompetent Maine Heritage Policy Center cronies need more time to cook up some bigger and better GOP Fairy Tale budget numbers to justify throwing the elderly and severely disabled out in the street.
Tea Party “government” – what a bad bad joke.
The problem I am worried about is best described in this article:
http://ideas.time.com/2012/01/05/8th-grader-killed-by-police-what-went-wrong/?iid=op-main-lede
This is what we can expect if they cut the system to the bone.
And what do We get? The ones that work our fingers to the bone?
Boney Fingers!
Cut by million is needed…..
The problem is NOT the budget that was put together last winter. The trouble comes from DHHS not sticking to it.
A finite amount of money was allocated for DHHS for the two year budget. Meanwhile, those on the lines at DHHS keep right on spending every cent they can without worrying about rather they have that money to spend or not.
How long could you run your household budget that way.
Baldacci always found “gimmicks” to cover the overspending up. The new gov wants to try and get it under control of somebody, anybody.
The major problems are within the department itself.
DHHS is a bloated parasite. It needs a complete redo from the Federal level on down. Too many fingers in the cookie jar. This is the richest country in the world no matter how many hands out polititians whine otherwise. There is no need for our poor to go without. We spend enough in corporate welfare every day to keep the standard of living for the poor and working poor at a higher level than any country in the world if we just handed it out to them at corner dispensaries.
It’s the same old gimmick when it comes to government (taxpayer) funding. If you don’t spend every bit of the money allocated, then next year your funding will be cut down to only as much as you spent or less. So, of course, DHHS has been spending everything they can get their hands on, and asking for more. Job security.
Of course there doesn’t need to be any DHHS cuts.
The (5) people in yesterday’s paper caught committing welfare fraud were just five more “isolated” incidents.
I am not a fan of the LePage administration, BUT there are legitimate cuts which could and should be made in the provider system of dispensing services. There are duplications, redundancies, and too many agencies providing the same services.
A better way to provide services would cut administrative costs (each agency has it’s own administration) by limiting the number of agencies providing a service. The private providers of State services currently feel they are “entitled” to yearly raises, and continuous growth. that growth comes at taxpayer expense, and I, for one, do not see the benefit of this.
Another way to cut costs would be to provide private agencies with State owned or leased workspace in a mall type facility so all services in an area could be found in the same place. This would also cut down transportation costs.
The State could also consolidate the number of field offices it currently maintains in the public sector. There is no reason why the D.H.H.S could not share space with the Departments of Motor Vehicles, Probation and Parole, the warden service and the State Police. Wouldn’t it be great if citizens could find all State services in one place?
Finally the number of administrators at D.H.H.S. needs to shrink. it is ridiculous to have the number of people in administration that are there currently. Line staff assist people, administrators cover the butts of their superiors.
Finally, the people who always fight against any cuts at D.H.H.S. need to stop spreading fear and using the old “people will be freezing on the street” saw. Some people will always fall through the cracks, but in my forty-some years watching human service organizations, I have never seen massive die-offs following funding cuts, including the massive human service funding cuts under Jim Longley. If someone out there has past examples of funding cut proving dangerous , I would be very interested in them.