PORTLAND, Maine — Cutting funding for programs that promote health and prevent disease to balance the state’s books will only cost Maine more in the long run, Portland Mayor Michael Brennan said Monday.
Brennan spoke out a day before lawmakers are set to reconvene in Augusta to consider a plan to close an $83 million shortfall in the Department of Health and Human Services by slashing spending on Medicaid and other health programs, while providing some tax cuts.
The plan was approved, along party lines, by the Appropriations Committee last week. It now will be up for votes in the House and Senate.
These cuts follow an earlier round of DHHS cuts last month, which dropped Medicaid coverage for 12,000 beneficiaries in the state.
Brennan targeted Republicans’ plan to divert $11 million from the Fund for a Healthy Maine to help close the budget gap. The fund allocates money from the landmark 1998 tobacco settlement for smoking and substance abuse prevention programs and a variety of health initiatives.
The fund’s other source of money, $2.5 million from slot machine revenue at Hollywood Casino in Bangor, would be cut entirely. The funding was originally earmarked to help the elderly pay for prescription drugs under the 2003 ballot referendum on the racino.
In all, the cuts amount to about 20 percent of the Fund for a Healthy Maine’s typical annual allotment.
Portland will lose at least $250,000 for several programs as a result of the Fund for a Healthy Maine cuts, according to Brennan’s office.
“As a legislator, I was proud to be a part of the effort to invest the monies coming from the tobacco settlement into programs that would prevent disease and help Mainers live healthy and active lives, and as mayor, I see the direct benefit of these investments in our community,” Brennan said in a press release. “This simple fact of the matter is that the old adage penny wise and pound foolish applies to these cuts.”
Brennan cited a 2008 report that found for every dollar Maine invests in prevention efforts, the state could save $7.50 in health costs within five years, the highest return on investment of any state in the country.
On average, health expenses related to tobacco and obesity cost each Maine household approximately $2,523 each year, Brennan said.
Under the budget proposal, two of the city’s six school-based health centers, which together offer primary care to more than 3,500 students, would be closed. Community coalitions that focus on preventing tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke, as well as promoting physical activity and nutrition, would take a $185,000 hit. The Fund for a Healthy Maine cuts would also force a home visitation program that educates new parents about children’s health and developmental needs to scale back, Brennan said.
While prevention programs are beneficial, the state must make tough choices to preserve crucial services for children, the elderly and people with disabilities, said Adrienne Bennett, spokeswoman for Gov. Paul LePage.
The state’s home visitation program will continue to receive $30 million in federal funding over the next four years, while two-thirds of the Healthy Maine Partnerships public health program will remain intact, she said.
“This budget is about setting priorities and making structural changes that result in ongoing savings and also protect the safety net for Maine’s most vulnerable,” she said.
Rallies opposing the budget cuts were planned Tuesday at Bangor City Hall and at the State House in Augusta.
A number of programs that the Fund for a Healthy Maine supports also receive state and federal monies.
Roughly a third of the fund’s money goes toward smoking cessation and anti-obesity programs. Child care and development initiatives, such as Head Start, account for another significant chunk, along with prescription drug programs.
Maine is considered a leader in preserving its tobacco settlement funds to crack down on smoking. The state spent $9.4 million in fiscal year 2012 on anti-tobacco programs, about half what federal health officials recommend, but nonetheless ranking Maine sixth in the country in a November report.
Other states have raided their tobacco settlement funds to balance budgets and fund special projects. Fifteen states used the money to sell bonds, giving up their rights to future payments.
Since 2000, Maine has shifted more than $90 million from the Fund for a Healthy Maine to the general fund. More than half of that sum, about $53 million, was in the 2002-03 budget year.
“Since the King administration, these are the first big program cuts,” said Becky Smith, chief policy officer for the Maine Public Health Association.
So it was ok in 2002-03 to divert money but not now? Just raise taxes in portland.
Your going to see your taxes raised in m nearly all towns due to these cuts!I already have seen how these cuts have affected my community. Ask your leaders how this impacts your schools and other programs.Maybe then, you won’t be so glib.
The poor, ill, elderly, local taxpayers, and labor in general are preparing to be “Pounded” by the foolishness of Mr. LePage’s budget.
Lepage raised the already $9,000,000 subsidy ($10,000 per student per year) to the Maine Maritime Academy of which nearly 1/2 of the 900+ student body are from out of state who graduate and never look back. One wonders at his business acumen with this model to drain the state of scarce financial resources. It’s time to privatize the MMA like Bates, Colby, and Bowdoin.
Why is it every time the left wants to extract money from workers pockets.They use the poor and the elderly . The Dems spent thirty years getting them their for a voting block. Now we are to believe they want to help them.Nice try Mainers are now seeing the truth.
It would be interesting to reveal every single “non-profit” in Maine that pays no taxes. And while you’re at it reveal their administrator’s salaries. Seems there are agencies operating under this umbrella on every single street corner. Seems operating “non-profits” are the most lucrative, quick buck game in town.
Why in the heck are “schools” being used as “primary care” centers for students? No wonder Maine sucks at educating kids.
Because there are a huge number of kids in this state without access to primary care, and providing that helps keep them from going without medical care?
While I sympathize with parents who can’t or don’t have the means to care for their handicapped child; and have lobbied the schools to provide year round care and extended this care until they are 24 in some towns; but it gets expensive fast to maintain these living communities within public schools at all grade levels.
Portland is filled with wealthy non-profits, that often operated profitable subsidiaries under the same roof, USM for example. Their ‘wealth’ is left untaxed and this situation is beginning to change as hard pressed local governments begin to assess them property taxes. In the case of the town’s taxing Hebron Academy, the court found for the town.
In some cases, USM holds onto expensive estates and pays maintenance, while getting little use or income from them. The STONE HOUSE retreat center on Wolfe’s Neck road is one of many luxury properties that could be sold. Some exude wealth like the Conservation Law foundation ‘retreat’ in S. Freeport.When Brennan was in the Legislature he was everything but a spendthrift. He was notorious for promoting an expensive agenda for the MEA; including at least a million dollars in background studies to sustain a lawsuit against the Federal NCLB program….which was thrown out by a Federal Judge in a humiliating defeat for Brennan.
“non-profits” lucrative???? this statement tells me that you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, the vast majority of staff that work at non-profits are grossly underpaid for the amount of work they are responsible for. Many are hardworking caring individuals that work well over the 40 hour mark with no extra pay. You will always find a smile and caring individual who will bend over backwards to help you in anyway they can, They don’t make the rules but they do there best to abide by them to help YOU. Non-profits pick up the slack that the towns do not or cannot afford to. Where will you go when you, your family, your friends etc… do not have anywhere else to turn, you are starving, cold and unemployed. Non-profits are not the long term answer they are the short term answer when there is no other option, they provide support and assistance to those that are most in need. For any of those who cannot fathom what a non-profit does or feel they are “lucrative” I URGE you to give a few hours of your time, volunteer at one (as this is mostly how they staff events and programs in order to get projects done) and then discuss how “lucrative” you feel non-profits are.
I think that it’s great that Portland’s Mayor is so willing to speak out against the Penguin administration and his irresponsible agenda.
You are so far gone this likely won’t help to educate you, but for the benefit of readers:
“It’s” is the abbreviated form of “it is” so the first one is correct. In the possessive tense it is spelled “its” so the second one is incorrect.
Dude, seriously. Don’t be that guy. Nobody likes that guy.
Start taxing these churches. Most of them are nothing but a scam anyway.
Why doesn’t Portland get rid of the mayor, take his salary and give it to someone who really needs it???
Why doesn’t the state get rid of the governor, his daughter
and his brother in-law and but the money to some semi-useful purpose?
I didn’t read the article, but couldn’t help but think this guy looks like Captain Picard!
Likely Portland would be just as well off if they decided to beam Jean Luc up to the enterprise – permanently.
Portland needs to take care of its own. It appears that Portland has had it budget subsided by the citizens of the state to $250,000. I’m sure there are some in Washington County who are mystified why some of their tax money is going subside a city like Portland.
This piece is nothing more than a political whack job against the current administration, for those who think it is about DHHS or budgets.
Uh… that’s Portland’s own money. Portland props this state up financially, paying more taxes than anywhere, and you never hear Portland residents complaining to lower taxes. It’s people from the towns who benefit from Portland’s largesse that whine the most.
Joe you nailed it. The leeches from Washington, Aroostook, Somerset, and Franklin counties need someone like LePukey to be their bully and act like he is helping them because he knows the people in the other counties aren’t dumb enough to vote for him.
Got a study to back this up?
I hear this whine all the time from Portlanders; but never any statistics to back it up.
In every state in the country, the cities subsidize the rural areas. The roads, power lines and other services upon which rural residents depend become more expensive the more they are spread out to serve fewer people over a larger geographical area. It’s basic mathematics.
Argue over how to get it done or cut all the programs an equal amount, but balance the budget.
Too bad Peter Vigue isn’t asking for money, the repubs and the goobernor would all be jumping in circles to send it to him!!!
Sure, it’s easy when your spending someone else’s money
Brennan is a fool. All hot air and no action. I see him on the news almost daily talking about this and that. Slamming Lepage and Augusta but he has done NOTHING for the City of Portland. Just setting himself up to run for the Blaine house.
….
Feel free to submit your donation your beloved Government anytime you choose…
Yea! You think we should go to war, go ahead and fight it yourself! Perfectly logical.
My family has several volunteers who swore the commitment just as the continuum of other American families always have.
In any event, I’m sure the government would appreciate your sacrificial donation. Please consider this my last reply to you. Have a great day!
Well, the majority of American soldiers have been conscripts, but don’t let the facts get in the way of self-righteousness! If you dont like reply’s, don’t post on public message boards.
Well i see Mousy the lefts pawn is running his head again. Portland voted you in stay in Portland leave the rest of us alone. He has nothing to do with the rest of the state that get’s it.We can not keep filling democrats pockets with failed policy’s from the past. Adding a mouse piece democratic activist from Portland does not help. If he is so cleaver whats he doing in a wannabe SanFrancisco like Portland.
If there is an expert in “foolish” it is Mike Brennan, a die-hard liberal who would spent this state into bankruptcy to keep himself in office. We have tried your spend-and-tax approach, Mike, and it has failed.
If people want to support social programs, they are free to do so. You don’t see United Way arresting people for not fulfilling their donations the way the IRS and MRS will if you do not pay your (sky-high) taxes.
Give to United Way or the social program of your choice, and you feel great, the recipient feels grateful, and the agency running on a shoestring does great work. Win-win-win!
Such “philanthropy”, when cycled through the government, turns this win-win-win into a lose-lose-lose, as “donors” (ie taxpayers) feel abused, recipients feel like dependent failures, and (govt) programs waste millions.
Get out of the social service business, Maine and feds – you stink at it.
This is foolish. The overhead of United Way or whatever is usually 35-40%, while with government programs (Medicare for example) its 2-3%. The government is much more efficient dollar per dollar than the NGO’s you mention. It is not close.
and I messed up my it’s and its on purpous.
AND……Portland needs a mayor why? His salary should go to the needy folks in Portland. That should keep em in diamonds and furs.
Can anyone prove that the tobacco fund has helped lower tobacco use in Maine? I say fix the DHHS from bleeding to death financially instead of putting bandages on it every year. DHHS is so broken and Brennan is another reason for the annual bleed, or enabling the welfare dysfunction. I think I remember seeing in the “News” that Portland ME is one of the best places in the country to get a job right now, a job is the best deterient for the abled body to regain their dignity and get off welfare!
Actually, tobacco use, despite all the money pumped into media campaigns, is rising among youth and appears to have divided society into smokers and non-smokers. Ever see a young couple where only one member smoked?
These cuts are exactly what is needed to spare the poor, elderly and children from real cuts to their care. The only thing that will be hurt by this are radio and tv advertising revenues and a few bureaucrats.
The Government has a responsibility to help the needy. They don’t have the right to constantly tell people how to live, what to eat, drink, smoke etc. Get government out of this “business”. Keep the help aimed where it needs to be. Squarely at the most needy among us.
This is about the same logic as the statement from the Vietnam War days, “We had to destroy the village to save it.”
cut cut!!!! we can not spend what we do not have…..
Whatdja say, Frank? We can’t hear you….please crank up the megaphone!
Michael Brennan needs to run for governor the next time around.
Rhode Island is looking for one.
Why aren’t carbon credits subject to the sales tax?
I wish the mayor would explain why reducing Mainecare benefits to be more in line with other states is such a bad thing.
http://youtu.be/kIL0AfdW1KE
We spend all that money keeping children healthy and then we are paying back millions to the feds for letting parents abuse them. Hospitals can’t get funds in five years due to them for providing services. People are going into debt to protect this whole debacle.
Mary Mayhew was supposed to fix these problems. It’s clear she’s inept or Brenda Harvy did a good job sabotoging the system to keep Mayhew buzy. This is the best we could do? We have to keep a system that’s hurting people around for the little good it does.
Here’s a novel thought gov. Insteed of cutting benifits let’s cut the sallerys of the people that work for HHS. They should all be working for minimum wage. Not only would you save more money but you could do that by exucutive order, You don’t need congresses approval. HHS answers directly to the orders of your office.