AUGUSTA, Maine — Two state lawmakers hope to assemble bipartisan support to ensure additional funding for Maine’s community colleges after Gov. Paul LePage flat-funded the seven-campus system in his two-year budget proposal.
House Democratic Leader Jeff McCabe of Skowhegan and Rep. Joyce Maker, a Calais Republican and member of the Education Committee, said Tuesday that the Maine Community College System deserves a boost as much as the state’s other public post-secondary institutions, which would receive additional funding under LePage’s budget.
The duo is still hammering out details, but both lawmakers want Maine’s community colleges to be treated fairly, McCabe said.
“Whenever you talk about education, and you say ‘flat-funding,’ that’s a cut, because costs go up every year,” McCabe said. “We want the same increase [for the community colleges] that the University of Maine system is proposed to get.”
According to a summary document, LePage’s 2016-2017 budget includes a 3.64 percent increase — roughly $14.2 million — for the University of Maine system, bringing its total general fund appropriation for the biennium to $404.8 million. The governor’s proposal also increases Maine Maritime Academy’s two-year general fund appropriation 4.76 percent, or about $807,000, to a total of $17.8 million.
LePage’s budget holds state funding for the Maine Community College System at about $111 million for the biennium. If the system received an increase similarly proportioned to the UMaine system, it would mean an additional $4 million for the community colleges in 2016 and 2017.
State appropriations amount to just about one-third of the system’s projected annual budgets of $175 million in 2016 and $179 million in 2017.
The system had requested roughly $5.7 million in increased funding over two years to cover the cost of mandated retirement and health care contributions for its roughly 900 employees, said MCCS spokeswoman Helen Pelletier.
“The MCCS doesn’t allow for deficit spending, so if the budget remains flat-funded in the next biennium, the colleges will need to make painful cuts in the coming months that will have a direct impact on students and programs,” she said Tuesday.
Maker’s district includes the campus of Washington County Community College, where she formerly worked as financial aid director. She said the community college system has done an admirable job of providing affordable education to Mainers despite years of lean budgets and limited funding from the state.
“They’ve worked really hard, within their budget restraints that they’ve had,” she said. “They’ve kept tuition low. I think they should be given some funds just for that alone. They’re really trying to do a great job to serve a lot of students.”
LePage flat-funded the community college system at current levels because of dissatisfaction with John Fitzsimmons, the longtime president of the system. Fitzsimmons resigned recently after facing increasing political pressure from LePage, who accused Fitzsimmons of being unresponsive to the governor’s initiatives.
Maker said that if LePage’s move to exclude the community colleges from his push for increased higher education funding was a result of his dissatisfaction with Fitzsimmons, then maybe the governor would be open to working with lawmakers to increase funds now that Fitzsimmons is gone.
“That means there could be some movement,” she said, although she added that “it shouldn’t depend on who the president is.”
Efforts to contact LePage’s spokeswoman, Adrienne Bennett, were unsuccessful on Tuesday. State offices were closed because of the snowstorm surging through the state.
Because the deadline for bill proposals has already passed, McCabe and Maker will need special permission from the 10-member Legislative Council — comprised of the top lawmakers from both political parties — to bring a new bill before the Legislature.
McCabe, a member of the Legislative Council, said he hoped to enlist the support of a couple senators first, but suspected there would be broad support for a bill to increase funding for the community colleges. He said the schools are providing valuable training in the fields the state has identified as potential job growth areas, such as health care and other trades associated with serving Maine’s aging population.
“They’re really doing good work, in terms of training those boots on the ground,” he said. “he community college system is something a lot of people can relate to.”
Follow Mario Moretto on Twitter at @riocarmine.
