AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Janet Mills outlined her spending agenda in a written address released Tuesday that urged lawmakers to set aside $100 million out of fiscal caution and teased reforms to two embattled programs serving vulnerable children.
Mills delivered the first part of her State of the State address in the morning ahead of her 7 p.m. speech to a joint session of the Maine Legislature. That is likely to gain more attention, because the governor has said it will be devoted to the “immediate crises” facing the state, including responses to the Lewiston mass shooting and recent major storms.
Her 11-page written address was focused on the nuts and bolts of state government. Since Mills was elected in 2018, Maine and other states have had strong budget surpluses that persisted with a pandemic-era wave of federal aid. It has allowed Mills and her fellow Democrats in charge of the Legislature to raise spending sharply while building reserves to record highs.
But the governor also has been more restrained than other members of her party. She nodded to revenue shortfalls in states, including Massachusetts, California and New York, as cautionary tales. She said she will set aside $100 million as part of an upcoming spending plan while noting that Maine is expected to see $265 million in surplus revenue by the middle of 2025.
“That sounds like a lot of money, but, like Maine families, we have to look to the future to know what our revenues will be and to plan for the bills that are due in the months and years ahead.” she wrote.
She outlined several spending items that she will propose, saying she will ask lawmakers to approve $22.6 million more for K-12 education, $16 million for homeless and warming shelters, $10 million to construct 130 units of affordable housing and $4 million to expand addiction treatment in jails, among other items.
Bigger changes could be in store for Maine’s child welfare system and another long-embattled program that provides early educational services to young children with disabilities.
The state had the highest child maltreatment rate in the nation last year. It is also the only state to use a quasi-governmental organization — Child Development Services — to provide early childhood services that kids have had to wait for or go without for years. Mills said the Maine Department of Education will release a plan to reform that system.
As for child welfare, Mills said her administration will be proposing a targeted list of new positions to help caseworkers while kicking off a recruiting effort focused on retirees and others not currently in the workforce. The state would also look at paying caseworkers more by reclassifying their jobs, she said.
“Every one of us cares deeply about children, and we need to pursue every smart strategy we can to improve the health and safety of all children,” she said.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers said Tuesday afternoon they were awaiting the governor’s evening speech before commenting further on her spending plan. The Maine Service Employee Association, the main union representing state employees, criticized the governor’s plan to set aside more money when a large share of state jobs are vacant in part due to low pay.
Assistant House Majority Leader Kristen Cloutier, D-Lewiston, said a “careful dance” revolves around managing the recent storms, mass shooting and various bills carried over from last year.
House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, said around noon Tuesday he had not yet read the governor’s speech but listed off several ongoing complaints about Mills administration policies.
Faulkingham said he wanted Mills to call on the Board of Environmental Protection to abandon its plan to vote on electric vehicle sales requirements and ask Secretary of State Shenna Bellows to “let people vote for who they want to vote for,” a reference to the secretary’s December decision — now awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court opinion — to rule former President Donald Trump ineligible for the primary ballot.
Among other grievances, Faulkingham reiterated Republican calls for the state to use a budget surplus for tax cuts and tax reforms.
“We don’t want to see any expansion of government,” Faulkingham said.