AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Janet Mills unveiled Wednesday a $71 million supplemental budget that includes funding for mental health and firearm storage initiatives in the wake of the Lewiston mass shooting.
The $71 million addition would boost the current two-year budget to $10.41 billion. It asks lawmakers to set aside $107 million out of fiscal caution, something that has already disappointed progressives who want to see more state spending on housing and other issues.
While Mills has not yet released text for her proposal to expand background checks to advertised gun sales, her budget plan included several initiatives she announced last month during her State of the State address. It does not include $50 million for an infrastructure fund that she will propose separately as a response to major December and January storms.
Major items include $1 million to create a central injury and violence prevention data hub, $950,000 to create a crisis receiving center in Lewiston and $5 million to create a state fund that covers out-of-pocket medical expenses for victims of “mass violence events” in Maine.
Other highlights are $2.8 million in state and matched federal funding for mobile crisis teams that respond to people experiencing mental health emergencies, $200,000 to promote an existing program that encourages Mainers to safely store firearms and $422,400 for mental health assessments under Maine’s “yellow flag” law that allows judges to temporarily take away people’s weapons.
Mills, a Democrat, in her second and final term as governor, had already given an overview of her budget plan as part of last month’s State of the State address. She noted Maine is expected to see $265 million in surplus revenue into 2025 while nodding to revenue shortfalls in other states.
Mills also asked lawmakers for $22.6 million more for K-12 education, $16 million for warming and homeless shelters, $10 million to build 130 affordable housing units and $4 million to expand addiction treatment in jails, among other items.
The governor wants another $6 million to repair state parks, historic sites and public lands after the destructive storms in December and January, a $3 million one-time payment to milk producers in recognition of increased production costs and $15 million in final payments to municipalities under the property tax stabilization program for older Mainers.
The budget request also includes $5.5 million to hire 32 additional Maine State Police personnel and $6 million for crime victims’ services to fill a federal funding gap. The $71 million addition would boost the current fiscal year budget to $10.41 billion.
She also included money to support a sweeping plan to gradually shift state oversight of preschoolers with disabilities to local districts over a three-year period, and for Maine’s embattled child welfare system, Mills proposed new positions to help caseworkers, potentially paying caseworkers more by reclassifying their jobs and a recruitment effort focused on retirees and other candidates not currently in the workforce.
The various initiatives tied to the Lewiston shooting, storms and services for crime victims that Mills has proposed to fund “are all good things and responsive to what we are hearing from communities all across our state,” said a spokesperson for Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash.
Jackson spokesperson Christine Kirby said the Senate leader still has concerns about child care affordability but looks forward to working with both parties to tackle “emerging issues like wages for teachers, support staff and rural state trooper patrols.”
Legislative Republicans kept their budget reaction brief Wednesday, only saying they “look forward to reviewing it once final details become available.”
