AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine would start a $5 million fund to help residents buy mobile home parks that are put up for sale under a ream of state budget revisions proposed by Gov. Janet Mills on Friday.
The package from the Democratic governor would tack on an extra $25 million to the $71 million budget addition that she rolled out in February and bring the total budget to nearly $10.44 billion. It is highlighted by additional funding for one of Maine’s most pressing issues: housing.
Mills proposed $5 million to establish a “housing preservation fund” that will support mobile home residents in purchasing their parks. The governor’s office said the plan will aid residents “vulnerable to being displaced from their homes, or having rents suddenly increase, from a change in park ownership.”
This week, the Bangor Daily News reported on skyrocketing rents at mobile home parks in Wiscasset after out-of-state investors acquired them. Mills also noted residents of four mobile home parks that include more than 1,000 households have been notified since December that owners intend to sell. Residents of an Old Orchard Beach park are trying to raise $40 million.
The new fund will offer low or no-interest financing to resident cooperatives and complement other financing options to support mobile home park purchases in Maine, Mills’ office said.
The governor’s change package also proposed $11 million for rural affordable rental housing and another $11 million that will be doubled through federal low-income housing tax credits to help build more than 150 new housing units. Mills noted she has already proposed $10 million in her supplemental budget to build an estimated 130 new single-family homes in Maine.
The budget change from Mills must get approved by lawmakers who are seeking to finish work and adjourn for the year by mid-April, and it comes after the Revenue Forecasting Committee projected an additional $108 million in additional funding through 2025. Mills has taken heat from the right and left over her spending plans as the state has maxed out its rainy day fund.
But the governor, whose final term ends in 2027, has proposed setting aside $107 million as savings by noting the increased revenue is driven primarily by strong yet volatile corporate tax revenues.
Other highlights in Friday’s change package include $23.2 million for a new nursing facility fund that will serve as the state’s share of MaineCare payments from 2025 to 2027 as a rate reform is phased in, and it will support “time-limited” payments to facilities that, for example, “reward quality or achieve permanent staffing targets,” the governor’s office said.
The proposed budget change also has $11.8 million for one-time grants to child care providers who are awaiting additional support once a new child care overhaul is implemented and $1.1 million for Head Start providers. A newer substance use treatment center in Kennebec County will receive an additional $550,000 in start-up funding, and $5.5 million will go to unexpected pharmacy costs following a cybersecurity attack on a United Health program.
As the state continues to recover from widespread destruction and flooding brought on by numerous winter storms, Mills also proposed $17.5 million to the Maine Emergency Management Agency to help unlock additional federal funding amid other funding reductions.
Mills also proposed $4.1 million in additional funding to support dairy farmers and the Maine Milk Commission.
“This fiscally responsible proposal aims to address some of the most urgent challenges Maine people are facing, like access to affordable housing, child care, and long-term care,” Mills said in Friday’s release.