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Gov. Janet Mills’ focus on affordability in her annual — and final — State of the State address aligns with the major concerns of Mainers, and Americans. In numerous polls, people have identified the increasingly high cost of living as a top concern. This isn’t just about the cost of groceries and gas. It’s about the fundamentals of everyday living — health care, housing, child care, education.
The governor unveiled proposals to continue to address many of these concerns. She unveiled new programs and funding to spur the construction of more homes in Maine. She pledged to continue her free community college program while providing more state funding for K-12 education. She championed universal health care, which is unlikely to even be considered by the Republican-controlled Congress, to increase access to medical care.
Details of these and other priorities of the governor will be spelled out in more detail in a supplemental budget that her office expects to release this week.
A centerpiece of her affordability agenda are $300 relief checks that would be sent to about 725,000 Mainers. These checks are touted as a way to return money to Mainers, to allow them to spend it as they see fit. Such checks
Funding for the checks, which will come from the state’s full $1 billion rainy day fund, will total more than $218 million.
With so many unmet needs in Maine — thousands of people on waiting lists for health services, underpaid direct care workers, long-term care facilities closing, thousands of Mainers unable to afford health insurance — it is hard to justify these checks.
They do have the advantage of being easy and quick to get out the door. In addition, it is hard to allocate one-time money like this to one-time needs.
However, we’d encourage lawmakers to look for ways to have a more direct, targeted impact in areas where Mainers need the most assistance and support.
For example, it would cost about $88 million to cover the increased cost of health insurance that many Mainers faced at the start of the year with the expiration of federal tax credits for insurance purchased through the Affordable Care Act. Nationally, more than 1 million people have dropped their health insurance because of the elimination of the credits, which caused premiums to double or even triple for some.
We’re not suggesting the state cover that full cost, but some financial assistance this year could help as people wait for Congress to perhaps reinstate the credits.
Another option would be to better fund a larger child tax credit. An expanded federal credit was cited for cutting the child poverty rate in half. Congress let the expanded child tax credit expire.
Maine lawmakers could also expand other tax relief programs that have been proven to help low-income Mainers.
Many ideas like these are already on the table, in bills that lawmakers will consider this session.
We understand that the Mills administration, with input from others, explored many options to help Mainers with rising costs before settling on the $300 relief checks, which could be quickly distributed using the system set up to process previous relief payments. We also understand the desire to quickly help a lot of people.
But, we’d encourage a longer look at the possibility of using the money to help those Mainers most hurt by rising health, housing and child care costs.