Disability programs, school aid among cuts
State officials are proposing ways to trim spending in their departments as a six-week process to cut at least $200 million from the two-year state budget begins.
Gov. John Baldacci earlier this month directed departments to cut their budgets in order to balance the $5.8 million biennial budget that began July 1. The bulk of cuts are coming from the Department of Health and Human Services and K-12 education, which together make up 72% of the state budget, according to the Kennebec Journal. DHHS, ordered to find $64 million in savings, has so far proposed $50 million in cuts, which include eliminating 71 jobs, and reducing funding for physical and psychiatric disability programs and low-cost drugs. The Department of Education is proposing cutting $37 million in general purpose aid to schools in K-12 education.
Proposals from other departments include cutting jobs, shrinking dam repair funding and reducing state police canine and crisis negotiation teams, according to the paper.
But Ryan Low, commissioner of the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, warned those proposals could change drastically, and that the reductions will ultimately be "north of $200 million for sure." Low will meet with department officials for two weeks before meeting with Gov. Baldacci to put together the supplemental budget.
Go to the article from the Kennebec Journal >>
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