LEGISLATURE’S BUDGET BECOMES LAW DESPITE LEPAGE VETO

Posted: May 01, 2014 | Front Page, Senator Hill

Budget eliminates and reduces DHHS wait lists for people with disabilities, ups reimbursements for struggling nursing homes

AUGUSTA — Despite Governor Paul LePage’s veto, the Legislature has approved a $32 million budget fix. The funding measure eliminates waitlists for care for people with disabilities and will help prevent nursing homes in rural areas from closing their doors.   

“Nearly every lawmaker supported this budget and continued to do so despite Governor LePage’s threats and tantrums,” said Senator Dawn Hill of York, the  Senate Chair of the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee. “This is a good, bipartisan budget and I am proud of the my fellow lawmakers for standing by their votes and standing up for Maine people.”

The measure was passed unanimously in the Senate with a vote of 35 to 0 and by a vote of 133 to 8 in the House. The House overrode Governor LePage’s veto of the budget in a 134-12 vote, and the Senate in a 35-0 vote.

The $32 million budget would:

  • Close a $17 million shortfall in the MaineCare program for fiscal year 2015

  • Provide $5 million to reduce and eliminate the Department of Health and Human Services’ wait lists for people with disabilities to get home care services

  • Increase reimbursement rates for nursing homes by $5 million and provides $2 million for the state’s court ordered mental health consent decree

  • Increase funds for safety and security at Riverview Psychiatric Center and Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center

  • Invest in key education and workforce training programs, including $650,000 for the Bridge Year program, $300,000 in funding for Jobs for Maine’s Graduates, and $750,000 for Head Start

Funding for the bill comes from extending payments to health care providers by ten days, saving $20 million.  It also sweeps savings found from hospital payment audits, transfers from tax audits, position savings, and unexpended program accounts for Dirigo Health, the Finance Authority of Maine, and the House Opportunity Maine.

Governor LePage refused to propose a budget despite shortfalls at his departments, refused to allow his commissioners to provide information to the budget committee in public, and provided inaccurate information on the budget shortfall in the Department of Health and Human Services.

The supplemental budget for fiscal years 2014 and 2015 it will take effect immediately.

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