Activist group proposes new budget fix

AUGUSTA, Maine (NEWS CENTER) – One day after Governor Paul LePage restated the need to make major cuts in Maine’s Medicaid program, a coalition of liberal political groups is saying the answer to the problem is to raise taxes on wealthy Mainers.

A group called Engage Maine, which is made up of a number of other activist political groups, says the Governor’s plan to cut more than sixty thousand people from the Medicaid program is “dangerous and irresponsible.”

Engage Maine members lined up at the Statehouse to criticize the Governors plan, saying it will hurt many Mainers who can least afford it, and will also result in thousands of lost health care jobs. Instead, they want the state to make some reforms in Medicaid to save money, and raise income taxes on higher income residents to make up the rest of the shortfall.

Specifically, they want to repeal last year’s tax cut for people who earn more than $200,000 dollars a year. They estimate there are about 22,000 households in that category.

They also want to impose an additional tax increase on the so-called “one percent” of Mainers who are in the highest income category, households earning more than $350,000 dollars a year. Engage Maine says the combination of those two tax hikes would be about $72 million per year for the state.

But legislative leaders in both parties say tax increases don’t seem likely right now.

Sen. Justin Alfond (D)Portland) says Democrats are not proposing any tax hikes. And Republican Sen. Jon Courtney (R-Springvale) says “People didn’t send us here to raise taxes the sent us here to solve problems.”

Legislative leaders say both parties on the Appropriations Committee are working together to come up with solutions to the DHHS budget crisis, and they’re hoping for a final committee vote within two weeks.

NEWS CENTER