MPBN | Lawmakers Express Surprise at Proposal to Eliminate MPBN Funding
| 03/14/2012 Reported By: Mal Leary | |||||||||
| Members of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee expressed surprise that Gov. Paul LePage would once again propose elimination of state funding for the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. The panel rejected the proposal in last year’s budget negotiations. Mal Leary of Capitol News Service has this report. | |||||||||
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| Last year the members of the Appropriations Committee say they got more emails, phone calls and letters opposing Gov. LePage’s first proposal to eliminate MPBN’s state funding–that’s about $1.7 million a year–than on any other budget issue. They expect that will happen again this year.Sen. Dawn Hill is a Democrat from Cape Neddick. “The one piece that’s really shocking to me is MPBN, after everything we went through last year, to see that come,” she says. “So my initial reaction was like, ‘Oh, no.’ Then my second reaction is, ‘Well, if anybody’s asleep at the wheel they’ll be awake now, and we’ll have very active dialogue and lots of people coming for the public hearing.'”Finance Commissioner Sawin Millett acknowledged the proposal will once again be controversial to Rep. Peggy Rotundo, a Democrat from Lewiston.
“And I know there have been some discussions and we’ll want to talk more with you about this, with the new president of MPBN,” Millett said. “So there is an understanding that this is a proposal coming forward, but clearly you’re going to want to talk about it.” “Clearly, we will want to talk about it,” Rotundo responded. After the budget presentation, Rotundo was clear that the proposal is unacceptable to her and other Democrats on the budget-writing committee. “It’s absolutely going to be an issue for our caucus,” Rotundo says. “We fought this battle last year. We felt very strongly about the possibility of funding being lost for Maine Public Broadcasting, and here it is before us again.” MPBN President Mark Vogelzang says he has been unsuccessful in his attempts to meet with Gov. LePage and is baffled at Millett’s comment about discussions between the administration and the network. “I have not had any conversations with the administration that would indicate that we were comfortable, happy or even talking about a zero-funding base for MPBN,” Vogelzang says. Vogelzang, who just became president of the network in January, says elimination of funding will have a dramatic impact on the network and on the state. He says everything from news programs to high school basketball will be hurt. “MPBN has taken our fair share of cuts in response to the challenges that this state faces,” he says. “But this looks like it’s punitive, it looks like it’s political rather than financial.” Republicans on the panel say no one should be surprised that the governor is once again proposing to cut MPBN. They point to several comments by the governor since the proposal was defeated last year. They say the governor is philosophically opposed to state funding and wants the network to operate on contributions and on advertising. The network can’t advertise under federal law, but does have underwriters of some of its programming. The public hearing on the proposal is next week. |
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