Radio Address: Brannigan says, Trust has been broken. We must find out who knew what and when.

 Weekly Radio Address: Sen. Brannigan

Trust has been broken. We must find out who knew what and when.

Good Morning. This is State Senator Joe Brannigan of Portland.

Earlier this week, I along with my Democratic colleagues in both the House and Senate strengthened our call for an independent, nonpartisan investigation into the cover up of a significant computer error in the Department of Health and Human Services.

We had a simple request: find out who knew what and when.

In January, the administration received confirmation of the “computer glitch” that led to 19,000 ineligible Maine people continuing to receive health care. At the same time, lawmakers were weighing the governor’s proposal to remove health care from the elderly, people with disabilities, and children—and, we were kept in the dark.

Yet a mere two weeks after the budget was passed, the administration came forward with the information they had kept secret for many, many weeks.

What has occurred is far more than a “computer glitch”. I’ve been a lawmaker for almost 30 years, and I can tell you that Maine is no stranger to computer problems. Computer errors existed under previous administrations. But the difference between then and now is that we were not kept in the dark while considering devastating budget cuts. We were told about errors and then able to make informed decisions.

We can’t ignore that there are consequences to the administration’s decision to withhold critical information from lawmakers. Trust was broken.

It is time for the administration to take responsibility for their mismanagement and most importantly, take responsibility for willfully misleading lawmakers.

We’ve heard too many excuses for too long from this Administration. The blame game –like the red flags—began months ago.

For months, Democratic lawmakers questioned the accuracy of the numbers coming out of DHHS. In fact, we can go as far back as June 2011 when the state auditor and the Legislature’s fiscal office flagged an unusual spike of 19,000 people.

During three months of budget negotiations, when the numbers weren’t adding up, and Democrats suspected there were problems, we asked for more information. Yet, the Commissioner and the Administration assured lawmakers that we had all the information needed. And it didn’t stop there. The Governor called Democrats “obstructionists” for asking so many questions. He even threatened to close schools and senior homes if we didn’t hurry up and pass the budget.

To be clear, despite knowing about the error and the large role it played in the state budget gap, the Administration repeatedly blamed the gap on things like increased enrollment or fraud.

The level of trust that must exist between the administration, lawmakers and the public has now been broken. There is no confidence that we are getting all the information we need to make critical decisions. Unless we understand, objectively, what is going on within that Department, I don’t understand how we can go forward.

Last week, when I asked legislative leadership for an independent investigation of DHHS, the GOP-majority turned a blind eye and did nothing. This was surprising to me because I expected my Republican colleagues to share the same sense of ire and outrage.

However, progress has been made—I hope. On Tuesday, after Democrats’ public insistence for an independent investigation, Republican lawmakers told the press that they have agreed to considering a nonpartisan investigation into the mismanagement of DHHS. Next week, I will appear before the Government Oversight Committee and ask this question—again. If agreed to, this is a good first step toward repairing the trust that has been broken. It’s imperative that we know all the facts and whether information was deliberately withheld to create a false sense of crisis.

In the next three weeks, we have two more budgets to pass—and as of today, we are still in the dark. We don’t know, what we don’t know. And getting to the bottom of the mismanagement at DHHS should not be a partisan issue.

Thank you for listening. This is State Senator Joe Brannigan of Portland. Have a good weekend.