Seacoast Online | Lawmakers offer hope for group homes

AUGUSTA, Maine — The political signs are looking optimistic that the Woodbridge Group Home in York, Maine, could remain open, days after legislators in both parties decried cuts to the program that funded it and similar facilities.

Democrats and Republicans in both Houses this week said they could not support the cuts proposed by Gov. Paul LePage to private nonmedical institutions such as the York group home for the mentally ill.

LePage, a Republican, subsequently said he has known “all along” that another funding alternative would be necessary, and said he never intended to put anyone on the street.

The developments have made the staff of Counseling Services Inc. of Saco, which operates the Woodbridge Group Home, feel somewhat hopeful but also realistic.

“I’m not sure it’s a done deal,” said communications director Steven Price. “It’s hopeful that we’re seeing a pushback, but the budget is very much a work in progress.”

The PNMIs include facilities for the mentally ill, substance abuse treatment, elderly people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dimentia, children with behavioral problems and physically disabled adults.

These 6,000 Mainers are among 65,000 Mainers who the governor proposed to cut from Medicaid. The state’s cost for PNMIs is estimated at $60 million of the $220 million LePage last December targeted for cutting in the biennium budget that ends in July 2013.

He recommended the cuts because the federal government told Maine it would not support Medicaid funding for PNMIs as they are now billed.

On Tuesday, House Republicans caucused and said they could not support the governor’s decision to cut funding to PNMIs.

“No one stood up and said we have to support it,” said Rep. Windol Weaver, R-York. “Everyone said they’re all getting calls on the PNMIs. Most said they have seen some of the facilities and know the work they’re doing. I’m hoping this is a done deal.”

Later that day, LePage said that he has been willing to look at other alternatives all along.

“The governor is ready and willing to hear what those alternatives may be and work toward the best solution to this very important issue,” said his spokesperson, Adrienne Bennett.

She said the governor has set aside $39 million in the budget stabilization fund that might be used to continue funding PNMIs.

But the governor’s statements has Sen. Dawn Hill, D-York, the Democratic lead of the Appropriations Committee, shaking her head.

“We heard from the beginning that this (PNMI situation) was an emergency, a crisis, and residents have to be notified that they have to find other placements,” she said. “Now he’s saying he knew all along that he didn’t want to see this cut?”

More than a month after the Appropriations Committee was called into the Statehouse to act on the governor’s Medicaid proposal, she said it still has not received verification of the $220 million shortfall.

“At this point, no matter what they bring to us, how can we rely on them after this game?” she said. “He made hundreds and hundreds of people upset. We all got phone calls saying, ‘Don’t put uncle Joe on the street.’ And then this?”

Furthermore, she said, the Appropriations Committee was told in December that the $39 million the governor said he has set aside is already spoken for. “Again, what are we supposed to believe?”

The Senate Democrats have told Hill in caucus that she does not have to sign the governor’s proposal, which historically the chairpersons and leads have done, said Erica Dodge, the communications director for the Senate Democrats.

Meanwhile in York, Woodbridge Group Home residential supervisor Dawn Hardy said she’s presenting a wait-and-see message to residents.

“Part of me is afraid to give too much assurance because we just don’t know for sure,” she said.