When the speaker of the Maine House, Mark Eves, recently announced his plan to help more seniors maintain their independence and remain in their homes, I knew right away that it was something I wanted to support.

For a long time we have known that Maine has been experiencing a dramatic demographic shift. The percentage of Mainers who are over 65 has been going up, and, today, we have the oldest median age in the country. That trend is only getting stronger as more members of the Baby Boomer generation retire.

Most seniors live on a fixed income, and that poses a lot of difficulties right off the bat. It can become more difficult to access quality, in-home care — the kind of care that can preserve a sense of independence. It can also become more difficult to afford property taxes and heating bills.

I have heard some very sad stories about people having to leave homes they’ve lived in for decades, and feeling out-of-place or like they didn’t belong anywhere else. Families of seniors spoke about how they agonized over choosing from among several bad options once they knew that their parents would have to move.

The speaker’s plan, called the “KeepME Home” initiative, has three major planks to improve life for Maine’s seniors.

The first part calls for an additional increase in the size of the refund seniors can receive as part of the Property Tax Fairness Credit. This will help both older homeowners and renters retain some financial stability. For too long, seniors on fixed incomes have had to shoulder a disproportionate amount of the tax burden through their property tax bills. That needs to change.

The second part asks voters to approve a $65 million general obligation bond that will allow us to build 1,000 energy-efficient apartments in 40 different locations in all parts of the state. This will enable more of Maine’s most vulnerable seniors to age in place and pay lower heating bills. This part of the plan will also create jobs in all 16 counties in the construction, architectural and engineering sectors.

The third part of the speaker’s plan boosts the Medicaid reimbursement rate for direct care workers. These are the people who provide critical in-home care to our seniors, and they haven’t had any kind of increase in nearly a decade, which has contributed to a thin direct care workforce and long waiting lists for services.

Supporting timely in-home care is one of the very smartest investments we can make. It fosters a more independent senior population by preventing unnecessary trips to the emergency room, hospitalizations and permanent moves to nursing facilities. We are going to need a larger, well-trained group of direct care workers as the number of seniors in Maine continues to grow at such a rapid pace.

Over the years, the state has run into serious difficulty addressing all the needs of our rising senior population, both logistically and financially. Additionally the recession put a lot of pressure on family incomes and savings and ended putting a great deal of extra, unanticipated pressure on state and local budgets.

The end result has been that more of our seniors face an uncertain future – not the kind of secure retirement that they deserve. This is a wake-up call. It’s time to us to pull together and solve this problem.

We must commit to enabling more of our seniors to achieve enough financial security to retire. We also have to care about what happens to them after they retire, whether that means addressing the need for affordable prescription drugs, supporting family caregivers, keeping property taxes in check or stopping scammers.

That is all part of what it means to help more Mainers age with dignity.

The speaker’s plan is the largest and broadest effort of its kind in years, and it allows all of us to do even more to address a major change in the makeup of our population.

Rep. Wayne Werts, D-Auburn, is serving his first term in the Legislature and is seeking re-election.

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