AUGUSTA — Republicans on Thursday made several proposals that would cut spending within the Maine Legislature’s budget.
“It’s time to put the Legislature’s budget on the treadmill,” state Senate President Mike Thibodeau, R-Winterport, said in a prepared statement.
Thibodeau said the cuts being offered would save Maine taxpayers an estimated $430,000 over the Legislature’s two-year budget.
The proposal includes reducing by half the number of Legislative mailers sent to constituents during the end of the lawmaking session. The proposal would also flat-line the amount the Legislature spends to help support the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Council of State Governments while ending all funding for any commissions that may be duplicating their activities.
Thibodeau said reducing the number of mailers lawmakers send was suggested by the very people who receive them.
“Every time those mailers go out, we hear it from our constituents that, ‘Surely this is not the highest priority for the taxpayers of Maine,'” Thibodeau said.
Thibodeau said that while the Legislature’s budget was a tiny portion of the state budget, his proposal was meant to show lawmakers were willing to reduce all unnecessary spending.
“What we have in mind is a better deal for Maine taxpayers,” Thibodeau said.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
