AUGUSTA — The Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee has given preliminary approval to a series of cuts to childhood development, smoking cessation and other health programs.
The funding cuts are part of Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal to remove $220 million from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to meet a projected budget shortfall over the current biennium. Within the governor’s supplemental DHHS budget is a $29.5 million cut to the Fund for a Healthy Maine.
The cut, for fiscal year 2013, represents more than half of that program’s budget.
The committee votes fell largely along party lines, with the Republican majority green-lighting LePage’s proposal. However, the vote does not represent the final word on the scheduled cuts, which will next move to the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee.
The Health and Human Services Committee vote was anticipated by advocates for the Fund for a Healthy Maine, in part because the committee took similar action on nearly identical cuts included in the governor’s proposed biennial budget last session.
Last year, the Appropriations Committee rejected the proposed reductions, a move advocates for the program hope will be repeated this session.
Nonetheless, the committee’s vote this week signaled alarm among advocates and Democrats.
Executive Director Tina Pettingill, in a statement, said she was disappointed that the majority of the HHS panel “turned their back on sound science and a decade of demonstrated successes.”
“The committee’s endorsement of de-funding the bulk of the state’s already scant disease prevention and health promotion efforts squanders any chance the state will have of helping people live healthier lives and realize lower health care costs,” Pettingill said.
She noted that Maine sees a return of $7.50 on every dollar invested in prevention — “the highest rate in the nation. If these cuts are carried out, Maine will spend more to treat preventable disease in the future.”
Committee Co-chairwoman Meredith Strang Burgess, R-Cumberland, broke with her GOP colleagues on some of the proposed cuts.
The Fund for a Healthy Maine uses the state’s share of the Tobacco Master Settlement funds.
The cuts include:
* $600,000 for oral health care for low-income children; approved 7-6.
* $2.65 million for home visitation to help parents assess children for developmental issues before entering school; approved 7-6.
* $7.5 million for grants to schools to reduce tobacco use; approved 7-6.
* More than $1 million for immunizations for pregnant women, uninsured and under-insured adults; approved 8-5.
* More than $3.9 million for child care subsidies and after-school programs; approved 7-6.
The committee rejected a $1 million cut to the Head Start program but approved a proposal to divert $2.4 million of General Fund money from the program.
Rep. Mark Eves, D-North Berwick, the lead Democrat on the panel, said Republicans on the committee rubber-stamped LePage’s proposal.
“The governor has given us a set of short-term solutions that will have terrible long-term costs for our state,” Eves said. “Worse, the administration confirmed they have no plan to deal with the consequences.”
smistler@sunjournal.com
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