Gov. Janet Mills outlined initiatives to pay for roads and bridges, give low-income Mainers’ property tax relief and boost retirement benefits for state workers in a supplemental budget released Tuesday.
Those proposals are in addition to ideas she announced last week during her State of the State address in which she called for returning half of a projected $822 million budget surplus to Maine taxpayers and offering free community college for students affected by the pandemic.
“This budget proposal is bipartisan in nature, drawing on good ideas from both Republicans and Democrats to tackle some of Maine’s most pressing issues, like inflation and our longstanding workforce shortage, by giving money back to Maine people, delivering tax relief for working families, and providing two years of free community college to help our students and our employers,” Mills said in a statement.
Provisions in the budget proposal, which will now be considered by the Legislature, include:
One-time $500 checks to Maine taxpayers
Increasing the maximum benefit of a tax credit program that helps low- and middle-income Mainers pay property taxes or rent
Putting more money in a separate tax credit program designed to increase the benefit for families earning less than $57,414 to an average of $764 per year, per family
A one-time infusion of money into the Maine Public Employee Retirement System to close the gap between the rise in inflation and the annual cost-of-living adjustment awarded to more than 37,000 retired state workers
In addition, Mills is proposing to set aside $10 million in the state’s rainy day fund, which would bring the balance to nearly $503 million, a record high. She also has earmarked $100 million for state transportation projects, which would replace the need to borrow money and is projected to draw down $284 million in federal and other funds, according to her office.
Spokesmen for House and Senate Republicans said Tuesday that they are withholding comment until they have time to review the lengthy proposal. Senate GOP spokesman Michael Fern pointed to comments made last week by Senate Minority Leader Jeff Timberlake (R-Turner) in which he criticized Mills following her State of the State address.
“If you were to take Gov. Mills’ remarks as a whole, she seemed to not have a grasp of what is happening across our state, nor the struggles being endured by everyday Mainers,” Timberlake said. “When it comes to just living here in Maine, it is much harder now than just a year ago.”
In particular, Timberlake said Republicans are hearing from Mainers who can’t afford firewood to heat their homes and from those who are struggling to get unemployment benefits two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began. He said Mills portrayed a “rosy” picture of the state that is not the reality for most people.
In her address, Mills acknowledged the difficulties posed by the pandemic and said she inherited a worker shortage from the previous administration.
To help train more workers, she announced a proposal to spend $20 million to pay for up to two years of community college for high school students in the classes of 2020-2023 and additional funds for a tax credit to help alleviate student debt. She outlined a plan to spend nearly $8 million to keep tuition flat for in-state students at the University of Maine System, increase pay for child care and early childhood workers, and fully fund universal free meals in public schools.
The budget also includes more than $9 million to address PFAS contamination in Maine, a forever chemical that has been found in well water across the state. Of the $9 million, $3 million would go to farms and farmers, $3 million would pay for lab improvements and $750,000 would be for wildlife testing.
Last fall, the chemical was found in deer meat harvested in central Maine, prompting the state to issue a “do not eat” advisory. State wildlife officials may expand testing to other species as well.
As they review the budget in the coming weeks, lawmakers will also have nearly $12 million to spend at their discretion, according to the governor’s office.