Funds for affordable housing, support for education, money for nursing homes and grants for childcare providers passed in the Legislature Wednesday.
The House passed a supplemental state budget 77-67, followed by the Senate, which voted 20-13.
Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, said the budget covers many needs while keeping state finances in balance.
“A supplemental budget is just that, it’s designed to address emergencies and keep our budget in balance and like any budget, it’s a statement of values,” she said.
The budget, which passed the Appropriations Committee on an 8-5 party line vote, spends $76 million to increase the availability of affordable housing and an additional $21 million for K-12 education.
In addition, the budget earmarks:
• $26 million to support nursing homes
• $14 million to expand the Medicare Savings Program
• $13 million for childcare, including one-time grants for providers and Head Start centers
• $19.6 million for mental health crisis intervention, mobile response services, two new crisis receiving centers and state recruitment and retention incentives
• $9 million to repair storm damage, including funds for local governments, state parks, historic sites and coastal sand dune systems
And while Democrats touted the investments, Republicans said there are several missed opportunities.
“I feel like I’m living in a parallel universe,” said Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford. “This budget is an abject failure in my view.”
He said many of the initiatives provide one-time funds without guaranteeing long-term stability for nursing homes and mental health care.
“We have loads of money, record, record amounts of surplus and we bow to the altar of one-time funds in order not to solve immediate crises but in order to gloss it all over,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Eloise Vitelli, D-Arrowsic said the budget continues “transformational investments” the Legislature has made in previous years.
“It wisely invests in education, mental health, housing and health care,” she said. “That’s what we promised our constituents when we were elected.”
In the House, Republicans criticized the Democratic plan, saying it only funds half of the state trooper positions requested and shortchanges mental health services, nursing homes and veterans’ homes.
“This budget does nothing, absolutely nothing, to solve the progressing plight of Maine’s seniors and we are plunging our nursing homes into more instability,” said Rep. Nathan Carlow, R-Buxton. “We have a sacred duty to provide support for our seniors now, not at some future date.”
The budget also increases pay for educational technicians and school support staff beginning in 2026 and exempts York Hospital from hospital rate reform that officials said would cause a large deficit.
And although Democrats voted earlier this month to reduce funds in the dairy stabilization account, remove some highway funds and reduce a pension tax deduction, they restored those funds prior to releasing the final version of the budget.
Gov. Janet Mills’ spokesman Ben Goodman said in a statement that although Mills plans to sign the budget, she warned that spending initiatives added by Democrats go beyond what she originally proposed could lead to budget shortfalls.
“The Governor does remain concerned about added spending beyond what she proposed in her change package — spending that, as much as she agrees with it from a policy perspective, may not be fiscally sustainable in the long term,” Goodman said.