Nutting: Cut fat before schools

Kennebec Journal, February 14, 2007

(excerpt) Sen. John Nutting thinks the Baldacci administration should cut state bureaucracy before asking schools to cut administrative costs.

"To me, they have not done enough," said Nutting, a Leeds Democrat and farmer who's served 12 years in the Legislature.

So Nutting has introduced a measure requiring state government administration to be cut by $30 million.

The bill, which has yet to be released from the Legislature's bill writing office, reflects some of the frustration from citizens since the governor announced his proposal to reduce the number of school districts from 290 to 26. Some of those who spoke at last week's public hearing on the proposal said the state should lead by example and cut its spending first.

But Gov. John Baldacci's chief financial officer said the state has made cuts in recent years, and challenged Nutting's assertion that there's room to slash another $30 million in administrative costs.

Rebecca Wyke, commissioner of the state Department of Administrative and Financial Services, said the governor has cut $11 million in administrative costs and proposes more in the current budget.

"What we're asking schools to do is nothing we haven't done here ourselves," she said.