Education, Medicaid targeted in new round

Kennebec Journal, March 6, 2008

(excerpt) The departments of Education and Health and Human Services would bear the brunt of the cuts in the latest budget revision, which would trim spending at those two agencies alone by a combined total of $61.6 million.

The Department of Education faces a $34.1 million cut in funding for local education next year, including a $23.1 million reduction in direct state payments to local schools, which were scheduled to get about $1 billion from the state next year. That would slow completion of the state's move toward a requirement that it pay 55 percent of funding for local schools.

The University of Maine System, Maine Community College System and Maine Maritime Academy, which escaped unscathed in the first round of cuts, were not so lucky this time around. Baldacci wants the Legislature to cut $7 million from the UMaine System, close to $2 million from the community colleges and more than $300,000 from Maine Maritime Academy.