AUGUSTA — In a bipartisan and unanimous decision, the Legislature’s budget-writing Appropriations Committee beat back a proposed $7.2 million raid on the state’s tobacco settlement funds, currently used for community smoking cessation and prevention programs. The committee instead took about $2.4 million from the fund to use on other parts of the $28 million spending […]
budget
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Auburn council plans to stick to 1.8 percent budget increase
AUBURN — Councilors signaled Monday night that they plan to keep city budgets on a tight line, limiting both municipal and school spending to a strict 1.8 percent increase. Councilors heard budget presentations from both School Superintendent Katy Grondin and acting City Manager Howard Kroll at a special workshop meeting Monday night. Kroll’s budget called […]
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Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Auburn budget work kicks off with Monday workshop
AUBURN — Councilors could be faced with either budget cuts or a tax increase for the next year fiscal year, according to acting City Manager Howard Kroll. “We’ve done the best we can, and the next steps will really be up to them,” Kroll said. City councilors will get their first look at Kroll’s proposed […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Maine mayors lobby for revenue sharing
AUGUSTA — A gathering of mayors from five Maine cities to detail their policy priorities morphed into a discussion about how Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal to eliminate municipal revenue sharing denies municipalities’ place in the fabric of Maine tax policy. Mayors from Sanford, Portland, Augusta, Gardiner and Bangor said huge percentages of the state’s sales […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Lewiston gives riverside park work plan a boost
LEWISTON — Money set aside to help build a wheelchair-accessible playground downtown will instead help pay for the construction of a small amphitheater and build river access at Simard-Payne Memorial Park, councilors agreed Tuesday. Councilors voted 4-3 to put $75,000 — originally allocated to help build a playground at Marcotte Park — toward Riverfront Island […]
Posted inMaine
LePage defends tax proposals in Auburn
AUBURN — Gov. Paul LePage pitched his plan to reform Maine’s tax system and realign the state’s spending priorities in a “town hall” forum at Edward Little High School on Wednesday. LePage announced he intends to put a statewide ballot measure before voters in 2016 that would ask them to amend the Maine Constitution to […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Auburn budget meeting time changed
AUBURN — The Auburn School Committee has rescheduled when they’ll take up revenue projections for the upcoming school budget. Because Gov. Paul LePage is holding a town workshop from 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 11, at Edward Little High School, the budget workshop will be moved to later that night. The committee’s regular meeting […]
Posted inMaine
Rotundo: LePage budget ‘shreds’ mental health safety net
AUGUSTA — The Democratic House chairwoman of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee says the governor’s budget would “shred” Maine’s safety net for people with mental illnesses. State Rep. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, said in a statement late Thursday that a proposal by Gov. Paul LePage’s administration that would reduce by 10 percent the Medicaid reimbursement rates for […]
Posted inMaine
Maine hospitals say proposed LePage budget will cost them $55 million a year
AUGUSTA — Hospital executives and their representatives lined up Wednesday to say a proposed two-year budget offered by Republican Gov. Paul LePage would damage the state’s health care system and put hospitals deeper in debt if passed by the Legislature. Members of the Legislature’s budget-writing Appropriations Committee and the Health and Human Services Committee are […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
LePage vows to keep fighting to kill Maine income tax
LePage spoke first at a luncheon held by the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a conservative think tank, at the Cross Insurance Center. About 70 people attended, each paying between $45 and $55 for the right to hear the governor’s speech. The governor’s sales pitch was roughly the same: LePage said his tax reform plan will […]