AUGUSTA—Maine People Before Politics (MPBP) has issued a deep analysis of the first biennial budget proposal of the Mills Administration. The analysis link can be found at the bottom of this release.

“This budget raises big concerns for those who want to see Maine become more competitive,” said Julie Rabinowitz, Director of Policy and Communication, “A double-digit spending increase that empties the General Fund, uses one-time money, employs funding gimmicks, and leaves no margin for error sets the stage for tax increases in future years. Although Maine passes a two-year budget, our leaders need to be planning beyond that balance sheet, looking to the long-term implications of their fiscal policy. This budget does not do that.”

Mills’s spending increase is nearly 585 percent above the rate of inflation over the last two full years (11.4% compared to 1.95% two-year average: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/cuur0000sa0l1e?output_view=pct_12mths).

Rabinowitz noted, “This budget creates a shortfall in FY21 that’s barely kept in balance by General Fund surpluses built up in the last biennium under the LePage Administration. Furthermore, Medicaid expansion is only funded with projected revenue, not a sustainable funding source that can withstand an economic downturn without forcing us into the red. This short-sighted fiscal policy reverts the state to the style of budgets implemented in the 1990s and 2000s, which resulted in off-the-balance-sheet debt, higher taxes, fewer state services, and state employees on furlough.”

Maine People Before Politics Honorary Chair, former Governor Paul LePage, stated, “The difference between Janet Mills’s budget and a drunken sailor is that a drunken sailor spends his own money. It is outrageous.  She’s spending the projections before the money is even in the bank. It is irresponsible.”

In Mills’s budget, Mainers lose the tax cuts Governor LePage proposed last fall. Maine’s income tax climate continues to remain uncompetitive regionally. Tom Brady pays a lower marginal tax rate on his NFL salary in “Taxachusetts” than a Mainer making $51,000.  Every earner in New Hampshire does better than Maine families.