FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, January 13, 2021
MEDIA CONTACT: Julie Rabinowitz, Executive Director, 207-292-2722 ext. 102, Julie@mainepbp.com

AUGUSTA—Maine People Before Politics (MPBP) has issued a deep analysis of the second biennial budget proposal of the Mills Administration and the FY 2021 supplemental budget. (view the PDF version or HTML version)

“These budgets raise a number of concerns,” stated Julie Dumont Rabinowitz, executive director of MPBP. “In addition to increasing spending and adding new taxes and fees, it employs a number of strategies that have led to problems in the past. Governor Mills expands borrowing, offers voluntary unpaid time off and reduced shifts and increases projected state employee attrition rates to bring these budgets into balance.”

Rabinowitz continued, “After telling us in the last biennial budget that she had to rebuild state government—including the hiring of more state employees, it is clear that the Governor’s expansion of the state’s workforce is not sustainable in today’s economic environment.”

“We are also concerned that this budget makes no move to address Maine’s transportation funding shortfall—even something as simple as ensuring hybrid and all-electric vehicle drivers pay their fair share of road maintenance—and addressing the failed system that is supposed to provide criminal defense services for Maine’s poor,” Rabinowitz said.

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