Mills' budget proposal prioritizes health, education while leaving LePage's tax cuts for the wealthy

Governor Janet Mills unveiled her proposal for the state’s 2020-2021 biennial budget in Augusta Friday, outlining her plans to fully fund voter-mandated Medicaid expansion, dedicate $5.5 million towards fighting the state’s opioid crisis, increase funding for K-12 schools and start all teachers’ salaries at $40,000.

Progressive advocacy organizations said the proposal provides a good starting point for the state legislature, while pointing to specific funding gaps to be addressed.

“We’re happy to see the state is starting to hire staff again,” said Alec Maybarduk of the Maine State Employees Association, noting that Mills’ proposal also would fill public health nursing vacancies. “Staffing has been a serious problem. But we suspect the staffing changes in this budget are inadequate for what is actually needed.”

Also absent from Mills’ proposal was any measure to make Maine’s tax code more fair or recapture the revenue lost to the LePage administration’s tax cuts favoring the wealthy and tax shelters created for Maine’s largest corporations.

Read more: https://mainebeacon.com/mills-budget-proposal-prioritizes-health-education-while-leaving-lepages-tax-cuts-for-the-wealthy/