By Sen. Susan Bernard

Last month, the Mills Administration announced that MaineCare – Maine’s Medicaid program – is facing a severe budget shortfall. After raiding $33 million from the program’s stabilization fund, the Governor said MaineCare was still $118 million shy of what is needed to fund the state’s welfare program. Despite this budget gap, Legislative Democrats attempted this week to push through a partisan majority supplemental budget that does nothing to address the causes of this shortfall.

Hello, this is Senator Sue Bernard. I have the honor of representing 37 communities in northern Aroostook County. Thank you for tuning in to this week’s Republican Radio Address.

Earlier this session, the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee I serve on began working on the supplemental budget that takes us through to the end of June. Republicans on the Committee wanted a budget that would provide critical funding to Maine’s health care providers and address the core issues that have led to this huge shortfall.

We entered these negotiations in good faith with the hope of coming to a bipartisan agreement that would enable the budget to take effect immediately, ensuring that Maine’s health care providers would see no interruption in payments. But it’s now obvious that our MaineCare system is beginning to collapse under its own weight, given that a third of all Mainers are now on welfare. We had to begin to fix that, and not ONLY by paying off the bill.

Unfortunately, the Democrat members of the Appropriations Committee showed an unwillingness to work on the causes of this shortfall. They weren’t even willing to consider modest cost-cutting measures proposed by their own Governor.

Despite their position, negotiations continued. Republicans secured some concessions, including reporting requirements for the MaineCare program and mandated recommendations on how to reduce MaineCare enrollment by 10 percent. However, we still couldn’t agree on actionable solutions to ensure that MaineCare could operate sustainably without requiring yet another bailout from Maine’s taxpayers.

Unfortunately, amid ongoing negotiations, Democrats suddenly decided to hold a committee vote to approve the budget at 1 a.m. on February 5th. Yes, the midnight votes under the cover of darkness were back just like during the last legislative session.

Facing a threat from the Speaker of the House that all the compromises would be undone if a vote was not taken at that time, committee members voted to send the amended budget to the full Legislature for passage. That is, except for one Republican member who couldn’t be there after midnight.

Once daylight returned and we had a time to review the budget with allour members present, we knew the document wouldn’t be approved by the Republican House and Senate caucuses. I requested a motion to reconsider and go back to the negotiating table to work toward an acceptable bipartisan deal.

Regrettably, all Democrats voted against that motion. Instead, they sent the budget to the full legislature knowing it didn’t have enough support for a two-thirds vote, which would make it take effect immediately.

When the Legislature met earlier this week, Republicans again proposed common-sense amendments to rein in this unsustainable spending. We proposed adding back the Governor’s own proposal to limit General Assistance benefits to three months within a twelve-month period. This proposal would save the state and municipalities millions of dollars and would impose necessary controls on escalating welfare spending.

Republicans also introduced amendments aimed at returning MaineCare back to the program it was meant to be – a safety net to help Maine’s most needy residents. We proposed implementing a freeze on MaineCare enrollment for able-bodied, childless adults until enrollment fell by ten percent. This measure would help ensure that there is enough money for MaineCare to continue helping those who need it most.

Additionally, we proposed an amendment to place work, training or community service requirements on those of working age. If an individual is healthy and able to work, there is no reason why they should receive generous state benefits without contributing to their own development or to their community.

Democrats rejected all of our amendments and ignored all of our proposals to prevent shortfalls like this from happening again.

Legislative Republicans are still committed to supporting a responsible supplemental budget. There are common-sense solutions to the issues that have led to this shortfall.  We don’t want to gut MaineCare – rather, we need to take immediate steps to reverse the problem and ensure MaineCare’s long-term sustainability.

Again, this is Senator Sue Bernard of Aroostook County. Thanks for listening to this week’s Radio Address and make sure to follow Maine Senate Republicans on Facebook, Instagram and X.

Senator Susan Bernard represents District 1, which includes communities in northern Aroostook County. She is the Senate Republican Lead on the Legislature’s Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee.