AUGUSTA, Maine - Crowds packed the State House today in opposition to what the LePage administration is touting as a major reform of the system designed to help Maine's poorest residents. The governor wants to change the formula that distributes more than $18 million in state aid to Maine's cities and towns in General Assistance, while also eliminating the program's reimbursement for asylum seekers and other non-citizens. The changes would hit Maine's largest communities the hardest - and that's where critics say the need is the greatest.
The formula that the state uses to distribute General Assistance funds to Maine's cities and towns is a little complicated, but the message that Human Services Chief Mary Mayhew delivered to lawmakers was simple - and blunt. General Assistance will surpass $18 million in the upcoming budget cycle and the state's share of those costs has more than doubled since 2004 to nearly $13 million.
Mayhew says the number is unsustainable and largely driven by the city of Portland, which she says uses more than 60 percent of those funds. "Our effort in these reforms is to incentivize strong fiscal management of these programs to achieve fairness throughout the state and access to General Assistance funds," Mayhew said.
Mayhew told members of the Legislature's Appropriations, and Health and Human Services, committees that the state currently reimburses 50 percent of a municipality's General Assistance costs, up to a threshold of .0003 of the city or town's property tax base and 90 percent thereafter for remaining expenditures. The system works well for most communities, Mayhew says, with a few exceptions.
"Only three municipalities, Portland, Bangor and Lewiston regularly reach a level that requires the state to reimburse at 90 percent," Mayhew said. "This reimbursement methodology does not provide a proper incentive. It rewards a municipality from spending more by providing a higher reimbursement for reaching a higher level of spending."
Mayhew and Gov. Paul LePage essentially want to change that formula as part of the state budget, and effectively reverse the current distribution so that the state would pay 90 percent of municipal GA and then dip to 10 percent reimbursement once a city or town's GA costs exceed 40 percent of their most recent six-year average.
Mayhew says the new formula would produce winners and losers. "Two-hundred-thirty-two municipalities would receive more funding if their spending remains consistent with their 2014 expenditures," Mayhew said. "One-hundred-seventy-three towns would receive less."
The problem with Mayhew's plan, her critics say, is that it would cut funding in Maine's three largest cities, where most of the state's poorer residents tend to gravitate because of local social service programs, transportation and health care.
Bangor City Manager Cathy Conlow says the state's court system, mental health system and the state Department of Corrections commonly use Bangor as a primary housing source. Now Conlow says the state wants to cut Bangor's reimbursement by more than a half-million dollars a year - even though those state clients also carry costs for the city and would prefer to live elsewhere.
"A gentleman from Prentiss really wants to go back to Prentiss but he's required to stay in Bangor," Conlow said. "He's required in just two months, seven calls from the police department, three from the police chief and now he's on my desk - so there's a lot of impact to this that we just simply can't afford."
Included in the GA reform is the governor's continued decision to deny not only General Assistance but Temporary Assistance to Needy Family benefits, food supplement benefits and state Supplemental Security Income for non-citizen asylum seekers.
Mouna Ismail, of the United Somali Women of Maine, says the program eliminations hit Lewiston and Portland the hardest. She says she and other members of the Somali community could not have made the transition to a life in Maine without the state's General Assistance program.
"Today I'm able to support myself and my children," Ismail said, "but when I arrived in the West I received General Assistance, which helped me and my children feel safe recovering from the suffering of our past."
Rather than engage in a running emotional debate that pits the governor against the state's largest cities over general assistance, one lawmaker says he has a better idea.
"Here, I'm sitting there listening to he said, she said, they did, who did - let's just stop it and bring it back to the state level and let the state manage the whole thing," said Sen. Tom Saviello.
Saviello, a Wilton Republican, wants the state to take total control of the GA program and come up with a fair distribution formula for all communities. Although municipal governments and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle support the plan, DHHS Commissioner Mayhew says the governor would oppose Saviello's bill because he believes that these programs should remain local and close to the taxpayers.
