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Partisan Sparks Fly in Wake of Pittsfield Nursing Home Closure

The recent announcement that a Pittsfield nursing home will have to close because of low MaineCare reimbursement rates is re-igniting a political fight at the State House.

Republicans are blaming Democrats for failing to include more money for nursing homes in the budget. Democrats say Gov. LePage dropped the ball by refusing to agree to a legislative compromise. Audio tape from the final vote could help set the record straight.

On May 1, the final day of the legislative session, the Legislature's Appropriations Committee was attempting to find a way to fund the governor's drug enforcement bill and the nursing home bill. Work ended when a compromise solution was threatened with a veto by LePage.

Democratic leaders say LePage is now trying to rewrite history by claiming that Democrats killed his bills. LePage went as far as to tell a WABI Channel 5 television reporter Monday that he knew nothing about the compromise that he had threatened to veto.

"Nobody's ever come to me on a compromise on nursing homes," he said. "As a matter of fact, I thought that it was all done and they were going to vote at it during the night but they got tired and left before they voted on it."

Members of the Appropriations Committee have a different recollection of that evening's discussion, which was recorded at MPBN's State House studio. The governor had originally wanted to use money from the General Fund to pay for more drug enforcement agents, judges and prosecutors. He also wanted to provide about $5 million in emergency funding to help nursing homes. LePage proposed taking that money from the Fund for a Healthy Maine.

But Democrats balked because of the effect on existing health care programs. Instead, Democrats and Republicans came up with a compromise plan that shifted money from the drug enforcement bill to the nursing homes, and left the governor with decreased funding for drug enforcement.

The compromise also included money for drug treatment, which the governor opposed. During the May 1 Appropriations meeting, Democratic House Chair Rep. Peggy Rotundo announced the governor's response to the plan.

"Apparently the word has come in from the governor that he plans to veto both of these bills that we've been working on," Rotundo said.

And Republican Sen. Pat Flood remarked on the mixed signals coming from the administration after the governor threatened to veto his own bills.

"These are strange things that happen on the last day of the session and the whole building is waiting for us to get our work done, and it's kind of tragic that it's kind of come to this," Flood said. "But on the other hand, again, I do appreciate that we've gotten the word from the executive branch."

Now, Republican leaders in the House and Senate, along with the governor, want Democrats to call a special legislative session to find money for the nursing homes - something Democrats say should have been resolved two months ago. Maine Republican Party Chair Rick Bennett says that regardless of what happened in May, the ball is in the Democrats' court.

"The governor has been working to get a substantive agreement on this issue and he's essentially been stiff-armed by the Democratic leadership," Bennett says.

"Look, the governor has a lot of work to do to showcase that he supports seniors - whether it's his Social Security comment or whether it's been his four years of budget cuts to seniors," says Senate President Justin Alfond.

Alfond says Democrats - as well as Republicans on the Appropriations Committee - tried to work with LePage. Alfond says that Democratic leaders are not going to call a special legislative session so that LePage can simply refuse to negotiate and then blame Democrats for the failure. The Senate president says the lack of leadership from the governor can only be restored if LePage says he's willing to negotiate on a solution.

"Democrats and Republicans all are awaiting for the governor to show up, get to work and try to solve the nursing home problems with us, instead of just using this as a campaign trick and campaign election rhetoric," Alfond says.

LePage refused to do that in his latest weekly radio message. He says he wants the Legislature to act before another nursing home is forced to close.

"On behalf of all Mainers who are concerned about our elderly, I have sent a letter to Senate President Justin Alfond and Speaker of the House Mark Eves to call back the Legislature to vote on funding the nursing homes," LePage says.

The governor also suggested that, since the Maine Senate is already coming back into session on July 31 to vote on judicial nominations, the House could also be called in to deal with the nursing home issue.

But in the absence of bona fide agreement between Democrats and LePage on a solution for nursing home funding, prospects for legislative action appear dim.

Clarification:  The LePage administration took issue with an aspect of this report which states the governor objected to a portion of the amended drug enforcement bill that included money for drug treatment. Adrienne Bennett, the governor's press secretary, disputed that statement, saying that the governor supported $750,000 for drug treatment in an amended version of the bill, but withdrew that support after lawmakers decreased the number of judges and prosecutors in a later version of the measure. Senate Democratic spokeswoman Ericka Dodge countered that the LePage administration has consistently opposed drug treatment as a matter of policy and did so again during negotiations on the drug enforcement bill. Meanwhile, in a July 7th Boston Globe story, Bennett said the LePage administration questioned the effectiveness of drug treatment programs and was quoted as saying, “It is simply not enough to throw money at drug addiction without examining if the programs are effective."