The smoke is finally starting to clear following the chaos in Augusta that led to a brief government shutdown, and for many of us, the summer is finally underway. Simply put, disagreement over spending priorities for the state’s two-year budget which needed to be signed by July 1, 2017 – the beginning of the state’s fiscal year – is what led to the shutdown.
A budget agreement was finally reached in the early morning hours of July 4, and the shutdown ended. What we are left with is
a spending package that will fund state government services through Fiscal Year 2019.
As always, there is a lot to dislike about the state budget. The overall increase in spending, for example, from $6.8 billion in the previous budget to $7.1 billion in the current, one was a tough pill for most Republicans to swallow.
But this budget presented many unique challenges. Perhaps the largest was making necessary adjustments to the enormous tax increase created by the passage of Question 2 last November as a way to increase education funding. While we can all agree on the benefit of spending more on our schools, the highest-in-the-nation tax on small businesses represented a dire threat to our economy, and one that needed to be addressed immediately.
Fortunately, Senate President Michael Thibodeau and Senate Republicans stood their ground during budget negotiations and were able to eliminate the surtax in exchange for providing an additional $162 million for schools.
Because of the way the state’s Essential Programs and Services (EPS) formula is structured, there are winners and losers in how the money will be distributed. Senate District 30, which I represent, has mixed results. Gorham’s public schools, for example, will receive an additional $735,683 in education funding, a development that will not only help the schools, but also those who pay property taxes in the town.
Lack of state funding is not a failure; it is a result of a formula that has been studied and judged to be one of the most fair in the country. Convincing a majority of the Legislature to change the school funding formula in order to benefit an area with a strong economy and increasingly valuable property is extraordinarily unlikely because it means siphoning money from districts with less capacity to raise revenue. Twice now I have attempted to alter the formula to recognize locally approved debt to some extent, but to no avail. In fact, the only major tweaks to the formula have been in favor of more needy districts, particularly in areas impacted by mill closures.
Still, we have wonderful school systems, an unmatched geographical location and amazing opportunities for growth that are among many reasons to be proud and celebrate our communities.
Please let me know if you have any questions or if you wish to discuss anything further.
(207) 287-1505 | (800) 423-6900 | amy.volk@legislature.maine.gov