The Activist

School Consolidation Public Hearings  

The Education Committee will be holding public hearings on two school consolidation bills LR 3490 “An Act To Clarify and Improve the Laws Governing the Formation of Regional School Units” and LR 3491 “An Act To Fully Implement the School Administrative Unit Reorganization Law” on Wednesday, February 13^th at 1:00 p.m.

The “draft” bills are a culmination of 3 weeks of work by the Education Committee to continue to refine the consolidation law passed last year.  LR 3490 contains numerous procedural changes to the law that are considered non-controversial.
LR 3491 includes changes to the penalty section for opting out of the school consolidation law and also several changes to the budget validation process.

If you would like to comment on these two proposals and are unable to attend Wednesday's hearings, you may submit your comments by e-mail .

LD 1932 “An Act To Amend the Laws Regarding School Funding” will be acted on tomorrow in the Senate.  The initial bill to propose changes in the school consolidation law will face several attempts to be amended to allow for the preservation of the school union option.

Budget Reduction Targets  

The Appropriations Committee has identified the potential for an additional $99 million reduction in this budget.  The Committee anticipates $49 million in Medicaid cuts and a revenue reprojection of an additional $50 million decrease in revenue.

The Committee shifted the responsibility for finding the $99 million reduction to the policy committees and state agencies.  The reductions identified for Education include $35.8 million for K-12 General Purpose Aid (GPA), $1.9 million for the Community Colleges, and $6.6 million for the University of Maine System for 2008-2009.

It is important to understand that the proposed cuts are the worst-case scenario.  The MEA hopes for and will work to accomplish a mix of new revenue, use of the rainy day fund, and hopefully a moratorium on the federal Medicaid cuts.

The budget reduction targets are the Appropriation Committee’s attempt to awaken the state budget beneficiaries to a difficult road ahead for this budget cycle.

MEA Lobby Day  

There is still time to register for MEA's Lobby Day on Thursday, February 28th !  Please be sure to register online before the 5:00 p.m., February 25th deadline.

We hope to see you there!