Read
the Governor's full statement here.
Bruce Hodsdon, president of the Maine
State Employees Association, Local 1989
of the Service Employees International
Union, raised concerns about the Governor's
entire proposal.
"We're obviously disappointed about
any proposed job cuts and the prospect
of our members losing three more days
of work on top of the 20 days they're
already losing to unpaid state shutdown
days, but the bigger issue here is the
further erosion of local and state services
that Mainers have clearly said they
want," President Hodsdon said. "By proposing
substantial reductions in funding for
public services at the local and state
levels, the administration appears to
be going against the will of Maine people.
Just last month, Maine people voted
overwhelmingly to defeat TABOR (Question
4), which would have slashed funding
for some of the same public services
that the administration is now proposing
for reductions."
Continuing, President Hodsdon said,
"By an even wider margin, Maine people
last month also decisively rejected
Question 2, which would have slashed
funding for local road maintenance.
Now we have the Baldacci administration
proposing that our state highway workers
stay home another three days, meaning
there would now be 23 days that our
highway crews aren't out there maintaining
Maine's network of roads and bridges.
Maine people couldn't have sent a stronger
message that they want quality public
services and a strong safety net, yet
the administration's budget-cutting
proposal digs deeply into those same
services and Maine's safety net."
The administration's shutdown day proposal
would affect the same workers who are
already taking 20 unpaid state shutdown
days over the current two-year state
budget.
So on top of the 20 days that Maine
Department of Environmental Protection
workers are already staying home without
pay due to unpaid state shutdown days,
there are now three more days that drinking
water in Maine and other natural resources
safety wouldn't be adequately protected
from pollution, and three more days
that our environmental laws wouldn't
be adequately enforced. Based on the
results of the November 3 referenda,
this isn't the direction Maine people
have said they want our state to go.
Furthermore, on top of the 20 days
that our state's human services safety
net is being held together by threads
due to unpaid state shutdown days, now
there are three more days that Maine's
most vulnerable citizens, from children
to people with disabilities to our elders,
wouldn't be adequately protected. That's
not the way we should respond to the
fact that Maine's population is the
oldest per capita in our nation. And
it's certainly not the direction Maine
people set for our state last month
when they defeated TABOR for the third
time.
We've developed a survey for MSEA-SEIU
members to identify potential savings
in their worksites. We'll be releasing
it to our members after Christmas. We
look forward to collecting those ideas
and sharing them with the administration
and the Legislature to potentially generate
savings in the General Fund without
eliminating services.
However, with the number of state workers
at their lowest levels since 1983, there
doesn't appear to be too many more places
to make cuts without eliminating services
or programs altogether. It's up to our
state's elected leaders to find a way
to pay for the services necessary to
keep Maine moving forward.
The best solution appears to be to
keep people working whenever possible.
The more people are working, the more
income taxes they pay, the more money
there is to circulate in our communities
and the more money there is to support
our local businesses. Ultimately it's
by creating jobs, not sending people
home without pay, that will turn our
economy around.
