Gov. Paul LePage said he was told by Gen. James Campbell, Maine’s adjutant general and commander of the Maine National Guard, that pentagon officials have proposed cutting funding for the Maine Funeral Honors Program by 58 percent. The governor says if that isn’t changed, he will ask the Legislature to appropriate funds to pick up the cost.
"Can’t do a damn thing about it until January, but I will," LePage told MPBN News. "I don’t know the numbers yet but it could be as much as a $100,000 to whatever."
The governor has written members of Maine’s Congressional delegation asking they take action to reverse the Pentagon decision. The Maine program helped pay final respects to over 1,300 deceased veterans in 2013.
Campbell said it costs about a $100 a burial when a Maine Guard soldier is assigned but it could cost ten or more times that if soldiers have to travel from the nearest base, Fort Drum in New York, to render honors in Maine.
"I don’t have any way to move around funds to cover this," Campbell said in an interview. "But I told the governor we will cover this until the money runs out."
Campbell said that will probably happen sometime in February. He said Maine is not unique and his counterparts across the country are scrambling to figure out how to address the situation.
"Federal law requires the military to provide a detail for every veteran if it is requested," he said. "The Army has been providing the funds to do this but now they are cutting the funding when the demand is growing."
Maine has one of the highest veteran populations per capita in the country, over 140,000 Mainers have served in the military.
