AUGUSTA, Maine — A legislative committee is calling for a review of how the Fund for a Healthy Maine is distributing funds — mostly from the state's settlements with the tobacco industry.
The Government Oversight Committee says it wants more information on how that money is being used.
The Fund for a Healthy Maine gets about $55 million a year, mostly from payments tobacco companies are required to make as a result of a court settlement over allegations of lying about the health effects of smoking.
Maine distributes some of the money for a wide array of programs, from Medicaid to smoking cessation. But details about how the money is actually spent, and about the administrative costs and effectiveness of those programs, have not been forthcoming, says Turner Rep. Jeff Timberlake, a Republican that serves on the Appropriations Committee.
"They have a lot of layers in there that you peel, and you peel, and you peel — and you never get there," he says. "The only ones that can do it guys, are you ladies and gentlemen. You are the only ones that can get it done."
He says OPEGA has the staff to dig into the records of how the money is spent and determine whether it is being used effectively. And he says it's the only committee that has subpoena power to force release of records or to compel testimony.
The fund has been subject to several studies, says Sen. Roger Katz, a Republican from Augusta who co-chairs the Government Oversight Committee.
"I was on a commission in 2011 that took a look at this and it was the most frustrating experience I have ever had in state government, trying to get to the bottom of this," he says. "I'm not blaming it on the vendors; I think it is as much on the department."
He's referring to the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the fund. Rep. Debra Sanderson, a Republican from Chelsea, also served on the 2011 study panel, and currently serves on the Health and Human Services Committee that also has been trying to get answers to questions about record keeping and other standards for how grant funds are spent.
"I don't think we have been able to get our point across adequately," she says, "or perhaps the teeth to get it done."
Westbrook Rep. Drew Gattine, a Democrat who co-chairs the Health and Human Services Committee, says that panel was stymied in its look at the fund over the last several months. He says while the vendors receiving funds cooperated and testified before the committee, the department did not.
"Unless the department comes and tells us how it is spending the money and how it is holding the vendors accountable," he says, "we can't even assess to the extent that is true or not true."
DHHS says it did answer the committee's questions in writing. But that doesn't satisfy members of the Government Oversight Committee, who say they want to hear from department officials in person.
With all the other work facing OPEGA, the study is not expected to get underway until mid-2016.
