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Maine House Supports Emergency Funds for County Jails

AUGUSTA, Maine - An effort by a few Republicans to torpedo emergency funding for the state's county jails failed today after the Maine House opted to support the bipartisan recommendations of a legislative policy committee.

Backers of the measure said failure to pass the bill would shift costs to local property taxpayers.

"If you want to raise property taxes you vote 'no' on this - you'll see what kind of impact that will have back home in your districts, in your municipalities," said Rep. Justin Chenette, a Saco Democrat. "This is a bipartisan support for this. We need to make sure that we send this back to our sheriffs and our counties. That is doing our job, Mr. Speaker."

House Republican Leader Ken Fredette, of Newport, said the additional $2.4 million that would be distributed to the county jails each year does not address why the counties were constantly failing to meet budget targets.
 
"We're not solving the problem. we're throwing money at the problem," Fredette said. "And I'm not going to be in support of simply throwing money at the problem without solving the problem. I'm not going to be in support of spending more money simply because we don't want to make a tough decision."

Lawmakers on the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee have argued that the jail shortfall was derived, in part, from the Legislature’s failure to fully fund county jail needs at a cost of nearly $15 million a year. Instead, the jails were given just over $12 million.

In a preliminary vote, the House approved the additional jail funding 118-24.