state budget

Maine is required by law to have balanced budget and the Trump domestic policy bill is expected to result in billions in lost federal aid for Medicaid and food assistance. It's unclear when state lawmakers might have to patch such a hole because Republicans delayed implementation of some cuts until after the 2026 midterm elections.

The roughly $320 million spending bill would provide tens of millions of dollars to nursing homes and plug a funding shortfall in the state's Medicaid program. But it would also increase taxes on tobacco, cannabis and popular video and audio streaming services.

Gov. Janet Mills wants to continue offering high school grads two years of free community college. But a legislative committee is recommending that the program end with the Class of 2025.

House Speaker Ryan Fecteau joined the call to preserve cost-of-living increases for CNAs, home health aides and other workers to avoid worsening the existing staffing shortage.

But the fate of the measure remains unclear despite bipartisan support for filling the nearly $120 million shortfall in the state's Medicaid program.

Maine Public host Nicole Ogrysko spoke with State House correspondent Kevin Miller about what's in and isn't in the $11.3 billion budget passed by the Democratic-controlled Legislature as well as what political tensions surrounding the spending plan.

If enacted, this will be the third state budget passed largely or exclusively with Democratic support.

The bill aims to fill a nearly $120 million funding shortfall in MaineCare — the state's Medicaid program — and to provide $2 million to help address a looming spruce budworm infestation in the commercial forests of northern Maine.

Republicans are vowing to oppose the "targeted" tax and fee increases in the governor's $11.6 billion budget and Democrats are likely to oppose some of Mills' proposed spending cuts.

The governor is expected to focus on her proposed spending priorities during the final two years of her administration as lawmakers begin work on the state's next biennial budget.