A Democratic senator from Androscoggin County has proposed the creation of a Commission to Lower the Cost of State Government, charged with finding $30 million in savings that can be booked in the second year of the two-year state budget.
Sen. John Nutting of Leeds said it was time state government looked at its own to cut costs instead of just focusing on administrative cuts in the state’s K-12 school districts.
“Legislators from both parties are looking for government savings,” Nutting said.
“We need to book those $30 million in savings and then find them.”
Under the plan, an 11-member commission would work over the summer and propose cuts to the Legislature by Jan. 8, 2008. It would look for savings in supervisory positions and overlap in state departments.
“There’s been a 20-year creep of a position here and a position there,” Nutting said. “Is every person at the top of every department really, really needed?”
The need to find savings became even more urgent this week when the state’s Revenue Forecasting Committee brought down revenue projections by $34 million in this fiscal year and $40 million in the next biennium because of lower than expected corporate income tax collections.
“We need a study committee to look at all of state government and say, ‘This is what we can streamline and still have the public get the services they need,'” Nutting said.
The Brookings Institution report on Maine’s future prosperity argued for such a commission, saying the state could save between $60 million to $100 million annually if it overhauled state government. That money could then be used for tax relief and to reinvest in businesses development.
Nutting said his goal of identifying $30 million in savings doesn’t go as far as Brookings, but is a start.
“It’s not the amount Brookings said, but it’s the amount realistically a study commission can do in the time allotted,” he said.
The commission as envisioned in Nutting’s bill would be made up of two senators, four members of the House of Representatives, one member of a statewide organization working with low-income Mainers, one member of the Maine Development Foundation, two members of statewide business organizations and one member of the general public.
A public hearing on the proposal is being held this week before the State and Local Government Committee, which ultimately will recommend whether the bill should pass.
Nutting has been known to criticize the Democratic administration for its spending despite his party affiliation. He proposed a bill in 2006 that would have forced the governor to cut $1 million in political appointees. It passed the Senate with an 18 to 16 vote and made it through the House 76 to 70, but was killed by being left to die on the unfinished business calendar in the House when the Legislature quit for the year.
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