Your editorial Sunday “LePage has opportunity to lead on child welfare” was in the wrong tense. The governor, along with his ex-commissioner of DHHS “had” seven years to lead on child welfare and they passed on that opportunity.
If a new computer system for Child Protective Services is long overdue, as the governor says, then why didn’t he or Mary Mayhew (former DHHS commissioner) buy that computer one year ago, or two years ago? If children are so important to the governor, why is he always trying to give wealthy Mainers tax breaks while squeezing the budgets that provide services to our Maine children? He flat-funded Child Development Services, which provides early intervention services to young children with disabilities, for seven years and now there is a bill stuck in the Legislature that is trying to provide $3.5 million to keep the system afloat for another year. Hundreds of children are waiting for services, and what is our new champion for children doing about it? Nothing.
Trying to make it a crime to not report abuse is just Gov. LePage’s attempt to deflect blame – pointing a finger at others before all the facts become known.
According to the Maine Center for Economic Policy, from 2011-2017 Maine left $142 million in federal funds for the SNAP (food stamps) program in Washington, with over 20 percent of Maine’s children living in poverty. We also lost out on $3.1 million in child care funds. Evidently, the governor and his underlings only care about children after two of them have been harmed and someone has to be held accountable.
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