AUGUSTA, Maine — Governor Janet Mills has submitted her first budget to the State Legislature fully funding the voter-approved Medicaid expansion that her predecessor, Gov. Paul LePage, had refused to implement.
Mills proposed budget also includes a Medicaid Reserve Account with contingency funding and would invest an additional $126 million in K-12 education in Maine.
Mills says the additional $126 million for education will help build to universal pre-K in Maine and a $40,000 minimum teacher salary – all without increasing taxes and while protecting the rainy day fund, according to Mills’ office.
The budget also includes $5.5 million to fight the growing opioid epidemic in Maine, increases in revenue sharing and property tax relief, funding for a Washington County Pre-Release Center, and adding 15 new state troopers and sergeants.
“This budget honors the demands of Maine people who have voted again and again for more health care, not less; for investments in education and our classrooms, not cuts; for better roads, lower property taxes, treatment for their loved ones suffering from substance use disorder, and for a state that believes everybody should have a fair shot at a better life," Mills said in a press release.
Governor Mills will give her State of the Budget on Monday, Feb. 11 at 7:00 p.m.
