Last Friday, February 25th, the city and state delegations met in Portland. We spoke about the opportunities and challenges for the City during the 125th Legislature. Not surprisingly, the challenges are plentiful. We spoke specifically about two major subjects that would hurt the City’s financial, services and support systems:

  • Repealing Revenue Sharing: Governor’s LePage’s budget would repeal our state-municipal revenue sharing program. The Governor is advocating for a fixed amount for each community. This proposal reduces $92 million of revenue sharing to every community. For Portland, this means a projected loss of $600K over two years. Additionally, the Governor is proposing that the entire program be relocated to the Appropriations Committee. This change cannot be glossed over because now the account can be raided by the Appropriations Committee. What is our current revenue sharing program? Currently, the State sends communities 5% of the State’s sales and income tax collections to every municipality. When the state’s income and tax collections come in either above or below the revenue projections, municipalities” revenues increase or decrease, respectively. The revenue sharing account is currently housed and cannot be raided.
  • Cuts in General Assistance: Governor LePage’s budget proposes a reduction in reimbursement for general assistance from 90% to 75%. This change would shift $1,260,000 of costs to Portland’s local property tax payers for the next two years. In 2010, over 4,300 Portland residents were granted support through General Assistance. The General Assistant program spent $6,346,125 in 2010, with 92% of the assistance covering food and shelter. To read more about Portland’s General Assistance program, click here.