Last week was a big week in education for Portland. The Portland Education Association had a community forum, the State announced a $28 million restoration in education, and finally I went to the New England Board of Higher Education’s annual dinner in Boston, where the College of the Atlantic and Compact for Higher Education were recognized.

Community Events
Last Wednesday evening, I had the pleasure of visiting the School Committee to share the great news that Portland schools would be receiving an additional $1.35 million in education funds. The restoration occurred because the State took in unexpected revenue for two consecutive months.

That same evening, I also joined the League of Young Voters at their 5th anniversary event, ReIgnite. The League will always have a special place in my heart, and it was great to see so many young people active and engaged.

Finally, last week I had the great pleasure of welcoming members of Maine People’s Alliance at their lobby day who were lobbying on the budget and health care reform.

Bond Package
Last week, legislative Democrats unveiled our $99 million jobs bond package. Currently, the construction and trades industries are facing 30% unemployment. With our bonding capacity solid, Democrats felt we needed to put our ideas out there to get people back to work. The bond package provides a great combination of projects and makes necessary investments in our infrastructure.

$72.5 million of the total bond will be used for transportation projects all across the state. A huge portion will be pavement preservation of roads and bridges with another huge piece for rail (Aroostook County Rail and Lewiston/Auburn upgrades).

Supplemental Budget Changes
As I mentioned earlier, due to an increase in expected revenue for two consecutive months and an increase in federal Medicaid funding, the supplemental budget cuts have been reduced by $77.7 million.

The changes to the supplemental restores $37 million to health and human services. This includes increased support for nursing homes, assisted living facilities, disability services, mental health crisis intervention and home-based services. It also proposes alternative reductions of $13 million and new initiatives of $5.3 million.

Other restoration measures in the change package include: $6 million for municipal revenue sharing, $3.5 million for retiree health, $1.75 million to fully fund the State’s obligation for disaster assistance, and $2.6 million to pay for a $79 million job creation bond package. There is also $8.1 million to eliminate a payroll delay.

PS – Tuesday the Legislature learned that the State of Maine will be receiving an additional $46 million through the jobs bill passed in the US Senate.  This will help our budget even more, read more here.

My Bills
Last week I introduced three bills that have been commonly referred to as Race to the Top bills. All three bills LD 1799, LD 1800 and LD 1801 will give Maine the best chance when applying for the competitive Race to the Top grant. Maine is eligible to receive $100 million over 4 years.

All three bills were heard last Thursday. There was a lot of public testimony, most in favor. Overall, all three of the bills did have many good elements to them. Almost everyone on the committee felt all three did not have enough specificity to them. However, all three appear to be good first steps for our state to take.

Two bills, LD 1799, “An Act To Encourage the Use of Models in the Collection and Use of Student Achievement Data” and LD 1800, “An Act To Adopt the Common Core State Standards Initiative” passed yesterday in committee. LD 1801, “An Act To Promote the Establishment of Innovative Schools” was tabled.

Closing
The session has less than four weeks left. I can really tell that we are getting down to the wire. People are moving as fast as we can to get the last public hearings and work sessions complete. It is going to be super fast from here on out!

See you around town!

-Justin