Gov. Mills proposes supplemental budget focusing on public safety, mental health services (2024)

AUGUSTA (WGME) -- Governor Janet Mills unveiled her supplemental budget proposal on Wednesday.

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The governor says her proposal focuses on urgent challenges in the state, including housing, education, health care, the opioid epidemic and more.

It also proposes saving $107 million incase of budget shortfalls in the future.

Mills' proposal also tackles the public safety initiatives she laid out during her State of the State address last month.

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The governor says this proposal would strengthen public safety and bolster Maine's mental health system.

“This proposal strikes the balance between making timely investments to address urgent needs – like public safety, mental health, housing, education, and health care – and saving money to ensure that our state continues to stand on strong fiscal footing in the future,” Mills said. “I look forward to working with the Legislature in the coming months to arrive at a budget that protects our fiscal health and that makes prudent investments to support the health, safety, and welfare of Maine people.”

Mills' proposal includes the following initiatives:

• Supporting Mobile Crisis Teams: $2.8 million ($633,000 in ongoing General Fund) for Fiscal Year 2025, supplemented by enhanced Federal matching funds, to strengthen mobile crisis response through a comprehensive MaineCare (Medicaid) payment model. This model will support teams comprised of specially trained behavioral health responders including peers who de-escalate mental health and substance use crises, assess needs, and provide an appropriate level of care in the least restrictive setting. These teams, which are dispatched to the location of a person in crisis through 988 – Maine’s 24/7 centralized crisis lifeline – are a critical safety-net service that the Mills Administration has effectively worked with providers and national experts for the past two years to improve. This budget initiative complements the Governor’s public safety legislation.
• Promoting Safe Firearm Storage: $200,000 in one-time funding, supplemented by Federal matching funds, to enhance the promotion of Maine’s Safe Homes Program, which encourages Maine people to safely store firearms and highlights programs that make safe storage more affordable, like the tax exemption, passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor, for devices specifically designed to secure firearms. The Safe Homes Program was created by the Legislature and Governor in 2022. This budget initiative complements the Governor’s public safety legislation.
• Hiring More State Troopers: $5.5 million ($3.6 million in General Fund) to establish 16 State Police Trooper positions, 4 State Police Corporal positions, 3 State Police Detective positions, 8 State Police Sergeant positions and one State Police Major position to allow Maine State Police to maintain Resource Coordination Agreements with counties and municipalities and continue rural policing throughout the state, providing for 24/7 operations. This budget initiative complements the Governor’s public safety legislation.
• Enhancing Funding for Extreme Risk Protection Order Assessments: $422,400 to support the surge in mental health assessments under the extreme risk protection order law since the tragedy in Lewiston. The Governor announced in her State of the State Address that the law has been used 15 times more often in the three months after the shooting in Lewiston than it had been used for the three previous years that it was on the books. This budget initiative supports the Governor’s public safety legislation.
• Funding Victims’ Services: $6 million in one-time funding to address a Federal funding shortfall from the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA). The State funding will support community-based domestic violence and sexual assault services, civil legal representation for victims, victim witness advocates, and housing and supportive services for elder abuse victims.

Other initiatives the Mills administration wants to highlight include:

• Saving $107 million to protect the good fiscal standing of the state into the future.
• Delivering funding to help communities identify and strengthen infrastructure vulnerable to extreme weather.
• Addressing the urgent needs of Maine people, including investments to build housing, improve child safety, and fight the opioid epidemic.
• Funding the Maine Department of Education’s proposal to improve Child Development Services.
• Advancing a proposal, supported by the Maine Hospital Association, to reform hospital reimbursem*nt rates to improve the health of Maine people.

For a full look at the governor's proposed supplemental budget, click here.