How Maine’s Budget Addresses the Housing Crisis

The pandemic-driven real estate boom in Maine has made the state’s existing housing crisis even worse, while also raising property taxes for homeowners. Portland and South Portland residents are reeling from tax increases following the city’s first revaluation in 15 years, and despite the city council lowering the property tax rate, Bangor residents are expected to see an overall increase in their property taxes. For many Mainers, the sudden rise in property taxes has caused an added strain in the midst of a fragile economic recovery.

Thankfully, Maine’s elected leaders have taken steps to reign in these spiraling property tax increases.

The new supplemental budget provides a one-time boost in the Property Tax Fairness Credit’s maximum benefit, to $12,000 for eligible families and $1,500 for seniors. It also permanently expands eligibility to 83,000 Maine homeowners and renters.

Additionally, the budget boosts income to municipalities under the Maine Homestead Exemption. Under the current system, Mainers who have owned a home in the state for at least 12 months would have a property tax rate based on $20,000 less than the value of their home. The state reimburses municipalities 70 percent of the lost revenue. The new budget would increase the exemption to $25,000, and raise the municipal reimbursement rate by 3 percent annually until the costs of the exemption are fully covered by the state.

Mainers for Working Families applauds our lawmakers for prioritizing property tax relief in the supplemental budget. These measures will go a long way toward making our taxes more fair in Maine. We must do everything we can to ensure every Mainer has access to safe and affordable housing.

Economic Recovery Starts with Affordable Child Care

More than a year after the pandemic began, working parents are struggling to re-enter a workforce that had already stretched them too thin. While searching for employment or working remotely, parents, and mothers in particular, were expected to care for their children and facilitate virtual learning. Now, as many return to offices and brick-and-mortar businesses, there is still a critical shortage of available, let alone affordable, child care.

The Maine Legislature and Governor Mills recently passed a law that would address this lack of child care options: LD 1712, "An Act To Support Children's Healthy Development and School Success." The bill, introduced by Senate President Troy Jackson, establishes the First 4 ME Early Care and Education Program under the Department of Health and Human Services to provide comprehensive, high-quality early child care and education services for at-risk children under the age of 6 (pre-kindergarten) and the children's parents by funding projects that integrate comprehensive resources and services with traditional child care center and family child care settings. Similar to Somerset County’s Elevate Maine program, the law also provides screenings for developmental delays, in the hopes of addressing them before students enter elementary school.

LD 1712 serves as a post-pandemic economic recovery measure in several ways:

• It reduces the growing strain on unemployment: With First 4 ME, parents who would otherwise need to stay home to care for their children or work part-time will have the freedom to pursue full-time employment.
  

• It combats income inequality: Maine’s lower-income families, even before the pandemic, struggled to afford child care. For those who couldn’t afford it and didn’t have another option for child care (such as a family member), many families have made the difficult decision to have one parent stay home with young children, widening the income gap. A statewide affordable child care program will drastically reduce this gap by giving both parents the option to pursue careers and increase the family’s income.
  

• It improves communities: Providing two working parents with affordable child care frees additional income that can be spent on both necessities and non-essential items, ultimately funneling this money back into the community. The rising tide, as they say, lifts all boats.
  

LD 1712 is also an investment in Maine’s economic future. By providing quality, affordable education at a young age, we are giving all of Maine’s children the tools they need for a strong start in life. According to the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, experiences in the first few years of life can have lasting effects not just on physical cognitive development, but also on economic inequality. Programs like First 4 ME will help close the gap between children of working families and those of wealthy families and lift the economy upward as a whole as they mature.

Truly investing in Maine’s post-pandemic economic recovery requires us to think long-term. A quality statewide child care program accessible to all Maine families provides numerous benefits. It would not only get Mainers back to work during the current labor shortage, but it would set future generations up for success that benefits everyone. Mainers for Working Families applauds Senator Jackson, Governor Mills, and Maine lawmakers for prioritizing Maine’s working families and their children by passing LD 1712.

A budget that benefits us all

The Maine State Legislature and Governor Janet Mills came together to pass a sweeping bipartisan budget that will provide historic investment in Maine and its people.

The $8.5 billion budget makes good on a nearly two-decades-old commitment to fund 55 percent of K-12 education costs – the original referendum was passed in 2004, and this will mark the first time that Maine hits this threshold. By increasing the state’s share of education funding, this will reduce municipal budgets and help lower property taxes all over Maine.

The budget will also provide one-time $300 hazard pay to most Maine workers and fund full revenue sharing between the state and our cities, towns and municipalities. Revenue sharing is a way for the state to help pay the costs for essential services for municipalities, since they are not allowed to levy local sales taxes. When revenue sharing was lowered to just 2 percent under Gov. LePage’s administration, the only way to pay for these services was through property taxes. Fully funding revenue sharing will provide much-needed relief to Mainers who have dealt with increasing property taxes.

Other major highlights from the budget include further investments in:

Education

• Increasing investment in higher education to prevent tuition hikes

• Increasing capital investments so schools can make critical health and safety upgrades

• Providing free school breakfast and lunch for every student

• Increasing investment in career and technical education

Property Tax Relief

• Expanding the Property Tax Fairness Credit to over 80,000 Mainers

• Expanding the homesteading tax credit

Supporting Working Mainers, Vulnerable Mainers, and Seniors:

• Expanding dental care for 217,000 Mainers

• Increasing support to senior living facilities

• Raising wages for direct care workers

• Increasing support to Mainers with intellectual disabilities

• Investing in community treatment options for substance use disorder

Natural Resources

• Protecting Maine’s natural beauty by investing in conservation efforts

We’re grateful to our lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for coming together to enact meaningful change – from the environment, to healthcare, to property tax relief, to education, this budget will benefit Mainers for years to come!