In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee unanimously approved the biennial budget for 2010 and 2011. This budget is the result of many months of discussion and debate, meetings with each legislative committee, each state department and agency, a $1.4 billion decline in revenues and an updated economic projection from the Revenue Forecasting Committee to counter the downturn.

Some of the recommendations that the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee agreed upon include:

• Maintaining K-12 funding levels in 2010 at $1 billion, to give school districts time to prepare for the 2011 reduction to $947 million.

• Reduce funding from Maine’s colleges and universities by $6 million, bringing the total state funding to $535 million.

• High-cost specialty drugs will be purchased through preferred providers, which reduces Medicaid spending.

• Settling the Maine hospital payment dispute with $96.7 million in state funds and $276.3 million in federal funds (total $373 million).

• a 5 percent reduction to the Tree Growth Program, a reduction to revenue sharing, a 20 percent cut to the Circuit Breaker program, and reducing the Homestead Exemption to $10,000 in FY 2011.

• Increases the fees for licenses and permits at the Departments of Inland Fisheries and Wild Life and Marine Resources, and

• Transfers $2.2 million from the state’s Clean Election Fund and reduces the initial disbursement to candidates by 5 percent

As for state workers, the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee decided not to go forward with a 5 percent base pay cut across the board, as we originally planned. Instead the committee recommended 10 shutdown days per year for two years, that state employees pay a portion of their health insurance premiums (though they can earn a portion of that back by participating in a state wellness program), and to freeze merit increases and cost of living adjustments for two years. We also reduced the funding for the Legislative Branch by $4.3 million.

This $5.8 billion bill succeeds in balancing the budget without raising broad based taxes, which is what we initially intended when Gov. Baldacci announced the biennial budget would be $200 million less than the previous budget and would require cuts adding up to nearly $1 billion.

After being printed, the budget will come before the full legislature for debate and final votes. In order for the budget to pass, it must obtain a two thirds vote from the entire legislature and be signed by the Governor.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the budget. Please don’t hesitate to contact my office at the State House, if you have any questions or comments, by calling 287-1515 or visit my Web site, http://www.mainesenate.org/diamond.

Senator Bill Diamond is a resident of Windham, and serves the communities of Casco, Frye Island, Raymond, Standish, Windham and Hollis as Senator of District 12.