Gov. Paul LePage has formed a bipartisan task force to identify at least $25 million in government savings to bring the state budget into line for the next fiscal year.

The 12-member panel will analyze state departments and agencies with the aim of prioritizing services, consolidating functions and eliminating duplication and inefficiencies, Le-Page announced Monday.

When the Legislature approved a $6.1 billion, two-year budget in June, it included a $25 million shortfall for fiscal year 2012-2013, which begins July 1. The task force will make its recommendations by Dec. 15 for saving that much money, with the Legislature having the final say.

“The bottom line is that we need to curb state spending,” the governor said in a statement. “In order to achieve savings, we must take a hard look at every aspect of government and make tough decisions. We must also examine what is working and find ways to continue those efficiencies.”

The panel’s proposals are expected to reduce spending and not include fees or other increases in revenue or the shifting of costs to other funding sources, LePage said.

The task force includes Finance Commissioner Sawin Millett, the chairman; and four lawmakers who serve on the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee. The other seven members include business leaders, former legislators and a local government official.

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Past Maine governors have appointed similar task forces to look at potential cost savings, but for the most part they didn’t have a lasting effect, said Phil Harriman, a business consultant and former Republican legislator who is on LePage’s panel.

Before becoming governor in 1975, Jim Longley Sr. led a cost-containment task force for Gov. Kenneth Curtis, traveling around the state to solicit ideas and presenting a report for the governor and the Legislature, Harriman said.

“His task force recommendations basically fell on deaf ears, which propelled him to run for governor,” Harriman said.

Gov. Angus King formed a task force in the 1990s that identified $40 million in savings, Harriman said. But in a few years, the spending came back because the government was bringing in lots of money during prosperous times, he said.

This will be the first cost-savings task force since the King administration with members outside of government, said Ryan Low, the finance commissioner under Democratic Gov. John Baldacci and a member of LePage’s new panel.

“I think we’ll complete the task, but I would never say it will be easy,” said Low, who is now an administrator at the University of Maine-Farmington.

Besides Millett, Harriman and Low, the task force includes George Kerr, a former Democratic lawmaker; Joe Bruno, a former Republican legislator and the current president of Community Pharmacies; Sue Charron, Lewiston’s director of social services; former Central Maine Power Co. CEO David Flanagan; and David Winslow of the Maine Hospital Association.

Legislators on the panel are Sen. Richard Rosen and Rep. Dennis Keschl, both Republicans, and Sen. Dawn Hill and Rep. John Martin, who are Democrats.

 


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