“Failure to pass the Jobs Bill would have devastating consequences to critical health services, unemployed workers, school funding, jobs, and Maine’s economic recovery,” said Ana Hicks of Maine Equal Justice Partners, who spoke at the event, “Maine cannot afford to lose any more jobs.”

The Jobs Bill would extend unemployment benefits and health care subsidies, provide vital funding for affordable housing projects, and extend enhanced federal Medicaid funding to states. Without this funding, the Maine Center for Economic Policy estimates Maine would lose more than 2000 private and public sector jobs and the U.S. Department of Labor says that more than 30,000 Mainers would lose their unemployment benefits in the next six months. Thousand have already lost benefits this week because of the Senates failure to act.

“Failure to pass this legislation now is not an option,” said Mark Sullivan of the Maine Center for Economic Policy, “The economic security of thousands of Maine families hangs in the balance. Maine’s fragile economic recovery is at risk.  Congress needs to take action now before we slip even deeper into an economic recession.”

Already the Governor’s office is preparing itself for another budget crisis. Just yesterday Ryan Lowe, the Governor’s Chief of Staff, announced that Maine will face a $100 million budget shortfall without this federal funding, putting the jobs of educators, health care workers, and public safety officials at risk.

“What we’re really talking about when we say that Congress needs to pass this Jobs Bill is families,” said Jill Saxby of the Maine Council of Churches, “We’re talking about Maine families who are struggling to get by through the worse economic time since my grandmother was a single parent, raising two children in New York City during the Great Depression. As a nation we learned, even back then, that extraordinary times call for us to respond in extraordinary ways.”

“Keeping families working and giving them the supports they need to provide for their children are two of the best weapons we have to defend against some of the long-term consequences of this recession,” said Ellie Goldberg of the Maine Children’s Alliance.

Following the event, the coalition hand delivered more than 150 hand written post cards and letters to the Senators from Maine citizens telling of their personal stories of why the Jobs Bill is important to them and urging them to support H.R. 4213.

Will you be there?

Here are the event details:

Where: Lobsterman’s Park, in front of the Nickelodeon Theatre in Portland

When: Wednesday, June 30th at 12:00pm

H.R. 4213 will extend unemployment benefits, provide vital funding for affordable housing, and will extend enhanced federal funding to the states for health care. If this bill doesn’t pass, we could see up to $85 million more dollars cut out of Maine’s state budget!

Let us know you’re coming by clicking here!

Augusta, Maine (Thursday, June 3, 2010)— Advocates supporting the extension of critical federal support for economic recovery today called on the members of Maine’s Congressional Delegation to continue their support for important federal assistance to state Medicaid programs to help states, like Maine facing significant fiscal crisis, as well as for maintaining needed health care and unemployment benefits for their people.

“This is a critical juncture for the economic security of thousands of unemployed Mainers, for the effort to recover from the Great Recession and for the future economic prosperity of all Maine families,” said MECEP Executive Director Christopher “Kit” St. John.  “We are grateful to all four members of Maine’s congressional delegation for voting for these measures in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and at different times this year to extend the unemployment and health care benefits through the end of 2010 and the enhanced federal Medicaid assistance through state fiscal year 2011.  With record long-term joblessness plaguing the nation, now is the time to maintain our investment in critical safety net programs, not cut them. The fastest way to address the nation’s long-term deficit is to get the economy going again with the help of these emergency programs.”

Read more at the www.mecep.org.

Listen to MPBN’s story: “Thousands of Mainers on Verge of Unemployment Benefits”

Sadly however, this bill and Maine’s budget are now in jeopardy!

Originally the bill was supposed to extend enhanced federal funding for state Medicaid programs for six months, along with extending unemployment benefits and COBRA subsidies for health insurance through the end of 2010.

Last week however, the U.S. House passed a version of the Extenders Bill that eliminates the extended federal funding for state Medicaid programs. Maine is depending on that funding. Without it, Governor Baldacci and the legislature could be forced to make up to $85 million dollars in more cuts to Maine’s budget!

There is still an opportunity to get this funding BACK into the bill! When H.R. 4213 goes to the Senate next week, Senator Snowe and Collins can advocate for it. In fact, just a couple of months ago, they both voted for these extensions in the original Tax Extenders Bill!

Please call Senators Collins and Snowe’s offices TODAY!

• Thank them for their support of extending the enhanced FMAP in the past.

• Urge them to advocate for putting the extension of the enhanced Medicaid match rate (or FMAP) back into the tax extenders bill, HR 4213, when they return to the Senate after the Memorial Day recess.

• Explain that the enhanced FMAP is critical for protecting both vital health care services and health care jobs in Maine.

Once you’ve made the call, click on this link so we can keep track of how many calls have been made!

U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe
(202)224-5344

U.S. Senator Susan Collins
(202)224-2523

“BATH — It is no secret that among industrialized nations, our high school students perform at the bottom of the list in math and sciences.

School administrators, presidents and lawmakers have addressed this trend in recent times with initiatives and incentives intended to make schools more accountable, economical and successful.

Yet today, schools face the worst economic dilemmas in recent history and America is no better off among advanced nations.

Here in Maine, we have been hit hard.

Programs and teachers are being cut in districts statewide, and many gubernatorial candidates are actually in agreement that Maine needs to increase the number of students in classrooms in order to close in on the national average.

The scope of the situation is not only dire in that our kids are failing and we cannot fund them for success, but worse, people with the potential power to influence and implement change are proposing a major step backward in the effort to improve quality education in schools.

That schools are focusing on finding only the most affordable paths to improve test scores is fundamentally misguided. The culture of education should not be fused with the culture of the corporate world.

It is one thing for a corporation to overemphasize profits; the quality of products or services slips, product and/or workplace safety is ignored, and injuries, lawsuits, recalls and other controversies are imminent.

We have seen this scenario played out before us many times in recent months and years.

Businesses must present a service or product that is worth its price in the eyes of the consumer.

If it is a high-quality product or service, it will gain in popularity and earn profits.

An honest business requires skillful economic planning, and above all, an emphasis on the product or service offered.

A dishonest business will cut corners, overemphasize the numbers, and attempt to convince its market that the product or service is worth a higher price than it really is, at the risk of the aforementioned consequences.

When we cut corners in education, we risk more than a product recall, an injured employee or a dissatisfied customer base.” See full story at the Portland Press Herald.

“CHICAGO – Now the crisis is reaching the children

In Arizona, a program that helped blind high school students care for themselves and find jobs is suspended. In South Carolina, all five state-run group homes for kids closed and a program that helped paroled youths get jobs is shuttered. And in Hawaii, a program to reduce child abuse and neglect was cut so much that two years after serving 4,000 families, it now serves 100.

All over the country, the financial crisis has forced states to make historic cuts to close what the National Conference of State Legislatures found was an overall budget gap of $174.1 billion this fiscal year and has lawmakers looking to trim another $89 billion next year. That means slashing services to the one population they’ve long protected: children.” Read More.

Here’s an excerpt from a great blog post on Alliance for a Better Minnesota, written by Eliot Seide, the executive director of AFSCME Council 5 in Minnesota, that puts it all in perspective.

“I started my day with a warm shower and I’m thankful for clean water and indoor plumbing.  For much of the world, that’s a luxury.  But not here, where we pay taxes.

I enjoy driving on smooth highways.  The lines and lights keep me and other drivers safe.  I also like to leave the car in the garage and ride the train to a ballgame.

I’m grateful for the teacher who taught my sons to read “Where the Wild Things Are” and for the bus driver who got them to school safely each day.  I appreciate the lunch lady who filled their tummies with broccoli and the coach who boosted their confidence.

I love the library workers who help minds soar.  They open the doors to a world of information that helps us learn, prosper and have fun.  Where else can you get free and equal access to knowledge?

I treasure our state parks for affordable family vacations.  Nothing can match a campfire along the North Shore or a hike on a well-groomed nature trail.  Rent a canoe, and if you’re lucky, you might even catch a walleye stocked in a lake by your tax dollars.

Whatever you think about the war in Iraq, I’m grateful for our soldiers and a strong military that can fight for peace.  I also deeply appreciate the caregivers who heal the veterans who risked everything to serve our country.

I’m grateful that our society provides a safety net, however imperfect, for those less fortunate than me.

Finally, I’m blessed with a good job that I enjoy.  Without work, there are no taxes.  This year, there are 212,000 unemployed Minnesotans who cannot pay taxes.  Those of us who can pay should consider ourselves lucky. “

Read the full blog here.

Creating jobs is an extreme priority for Maine and the nation right now, especially in a time when almost 32,000 Mainers have lost their job since the start of the recession. After all, our economic recovery depends on getting Mainers back to work. The best way to do that is to fuel our economy by investing in and expanding our public infrastructure.

LD 1826 will do just that. If it passes, $85 million in state dollars would be matched by another $54 million in federal funds. Among other  programs, the funds would be spent on the following job saving or job creating projects:

• Purchase 241 miles of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway (saves up to 1,000 jobs)
• Improved Freight rail service & Preparation for Passenger Rail Topsham-Lewiston/Auburn (120 jobs)
• Mountain Division Rail-Western Maine (120 Jobs)
• Highway Maintenance (835 jobs)
• Ocean Gateway-Portland (168 jobs)
• Drinking Water Revolving Loan Fund (304 jobs)
• Wastewater Treatment Facility Construction (460 jobs)

In a time when Maine families are struggling to make ends meet, this bond offers great opportunity hope.

What seems to be overlooked in this budget is the tremendous amount that federal stimulus money helped our leaders eliminate many of the damaging cuts that were included in the original supplemental budget proposal.

Thanks to the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009″ (ARRA), which directly provided $550 million in enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP), education and fiscal stabilization funds to balance the biennial budget last year, and the pending “American Workers, State, and Business Relief Act of 2010,” our federal leaders were able to infuse  $114 million in new revenues into the supplemental state budget.

These new revenues allowed our state to take a responsible approach to our fiscal crisis.

Maine Can Do Better has personally thanks the Obama Administration, Representative Chellie Pingree, Representative Mike Michaud, Senator Snowe, and Senator Collins for their support of ARRA and the “American Workers, State, and Business Relief Act of 2010″.

Read the press release and letters here.

Thanks to new revenues from the 2009 federal stimulus bill and a newer companion measure that together will directly infuse $114 million into the state budget (both of which had the support of Maine’s  U.S. Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, as well as Maine’s U.S. Representatives Michael Michaud and Chellie Pingree), the supplemental budget was able to   restore important funds to vital public structures that were cut in the original supplemental budget proposal.

Here are some of the restorations:

• 70 million in programs serving the needs of seniors, people with disabilities and families living in poverty
• $26 million in support for k-12 education
• $11 million in funding to Maine towns and cities
• $8 million for higher education; and $5.6 million in property tax relief to low and middle income families.

Maine Can Do Better is praising this effort.

“These federal revenues and the restorations in the budget clearly demonstrate that Maine’s state and federal leaders recognize the need to preserve public structures that serve all our interests, especially in challenging times,” said Ben Dudley, spokesperson for Maine Can Do Better, “The heart of fiscal responsibility is to prevent problems from getting worse and more costly down the line. That’s precisely what the restorations in this budget do.”

To read Maine Can Do Better’s complete response to the supplemental budget click here.