PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 3, 2024
Contact: Jacob Posik
Director of Legislative Affairs
Office: 207.321.2550
Maine Policy Statement on Projected 26-27 Budget Shortfall
Maine has a projected 2026-27 General Fund shortfall of more than $636 million and a Highway Fund shortfall of $312 million.
PORTLAND, Maine – Maine Policy Institute CEO Matthew Gagnon issued the following statement today on the recent Four-Year Revenue and Expenditure Forecast delivered to Gov. Janet Mills by the Department of Administrative and Financial Services:
“Maine Policy has been warning since Governor Mills’ first budget of the future cost overruns and shortfalls that would come as a result of the governor and legislature’s unsustainable spending.
“The governor’s first budget called for near universal spending increases across state government without setting goals or standards for this money to achieve meaningful efficiencies within existing programs and departments. Since then, she and lawmakers have only piled on more spending in majority budgets and supplemental budgets without any consideration of Maine taxpayers, or how these bills would be paid in the future.
“The state now has a projected General Fund shortfall of more than $636 million and a Highway Fund shortfall of $312 million in the 2026-27 biennium because we’ve signed ourselves up for spending which we cannot afford.
“If these projections prove to be accurate, Maine will be forced into the position of raising taxes or making drastic cuts to balance the 2026-27 budget as required by law. This could have been prevented if the governor and lawmakers exercised real fiscal restraint over the last three budget cycles. Instead, they spent nearly every penny available each budget year and used gimmick after gimmick to keep their budgets balanced.”
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Maine Policy Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to expand individual liberty and economic freedom in Maine. Learn more about our work atwww.mainepolicy.org.