State Legislation/Regulation

LD 499, Biennial Budget Bill:

The Maine Association of Area Agencies on Aging (M4A) requested that the following items be included in the budget and testified in support of these items:

$50,000 (each year): To support the Volunteer Medical Ride Network

$75,000 (each year): To provide funding for mileage reimbursement for volunteers in the Meals on Wheels Program.

$575,000 (each year): To fund home care coordination services provided by Elder Independence of Maine (EIM).

On May 2, 2007 the Democrats released their budget plan and it included funding for the above items. The Republican’s budget plan did not. Negotiations followed, and in the end, the Appropriations Committee voted unanimously to include ALL of the above funding requests (the only change being $900,000 over 2 years for EIM instead of $575,000 each year) in the budget.

On June 6, 2007 the Legislature passed the $6.3 Billion Budget (with our funding requests intact) and the Governor has since signed it.