“ The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the People”
In reading some recent newspapers you will have seen articles that reference Maine State Governments inability to reduce spending in many budgeted areas where there is federal funding that mandates certain policies, guidelines, and/or conditions that come with the acceptance of certain federal funds.
The Commissioners of both the Maine Dept. of Health and Human Services and Maine’s Dept. of Education are advising the Legislature and Governor that spending cuts in their respective agencies CAN NOT be reduced beyond a certain point based on the States need to create a balanced budget (required by our State Constitution). The Commissioners are quoted as saying this is due to the federal mandates built into the significant federal funding their respective agencies receive annually.
It is no secret that there have always been “strings” attached when lower levels of government accept federal funding from Washington.. However, Maine, like many other states has developed into a “federal funding junkie” for so long now our state budget has become addicted to the dependency of those federal funds to sustain its spending habits. Now that Maine government is in a period of serious economic stress we are realizing just how “dependent” on federal funding our state government has become. In the process of accepting the billions of federal dollars Maine receives annually, we have relinquished a great deal of political power as a State and are under the control of the federal government to the degree that the issue of State Sovereignty has become a very serious one indeed if we continue to turn a blind eye to this situation.
There is a process whereby a State Government may request a “waiver” of certain mandates and conditions that come with federal funds. Maine State Government should be considering this option as a first step toward its own rehabilitation in its addiction to federal dollars.
If we do not have the courage to move away from the dependency on federal money in order to fund the commitments of our state government, we might as well just tear up the U.S. Constitution and our States Constitution, relinquish the United States Constitutional 10th Amendment protection which guarantees a States Right of Sovereignty, and adopt a different form of government. When it has come to the point where state agency Commissioners are telling their own Governor and Legislators - “ You can’t cut my budget beyond this point because of the restrictions and conditions imposed by the federal government”, we have a problem. State government can become very limited in its powers and ability to create a balanced budget without further taxing its own citizens. The very fact we as states have forfeited this kind of power to the Fedreal Government would make our “Founding Fathers” roll over in their graves.
With a budget shortfall that will likely exceed $400 million dollars by the time the Legislature goes into Session in January we will be faced with only two options to achieve the balanced budget our State Constitution requires. The first option is to reduce state spending and the second option is to raise additional taxes necessary to fill the budget shortfall (or a combination of both). The significant federal funding Maine State Government has become so dependent on to sustain its current level of services makes spending reductions difficult if they are in conflict with the mandates and conditions of that federal funding. This is why it is imperative Maine submit a request for a waiver from the federal government in order to make the necessary reductions in overall state spending.
If we do not do this now the fiscal woes and ongoing budget crisis we so often face in Maine will never go away. How we spend taxpayer dollars, whether federal or state, must become more realistic and sustainable or both the national debt and its unfunded liabilities and the state debt and its unfunded liabilities will some day lead us into an economic crisis of staggering proportions making what we are currently going through seem like a minor event.
State Representative Ralph W. Sarty, Jr
House District 99
Representative Sarty, Thank you.
As of Fiscal Year '04 Maine was receiving $1.41 for every $1 given to the Federal Government. What does it look like today?
This gap is a quantifiable measure of Maine's dependence, of our vulnerability. A change in the mind and heart of the people must be pursued with renewed diligence and insistance that Liberty truly is the only path to prosperity. When the general welfare is actually decreasing in ways that can be commonly observed, we must enter this open window of opportunity with enthusiam.
Yes, I referred to this as "a window of opportunity" because it is. What more can we truly ask for to educate the people but the living example we are experiencing.
And Yes, I say "with enthusiasm", because the time is NOW.
"But ambitious encroachments of the federal government, on the authority of the State governments, would not excite the opposition of a single State, or of a few States only. They would be signals of general alarm... But what degree of madness could ever drive the federal government to such an extremity?"
- James Madison, Federalist No. 46, January 29, 1788
This is the quote on the 912 site today.
GREAT post Representative Sarty.
Thank you.
Somewhere along the line the states have forgotten that they, by original intent, created and granted limited authority to the Federal Governemt. The Federal Government was not meant to exist in and of itself without the consent of the People (or States), that is take on a life of it's own. This was the Framer's greatest fear; they knew that the potential for this to happen would be great if the Federal Government was left unchecked. Until the majority of the population of this state and country realize this fact, we will continue to be enslaved by Washington for a very long time. As far as being "federal funding junkies" - the cure for most junkies is to lock them in an empty room deny them their fix and let them sweat it out for as long as it takes to get clean. Wishful thinking on my part I suppose.