I’m not a great fan of Gov. Paul LePage’s budget, but the one produced by the Appropriation’s Committee is just as bad.

Ten million dollars borrowed from next year’s budget is just “kicking the can down the street.” I had hoped that they might have had more “guts” than that, but alas, they just took a page from our “do nothing” U.S. Congress’s book.

I guess we are lucky that unlike Congress, Maine cannot print money.

If I were on the board of a Maine hospital, I’d suggest refusing Medicare patients. Maine already has a terrible reputation for non-payment of its bills.

I know about a business that supplied material to the state police. The owner had to wait almost two years before he got paid. Guess what he told them when they asked him to supply them again?

I think the Legislature needs to stay in session right through the summer, until legislators produce a real budget. All departments of state government should be forced to use a “zero based” budget format every year.

Christopher Dumaine

Mount Vernon

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