FAME recently compiled its end-of-year education outreach statistics.  For the 2009-2010 year, staff participated in or presented at 274 Maine events, and the total number of attendees was 9,907.  When one adds the number of students and families at the various college/career fairs, attendance increases to 30,503.  Compared with FY09, the number of events FAME attended increased by 33.6% and the number of attendees increased by 29.8%.
 
The most notable increase was the number of "Get A Life" presentations conducted.  FAME staff attended 71 of these events, facilitated 123 sessions, and had 2,678 attendees.  This represents a 74.6% increase in such events from the prior year.
 
FAME staff also participated in:

 

 

Institutions will be able to certify and request payments for all FAME Programs available on the EPIC website portal on August 30, 2010. The FAME Programs include the State of Maine Grant Program, Educators for Maine, GEAR UP and the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program. Institutions that participate in the Tuition Waiver Program may also certify students attending their institutions.

 

 

On July 15, 2010, the U.S. Senate passed H.R. 4173, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010.  Included within the financial reform bill are provisions to increase oversight of private student loans and to lower fees that schools pay when a student uses a debit or credit card.
 
The bill also creates an ombudsman position that will oversee alternative educational loans, providing students with a place to go to help resolve loan issues.  The President is expected to soon sign the bill into law.
 
The full text of H.R. 4173 is available online at: http://docs.house.gov/rules/finserv/111_hr_finsrv.pdf      

 

 

Maine's new fiscal year began July 1 with a possible $100 million shortfall looming, and, in response, Governor Baldacci ordered another state government hiring freeze.  The order places a hiring freeze on vacant positions and limits overtime, travel and other expenses.  The order allows for emergency exceptions, however.
  
The finance commissioner's office recently informed state agencies that they must plan to cut $100 million from their budgets for the current budget cycle because Congress has not extended Medicaid reimbursement (FMAP) payments by six months to the states.  The largest cuts may come from the Department of Education, which must make plans to trim $39.7 million, and the Department of Health and Human Services, which must plan on a cut of $29 million.  FAME's target cut is $545,411.
 
State agencies must submit final budget cut plans by September 1, and the Governor's office will issue a curtailment order by October 1 if Congress does not extend reimbursement payments.
 
This being said, paradoxically the state actually finished Fiscal Year 2010 with a surplus of $70.4 million.  The surplus is the result of improved revenues, particularly in corporate income taxes and sales and use taxes, and constrained spending by state agencies.
 
State law dictates how the surplus can be used.  By law, it is allocated to the Budget Stabilization Fund, the Loan Insurance Reserve Fund at FAME, General Fund Operating Capital, the state retirement system and retiree health, the Capital Construction and Improvement Reserve Fund, and the Governor's contingent account.

Also, Governor Baldacci will call the Maine Senate into session on Wednesday, August 25th for the purpose of voting upon various appointments.
 

 

Question 1 (Citizen Initiative): Do you want to allow a casino with table games and slot machines at a single site in Oxford County, subject to local approval, with part of the profits going to specific state, local and tribal programs? 
 
Question 2 (Bond Issue): Do you favor a $5 million bond issue to be awarded on a competitive basis to increase access to dental care in Maine, $3.5 million to be used for a community-based teaching dental clinic affiliated with or operated by a college of dental medicine to be matched by $3.5 million in other funds, and $1.5 million to be used to create or upgrade community-based health and dental care clinics across the State to increase their capacity as teaching and dental clinics?
 
Question 3 (Bond Issue): Do you favor a $9.75 million bond issue to invest in land conservation and working waterfront preservation and to preserve parks to be matched by $9.25 million in federal and other funds?