View as Webpage | April 11, 2024

Dear MMTA Member,

You likely have heard about recent Legislative attempts to take significant funding from the Maine Highway Fund during the state’s budget process. Understanding that our highways are our members’ workplace, we haven’t reached out before now because the blowback for this misguided idea was swift – in the newspapers, on tv and on the radio – nobody was saying this was good, proper or smart.  

It appeared to us that the logical result would be that it would get walked back and things would go back to normal, because nobody is making a compelling argument to the contrary and we understand the Governor is very much opposed to the idea. However, seeing as how this has not yet happened, we are concerned enough that we wanted to engage our 1,790 members given the importance of this issue.

We work closely with the Maine Better Transportation Association, who have put together a website explaining the problem in more detail, as well as providing an easy way for our members to let their voices be heard by legislators. Below is from the FixItNowMaine website complete with a link for you to take action.

We hope you will do so ASAP as the legislative process unfolds.

We would encourage you to reach out to myself or Tim if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Brian Parke

MMTA President and CEO

bparke@mmta.com

Act Now to Protect the Highway Fund!

Background

While most Maine residents were dealing with the impacts of the blizzard, including widespread power outages, the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee met to finalize the budget in the cover of darkness. Shortly after midnight, the majority party dropped a new plan to the surprise of the minority caucus members. It was more than just highway robbery;it also removed the highway budget from the Committee of jurisdiction.

The Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee voted to eliminate up to $60 million in critical transportation projects beginning on July 1 and for every year thereafter. They also assumed control over the transportation budget, removing oversight by the Joint Standing Committee on Transportation.

MaineDOT may be forced to review and remove hundreds of millions of dollars for projects in the three-year work plan.

What can you do right now?

You can send a quick email or record a video that can be sent using the form below. We encourage you to personalize and edit our sample text and consider adding information about impacts on your company, jobs, and our ability to tackle the tremendous backlog of infrastructure repairs.