AUGUSTA — On votes sharply divided along party lines, the Legislature on Tuesday approved a bill that closes an $80 million budget shortfall in the state’s Department of Health and Human Services.

The Maine Senate passed the measure 19-16. A few hours later, the state’s House of Representatives voted 74-69 to approve what Republicans called “structural changes” to the largest part of the state’s budget and what Democrats called “cruel, heartless, disingenuous, reckless and deplorable” cuts.

In solid control of both bodies, Republicans staved off a series of amendments to the bill in both chambers. The bill was facing additional procedural votes in each body but appeared well on its way to passage late Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, dozens of people opposed to the cuts lined the State House corridors chanting, “Protect Maine families” and “Maine can do better” and “No more cuts.”

The budget cuts are “indefensible,” said Ben Dudley, executive director of Engage Maine. “This is not the Maine we believe in.”

State Rep. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, said she was heartened to see the large number of protesters.

“People are really starting to understand how irresponsible and dangerous this budget is,” she said.

The chanting could be heard as a muffled roar inside the Senate chamber Tuesday morning as Senate President Kevin Raye, R-Perry, called the body to order.

The measure as passed changes income eligibility for the state’s low-income prescription drug program for senior citizens, which would remove about 1,500 low-income elderly and disabled people from the program. It also eliminates about $2 million in state funding for Head Start programs.

The bill has several components and includes new tax breaks, including a sales tax break for commercial forestry and commercial greenhouse purchases.

It also increases from $6,000 to $10,000 the amount of income retirement from a pension or military retirement that is tax-free in Maine.

The bill reduces the amount the state will spend on home visitation programs aimed at discovering and preventing child abuse and neglect.

Some of the debate late Tuesday focused on how the proposed tax breaks were being paid for. Some lawmakers have argued the breaks are unconstitutional because they encumber the next Legislature with an expense but don’t provide a means to pay for it.  

Several Democratic amendments in the House attempted to restore the funding and pay for it with a tax increase on the highest incomes in Maine, but they were shot down.

Rep. Kenneth Fredette, R-Newport, called the proposals “class warfare.” 

“It does indicate a funding mechanism called, ‘tax equalization,’ which I think is just another word for a tax increase or creating a tax,” Fredette said.

“We want to identify the 1 percent so they can pay for another class of people,” Fredette said. “So, in my mind, when you got one class versus another class, that’s class warfare.” 

Democrats didn’t see it that way. 

“I didn’t think expecting everyone to pay their fare share had anything to do with class, at least not in terms of class warfare,” said Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland. “I just thought it had everything to do with making sure we had created opportunity and economic opportunity. And making sure we have the money to invest in early-childhood education? That has long-range implications for our economic security for future generations. So you can call it class warfare; I call it investing in our children.”

According to opponents of the measure, about 24,000 Maine people will be affected by the budget change.

Republicans were doing what was long overdue in Maine, Rep. Jonathan McKane, R-Newcastle said.

“We’ve used every single trick in the book over the last eight years,” McKane said. He said in 2006 one group of lawmakers even proposed borrowing money to cover a budget gap. “We’ve used one-time funds over and over again. We raised taxes and fees, we made cuts to other departments, we let our roads crumble. We didn’t pay hospitals and other health care providers and still (MaineCare) grew.”

McKane said MaineCare, the state’s Medicare program, went from 260,000 participants to 360,000 in the past eight years.

“And guess what? Once again we owe our hospitals money and we don’t have enough money to pay our bills,” he said.

The cost of MaineCare has grown from about 12 percent of the state budget in 1998 to 21 percent today.

During Senate debate, Sen. Richard Rosen, R-Bucksport, said the changes took in many considerations, including a close look at services that may be duplicated by other state or federal programs.

Rosen, co-chairman of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee, said concerns over the cuts to the federal Head Start program were being blown out of proportion and that the bulk of the federal funding — $32 million — for the early childhood education program would remain intact. 

Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta, said Maine was one of only 15 states to provide any state funding to Head Start and that the lost revenue could be made up in the same ways other states make up for it, with either local contributions or donated labor from the community.

“There will still be $440,000 of state general funding, $1.3 million from the Fund for a Healthy Maine and $32 million of continued federal funding,” Katz said. “If Head Start can’t figure out how to serve the same population with a 7 percent cut, I would be surprised.”

Katz said the cuts had been well-thought-out. “They are targeted, they are reasonable and they place us in the mainstream.”

Democrats voiced their concerns in numerous and often passionate floor speeches, many bringing up personal experiences or stories from their constituents.

“Numbers and statistics can often be very deceiving,” said Sen. Phillip Bartlett, D-Gorham. “It’s easy to look at it in terms of pure dollars and cents with a 7 percent cut here, a 15 percent cut there, $2 million here, and if you look at that total you can make it seem like the cut is insignificant.”

But Bartlett said when you look closer, you see that the cuts would affect 1,400 families who may no longer have affordable child care. That could mean a parent giving up a job, he said. “That is a huge impact on your family,” he said. “That’s 100 percent loss to you.”

If the cuts mean a family loses home visits from the state to prevent child abuse, the cut is “a life-changing event,” Bartlett said.

Sen. John Patrick, D-Rumford, told a short story about his mother, who died last Friday.

“If you know anything about me, you know a little bit about my mom because we had a cool relationship,” Patrick said, his voice cracking with emotion.  

He said his mother recently told him how proud she was of him for his support of people in need.

“She gave me two pieces of advice,” Patrick said. “She said, ‘Son, always listen to your heart.’ The second was to remember the letters on that little rubber band she always kept on her night stand. Those letters were WWJD — for those of you who don’t know what they stand for, they mean, ‘What would Jesus do?'”

Patrick said he always takes that into consideration before he votes.

“This budget in my mind does not contain the strong Maine values or the Christian values that my mother and I believe in,” Patrick said. “This budget is harmful. It is hurtful; it is short-sighted and extreme.”

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