AUGUSTA — The co-chairmen of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee say they are committed to a civil and friendly process but the “devil will be in the details” when it comes to key issues such as welfare reform and changes to the state’s support for General Assistance, a local welfare program administered by cities and towns.

On Monday, state Rep. Drew Gattine, D-Westbrook, and state Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, were settling into the office the two men will share. The committee has jurisdiction over the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, an agency that consumes more than a third of the state’s $6.3 billion budget.

“I think we’ve been building a really friendly relationship and hopefully something that will be the foundation for a civil committee,” Brakey said. “Hopefully, we can set the tone, that while we may not agree on every issue that comes forward, we can handle those disagreements in a civil and productive way.”

Democrats, who control the House, will outnumber Republicans on the committee by one vote, but both Brakey and Gattine said they realize a simple majority vote out of their committee is unlikely to survive passage in the Senate or the House.

“If you don’t get Republican buy-in or Democratic buy-in on any given bill then it is just going to die in the House or die in the Senate,” Brakey said. 

Brakey, a self-described “libertarian” said he’s got a sheaf of bills he wants to advance in 2015, including eight that look at changing the state’s welfare system.

He said so far relations between he and Gattine, a liberal Democrat who has frequently challenged Republican Gov. Paul LePage on policy positions, have been friendly.

But the pair are likely to be at the heart of some of the most heated debates that will develop in 2015 as conservatives look to ratchet back a state welfare system they believe is too generous, unaffordable and the cause of generational “welfare dependency.”

Both Gattine and Brakey said they have not been given any specific “marching orders” from their respective leadership or from LePage’s administration.

“I’ve reached out to the Senate president’s office, I’ve reached out to the governor’s office, I’ve reached out to (DHHS Commissioner) Mary Mayhew, I’ve reached out to a lot of stakeholders on a lot of this policy, particularly welfare reform policy,” Brakey said. “I want to make sure the best ideas end up in the committee and we are working on those ideas.”

Brakey said he was honored and surprised to be named the committee co-chairman by the state Senate President Michael Thibodeau, R-Winterport, but he wasn’t given any directives either.

“I can’t read the Senate president’s mind as to why he chose me for this committee but I think a part of it is that he knows — on the issues of welfare reform — we are of very similar mindset,” Brakey said.

Brakey, who noted he’s the second-youngest state Senator in the country at 26, is half Gattine’s age but Gattine said he didn’t foresee that being an issue for either of them. 

Gattine, 52, said there seems to be some consensus already building around certain welfare reform proposals that would seek to more effectively transition those on welfare to work.  

“He’s probably much more mature than I am,” Gattine quipped.

He said conservatives and liberals alike seem to agree that Maine’s system may be designed in such a way that it creates disincentives for people to seek employment because they often make less money working than they do on welfare.

Conservatives have dubbed this the “welfare cliff” meaning that once somebody goes to work they often lose all of their other state and federally funded benefits, including health care and food stamps. Brakey and other conservatives have suggested the cliff needs to be turned into a “slope.”

But Brakey and Gattine recognize any reform to the system will either have to be “revenue neutral” — it won’t cost the state any more money — or it will have to save the state money.

“Obviously, the money piece of anything is going to be important,” Gattine said. “A lot of these programs are funded by significant federal dollars so from a (state) general fund perspective some proposals may have bigger impacts than others.”

But interest in eliminating the welfare cliff was genuine on both sides of the aisle, Gattine said.

“I think one of the reasons people are interested in this and maybe there is some promise of bipartisan cooperation is that we all hear that this problem is very real,” Gattine said. “I think we are all in agreement that getting people into jobs and having them be able to stay there, and have it be sustainable and have them see a path forward from their first job to a second job into a career is something we would all like to see happen.”

But Gattine also said much of that also depends on being able to help improve the state’s economy overall.

Gattine said the composition of the committee, which he has served on in the past, includes some seasoned lawmakers who know the nature of the work at hand. The committee’s newer members also bring real-world expertise to the table in the fields of business and health care, Gattine said.

Gattine also said until the various policy proposals were in writing and before the committee, he wouldn’t make predictions.

“I just don’t know enough, at this point, to feel that confident,” Gattine said. “But we do need to make sure we are managing a process that allows things that we can find common ground on to move forward and things we don’t agree on are going to move out of here anyway.”

[email protected]