ELLSWORTH — State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin Tuesday evening reiterated Governor Paul LePage’s frustration with the Legislature’s resistance to drastic cuts in the Maine Department of Health and Human Services budget.
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State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin deflected critics who say he is engaging in private business while in office. He also said overenrollment in the Medicaid program is “killing us.”
Jacqueline Weaver
ELLSWORTH — State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin Tuesday evening reiterated Governor Paul LePage’s frustration with the Legislature’s resistance to drastic cuts in the Maine Department of Health and Human Services budget.
LePage wants to eliminate health care for some 18,000 childless adults receiving Medicaid as well as for 19- and 20-year-olds to help close a $120-million shortfall in the department’s budget.
Poliquin told members of the Ellsworth Rotary Club meeting at the China Hill Restaurant that 27 percent of the state’s population — or 361,000 residents — currently receive Medicaid assistance.
“It is killing us,” he said. “It is swamping us.”
Poliquin said the LePage administration has been battling a “culture” in Augusta that believes the state can be “everything to everyone.”
“We’re broke,” he said. “The state is broke.”
Poliquin said among the entities that will continue to undergo scrutiny are the “quasi independent authorities,” such as the Maine State Housing Authority.
He again faulted the housing authority for being prepared to spend $314,000 on each affordable housing unit in the Elm Terrace project in Portland.
Following objections by the board, housing staff negotiated the price down to $265,000 per unit, he said.
“We are uncovering a lot of this,” said Poliquin. “We are making a lot of folks very uncomfortable.”
Poliquin was asked following the dinner about allegations he is engaging in commerce while in office.
He owns Popham Beach Club in Phippsburg, which is an oceanfront private recreational club.
The Maine Constitution prohibits the state treasurer from “engagement in commerce” once elected.
At first Poliquin said he couldn’t discuss the issue pending an opinion from the state Attorney General’s Office.
Then he added: “What I can say is I’m working 80 to 90 hours a week for taxpayers and to think I’m self-employed fails the straight face test.”
Poliquin said he has investments and hires people to manage them for him.
Jacqueline Weaver covers the eastern Hancock County towns of Lamoine through Gouldsboro as well as Steuben in Washington County. A New Hampshire native, she has vacationed in Maine for 25 years and has been with The American for three.
Website: ellsworthamerican.com