Maine

Maine

Budget Cycle
Biennial

Governor Submits Budget
January

Fiscal Year Begins
July 1 

Governor Signs Budget 
10 days after legislative approval

Budget Links

FY2026-2027 (proposed)
FY2024-2025 supplemental (enacted)
FY2024-2025 (enacted)
FY2022-2023 supplemental (enacted)
FY2022-2023 (enacted)
FY2020-2021 supplemental (enacted)
FY2020-2021 (enacted)



Proposed Budget - Fiscal Years 2026-2027

On January 10, Maine Governor Janet Mills released a biennial budget covering fiscal 2026 and 2027. The budget recommends general fund appropriations of $11.63 billion for the next biennium, an 11.1 percent increase over the enacted level for the fiscal 2024-2025 biennium through the Second Regular Session of the 131st legislature. This includes $11.0 billion in baseline spending, a 5.1 percent increase compared to enacted appropriations for the fiscal 2024-2025 biennium.  The remaining recommended appropriations include $13 million for new one-time projects and $604 million to fund annualized costs for the full biennial implementation of authorized programs as well as new positions and targeted initiatives, net of various programmatic adjustments and reductions.  On an annual basis, the budget recommendation calls for general fund appropriations of $5.76 billion in fiscal 2026 and $5.87 billion in fiscal 2027, reflecting year-over-year increases of 5.0 percent in fiscal 2026 and 1.9 percent in fiscal 2027. The general fund budget is based on revenue projections, after recommended adjustments, of $5.60 billion in fiscal 2026 and $5.78 billion in fiscal 2027, representing projected annual growth of 0.4 percent in fiscal 2026 and 3.2 percent in fiscal 2027. After transfers and other adjustments, the budget projects a general fund ending balance of $86 million for fiscal 2026. The governor’s budget plans to maintain the Budget Stabilization (“rainy day”) fund at its near record high, while utilizing new targeted revenue changes to help close the state’s projected budget gap. The biennial budget also outlines recommended revenues and allocations for the state’s Highway Fund and Fund for a Healthy Maine (a dedicated fund that primarily receives tobacco settlement payments). 

Proposed Budget Highlights 

The governor’s budget uses a balanced approach to invest in core priorities while closing a projected structural gap. The proposal does not create or fund new programs, but maintains and provides additional funds for health care, education, and other areas. The budget avoids withdrawing from the rainy day fund or imposing any broad-based tax changes and instead takes a targeted approach to programmatic reductions and revenue-raising measures. Highlights of the budget include:

Health Care & Behavioral Health

  • Directs additional general funds to stabilize the MaineCare (the state’s Medicaid program) budget in response to enrollment increases, high medical inflation and other factors
  • Shifts certain public health services costs to the general fund as a result of declining Fund for Healthy Maine revenues
  • Fully funds nursing facility rate reform
  • Invests in final rates for two services – therapeutic foster care and therapeutic intensive homes – in response to a legal settlement

Education

  • Increases school funding to meet the state’s obligation to pay 55 percent of local education costs
  • Fully funds universal free meals for public school students and publicly funded students in approved private schools
  • Increases funding to continue providing up to two years of free community college to all high school graduates as well as makes the program permanent
  • Provides a 4 percent increase for public higher education institutions
  • Additional funding to cover higher education institutions’ costs related to implementing the state’s new Paid Family Medical Leave program
  • Covers increased costs of the unfunded liability in teacher retirement

Other

  • Maintains 5 percent Municipal Revenue Sharing, helping to mitigate property tax increases
  • Additional ongoing funding to address a federal funding shortfall from the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA)
  • One-time funding for the Mobile Home Preservation fund, which supports the purchase of mobile home parks by their residents
  • Raises additional general fund revenue by increasing the state cigarette excise tax by $1.00 per pack, which would mark the first time the tax has been increased since 2005, along with other targeted revenue enhancements