The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com
Anne Graham, a Democratic state representative from North Yarmouth, and Marianne Moore, a Republican state senator from Calais, both serve on the Maine Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee.
Prevention is always the best medicine.
This instinctive truth guides many of our day-to-day choices as we work to keep our families healthy, our homes and vehicles safe, and our household expenses as low as possible. When you think about it, municipal and state policymakers do a very similar thing, except on a broader scale.
We are two members of the Maine Legislature who sit on opposite sides of the aisle, but we can say with certainty that the value of prevention is never in doubt among our colleagues. When we prioritize prevention and focus on the future we want to pass along to our children and grandchildren, we do our best work. The Fund for a Healthy Maine is an inspirational example of what’s possible when we come together in this way.
Twenty-seven years ago, the 119th Maine Legislature did what few other states managed to do with their share of the national tobacco settlement. They set politics aside and established a special fund to use the money as it was intended — preventing chronic disease and promoting good health, especially for Maine kids. This was the start of the Fund for a Healthy Maine (FHM), which remains our state’s only dedicated source of funding for prevention and public health.
During our own years of legislative service, we’ve both been deeply inspired by the fund’s collaborative history and honored to protect its legacy of common sense prevention. The Fund for a Healthy Maine is at work every day, in all of our communities, improving health, reducing costs, and creating opportunities for families and businesses to prosper.
The Fund for a Healthy Maine is an incredible success story, and its mission is highly valued among legislators, but its financial stability has been jeopardized in recent years by declining tobacco settlement payments (which are calculated based on national cigarette sales and do not account for the skyrocketing use of vaping products and nicotine pouches).
We are in a moment of opportunity. We can resolve the Fund’s structural deficit if we act now, with the same “prevention pays dividends” mindset of the 119th Legislature, and chart a course for the future that stabilizes the FHM for years to come. LD 1658, An Act to Preserve and Strengthen the Fund for a Healthy Maine, offers this opportunity.
LD 1658 is straightforward. It sets up an annual transfer of a portion of Maine’s tobacco excise tax revenue from the General Fund into the Fund for a Healthy Maine at the start of every fiscal year. Aligning and integrating tobacco excise tax revenue and tobacco settlement revenue is particularly appropriate because both are intended to prevent tobacco use and illness, ensure resources for quitting tobacco are available for anyone who seeks them, and support the health and well-being of Maine people across generations.
These are funds that Maine is already receiving and allocating to the FHM in the current biennium. This bill will eliminate the need for more one-time solutions to maintain baseline investments in public health and prevention, while positioning us to be strong and responsive to future health concerns.
LD 1658 will put Maine’s prevention resources in the right place at the right time — before the budget-building process begins — so policymakers can focus their deliberations on how best to address the needs and circumstances facing Maine people and communities.
Maine experts and policymakers agree. Maine’s 2024 Blue Ribbon Commission report recommended this solution for resolving the FHM structural deficit and stabilizing the Fund for the future. Earlier this year, LD 1658 was supported by all members of the Health and Human Services Committee, then passed unanimously by the Maine Senate and Maine House of Representatives. It now awaits further action in the Legislature.
The 132nd Maine Legislature has a chance to leave the Fund for a Healthy Maine stronger than we found it. Let’s do what Maine people do best — come together with common sense, in pursuit of the common good. The importance of prevention is a constant in our lives and in our work, with stable funding even more essential during challenging and uncertain times. Let’s prioritize LD 1658 for final enactment and secure Maine’s legacy of prevention for the benefit of future generations.
