New planning office quiet
How the state's new planning agency will meet a Dec. 1 deadline to recommend two consecutive years of $1 million savings to the governor and Legislature is unclear.
The Governor's Office of Policy and Management became active May 1 as part of the reorganization of the former Maine State Planning Office, which had many of its functions moved into other state departments in July. An executive branch portion of the SPO has become the OPM, bringing over former SPO Acting Director Peter Rogers and State Economist Amanda Rector to the new agency. Adrienne Bennett, spokeswoman for Gov. Paul LePage, says that neither Rogers, Rector nor the governor are ready to discuss the work of the new office, but they continue to work toward the Dec. 1 budget recommendation deadline. Rector and Rogers did not return calls to Mainebiz about the new agency.
Rep. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, and Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta — both members of the Legislature's Joint Appropriations Committee that approved the SPO reorganization — say they have not yet seen the results of the new agency and indicated an initial review would take place next year.
In the past, the SPO provided economic data and tracking for the state, including information used by groups like the Maine Economic Growth Council for an annual assessment of Maine's economy. Despite the lack of information about the OPM, Ryan Neale of MEGC says he has spoken with Rector about the information previously tracked by the SPO needed for the growth council's annual report.
“It looks like we'll be able to get the same data sets that we've gotten in the past,” Neale says.
Bennett says more information will be available in late November.
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