Dear Editor:

A proposed new OMB (Office of Management and Budget) rule will devastate Lincoln County and Maine if it is finalized.

Maine receives billions of dollars from the federal government each year to support critical public services, including health, education, and transportation. Mainers receive $1.68 in federal support for every dollar they pay in federal taxes, almost four times the amount the state raised in General Fund revenues. If those funds disappeared, how would the state compensate?

Maine receives billions in funding for transportation and storm recovery grants, and social assistance programs, including Medicaid (MaineCare), food assistance, Section 8 housing vouchers, special education grants, free school lunch program, and “Title I” grants to help children from families with low incomes.

Every federal grant to states, cities, local agencies, and nonprofits across the entire country is at risk from the new OMB rule. A political employee would become in charge, using a political litmus test to assess whether the project meets this administration’s goals. If not, it’s canceled. Frighteningly, there are no guardrails and no appeals. Billions in revenue and thousands of jobs are at stake.

More than the grants that are at risk—if HeadStart is cut, parents will be left without reliable childcare and may not be able to work. That threatens MaineCare and would increase MaineHealth’s indigent care burden. Think “butterfly effect.”

Here are some examples of at-risk funding. Lincoln County was granted $250,000 under the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. A comment notes that Lincoln has a large LGBTQ youth population, making it less likely that this grant will be renewed.

$3.9 million was granted for improving the drinking water in Southport. $311,378 was obligated to link the elderly to multifamily housing services, to prevent institutionalization. Small businesses, such as Mexicali Blues and Lincoln County Publishing, received $44,000 to $50,000 for energy-efficiency improvements.

Last year, Trump threatened to pull all federal funding for K-12 education in Maine after a spat with Gov. Mills. The USDA (temporarily) cut school lunch funding over this.

What can you do? Call your Congress reps (see 5calls.org) and comment in the Federal Register https://www.regulations.gov/document/OMB-2026-0034-0001 before July 13.

Judy Stone

Boothbay Harbor