AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - The federal government has approved Gov. Paul LePage’s plan to direct more federal funding to job training in the state, according to a state labor official’s email obtained by The Associated Press.
Maine Department of Labor Deputy Commissioner Richard Freund told State Workforce Board members in a July 5 email that the U.S. Department of Labor has conditionally approved the plan. The LePage administration and the U.S. Department of Labor have not released a letter describing the conditions of the approval.
LePage’s plan would require Maine’s three workforce boards to spend 70 percent of federal funds received by the state on job training, including adult education classes.
There was no mandated percentage before. But the deputy director of the workforce board based in Cumberland County, Antoinette Mancusi, said her board this year is spending only 30 percent on job training as described by LePage.
Leaders of the boards say the Republican governor’s proposal would hurt vulnerable job seekers including veterans by taking away money for career counselors and other services that don’t count as job training.
In the email, which was forwarded by Democratic Rep. Ryan Fecteau to the AP, Freund wrote, “I am happy to report that the hard work has paid off and we have received conditional approval of the plan.”
The governor’s spokeswoman didn’t respond to a request for comment on Friday but had previously said Maine could dip into another roughly $3 million pool of federal funding that covers basic job search help.
Federal law limits the boards from spending over 10 percent of funds on administrative costs. The boards largely spend their money on worker training costs, such as tuition, as well as case managers, counselors, leases and utilities.
But LePage has fought to reduce what he sees as waste in Maine’s workforce training system.
Separately, proposals by LePage to consolidate the three boards into one agency have been rejected by the administrations of President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama.
The governor told federal officials last fall that he didn’t want to participate in a system “fraught with redundancies and waste,” and he told them to stop sending more than $8 million of annual Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act funds to Maine.
LePage’s move to hold up those funds resulted in a lawsuit and a January court order requiring his administration to release the funds. Some heads of local workforce boards said the holdup resulted in laid-off workers and reduced services.
Freund said federal regulators supported some but not all aspects of Maine’s plan.
Maine Department of Labor spokeswoman Laura Hudson said once local workforce boards submit their budgets and the state reviews them, the state would be ready to accept another year of federal workforce funds. Northeastern Workforce Development Board executive director Joanna Russell said she told state officials that her board will submit a budget once it receives the U.S. Department of Labor approval letter.
“I have not heard anything since that conversation, and I have not received a copy of the letter,” Russell said.
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