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Kennebec County commissioner urges Gardiner officials to press legislators on unfunded jail medical mandate
Summary
Kennebec County Commissioner Joe Petroski told the Gardiner City Council that a state mandate requiring medical, mental-health and addiction services in county jails is creating large costs that counties are being asked to absorb and urged municipal officials to contact legislators to seek more state funding (LD 719).
Kennebec County Commissioner Joe Petroski urged the Gardiner City Council on March 19 to press state legislators for more funding to cover a statutory mandate that requires county jails to provide on‑site medical, dental, mental‑health and addiction services.
Petroski said the mandate is expensive and is pushing county budgets upward. “That’s a real dilemma. I’m sitting here, I don’t wanna raise the taxes,” Petroski said during the council’s meeting. He told the council the program commonly called the MAT program requires counties to provide doctors and nurses in jail and costs “at a minimum, $1,500,000 a year” in his…
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