BRUNSWICK

The region’s largest employer stands to benefit from a budget blueprint proposed by the Trump administration. Meanwhile, deep cuts in environmental and social service programs could have significant, negative effects on Midcoast residents.

The proposed budget attempts to balance a repeal of the 2011 sequestration and a $54 billion increase in defense spending.

Bath Iron Works, the fourth biggest employer in Maine and the largest in the Midcoast, is poised to take full advantage of the increased Department of Defense budget. Although the funding is not broken down in the blueprint, campaign promises by the Trump campaign and recent comments suggest that Navy-related shipbuilders such as BIW stand to benefit.

Number two on the Navy’s unfunded priority list is an additional Arleigh Burke destroyer to be built at BIW, which was partially funded in the FY 2016 budget. While it was likely that Congress would vote to appropriate the additional $433 million toward the destroyer, the Trump administrations emphasis on defense spending only increases that likelihood.

Although the specifics of how the proposed $54 billion will be allocated are not expected to be available until May, President Donald Trump’s campaign promises and subsequent remarks suggest shipyards like BIW will see increased work under his administration.

“My plan builds the 350-ship Navy that we need and everybody requests,” said thencandidate Trump to a crowded auditorium in Lisbon just days before the election. “And that means a lot more work for — I’m sure you’ve never heard of this place — Bath Iron Works here in Maine.”

The budget blueprint mirrors the campaign’s goal of increasing the size of the fleet and “rebuilds the U.S. Navy to better address current and future threats by increasing the total number of ships. This budget reflects a down payment on the president’s commitment to expanding the fleet,” it states.

Although the structure of that fleet remains to be seen, the Navy’s own assessment of what a 350-ship fleet should look like includes an additional 16 large surface combatants, such as the Arleigh Burke and Zumwalt destroyers built at BIW, over the next 30 years.

Food and warmth

Trump’s $1.15 trillion spending plan would boost spending on the military while cutting many domestic programs, including community block grants that funds Meals on Wheels for seniors and other programs, according to an Associated Press report.

In a Capital News Service report, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, said that the federal budget for Meals on Wheels, a program that helps feed 2.4 million seniors in the United States, is $3 million, but the proposed “budget wipes out” the money for this program.

“The Trump budget is great if you can get on a plane every weekend and fly to Mar-a-Lago, but it stinks for everybody else,” Van Hollen said. “If you look at the cost to the taxpayer to fly to Mar-a-Lago each weekend, it’s about $3 million, estimated.”

In the Brunswick area, Meals on Wheels recipients receive deliveries once or twice a week that include two hot and three frozen meals. Last year the Spectrum Generations’ Meals on Wheels program, based out of People Plus, delivered 26,600 meals just to clients in the area.

Other proposed cuts include the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which the blueprint claims “is a lower-impact program and is unable to demonstrate strong performance outcomes.”

LIHEAP helps pay for a portion of the home heating costs of low income individuals, and provides assistance to more than 45,000 Mainers.

Cost to environment

The Trump administration is proposing a 16 percent cut to the Department of Commerce, which oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The outline cuts $250 million from NOAA’s budget, including the Sea Grant program which sponsors research such as coastal erosion, sea level rise and ocean acidification. That sort of research is necessary to help fishermen understand long-term trends in the fisheries that affect their business, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association Ben Martens told The Times Record earlier this week.

“If we’re not putting money into climate change research and understanding what’s happening in warming oceans … that means we’re kind of putting our heads in the sand and ignoring a problem and hoping it goes away as opposed to planning on how to anticipate and adjust and adapt to a future that is more than likely coming,” he said. “We can’t really build businesses and plan for a future of sustainable fishing in Maine if we aren’t exploring those types of things.”

Last week, Maine’s senators signed a letter urging the Office of Management and Budget to reconsider the changes.

The Department of Environmental Protection will lose nearly a third of its budget according to the proposal, prompting outcries from environmental advocacy groups in Maine.

“President Trump’s budget is dirty and dangerous and fails to protect our health or our planet. This budget virtually eliminates funding for proven programs to clean up the nation’s great waterways from Penobscot Bay to the Androscoggin River,” said Andrew LaVogue of Environment Maine. “Slashing EPA’s overall budget by more than a third means the agency cannot adequately enforce our clean air and clean water safeguards.”

“President Trump today released an irresponsible EPA budget that threatens the health of Maine people, our environment and our economy,” said Lisa Pohlmann, executive director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine. “In proposing to cut EPA’s funding by 31 percent and personnel by 3,200, and eliminate more than 50 programs, President Trump has declared war on clean air, clean water and public health.”

Maine delegation reacts

Maine’s congressional delegation expressed concerns with the budget blueprint.

Sen. Susan Collins, RMaine, praised the removal of the 2011 sequestration cuts and the funding of lead hazard control programs. However, she criticized the cuts to medical research, LIHEAP, and other discretionary spending programs in the proposal.

“There are, however, a number of serious problems with this proposed budget,” said Collins. “As the appropriations process moves forward, I look forward to working with my colleagues to develop a revised budget.”

“I recognize and agree with the need to reduce federal spending as part of a balanced effort to tackle the debt and deficit, but I have a hard time seeing how eliminating heating assistance, cutting medical research, and ending economic development funding do little more than harm people, families and businesses across Maine,” said Sen. Angus King, I-Maine. “To me, this doesn’t seem like a serious attempt to offer a reasonable, cost-cutting budget — and, sadly, it’s hardworking, middle class folks throughout the state who would bear the brunt of it all.”

In a press release, 1st District Rep. Chellie Pingree, DMaine, said that Trump’s budget was dead on arrival.

“As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, I will not stand for President Trump’s foolish and shortsighted budget proposal which will make America less healthy, safe, and economically secure. Cutting Meals on Wheels, heating assistance for low-income families, and essential economic stimulus programs that rural states like Maine rely on in order to build a $1.5 billion wall with Mexico shows how out of touch President Trump is with the needs of real Americans,” said Pingree.

While 2nd District Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-Maine, praised the blueprint for its support of veterans’ services and Department of Defense spending, he expressed concerns with cuts to “LIHEAP, Community Development Block Grants and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting” among other items.

“Congress has the constitutional responsibility to approve a budget for the federal government,” said Poliquin. “I’m going to thoroughly examine the president’s proposal in the coming months as Congress works to approve a final budget.”

nstrout@timesrecord.com