Lawmakers vote to keep child abuse prevention program

WABI
April 11, 2018

http://www.wabi.tv/content/news/Lawmakers-vote-to-keep-child-abuse-prevention-program-479408903.html

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - The Maine House has voted to save a child abuse prevention program that the governor planned to eliminate.

The Portland Press Herald reports the bill to save the $2.2 million Community Partnerships for Protecting Children program passed Tuesday with bipartisan support. The bill will continue funding through Jan. 31 after the new governor takes over.

Republican Gov. Paul LePage's office had planned to end the program in September, saying the state's existing child abuse and neglect councils provide similar services. The governor had experienced abuse as a child.

The program started in Portland during the mid-2000s and has since expanded to several communities in southern Maine as well as Lewiston, Augusta, Bangor and Belfast.

The bill is now on its way to the Senate.