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Gov. Janet Mills announced the departure of another Cabinet member on Tuesday, this time her longtime budget director, Kirsten Figueroa.

Figueroa is retiring after nearly 30 years in state government, most recently serving as the commissioner of the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, a large agency that oversees 1,200 state workers. Her retirement is effective Oct. 31.

Kirsten Figueroa, commissioner of the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services, addresses a legislative committee during a hearing in Augusta in 2022. (Andy Malloy/Staff Photographer)

“Kirsten is not only one of my closest advisors, but she’s a good friend,” Mills said in a written statement. “She has been by my side ever since I was Attorney General, and, to this day, I remain consistently impressed with her ability to solve some of the most complicated issues in state government.”

This marks the fifth departure of a member of Mills’ Cabinet this year and the second in the last month.

With the end of Mills’ tenure as governor only a little more than a year away, it’s not unusual to see Cabinet members either retire or seek new professional opportunities.

Until recently, Mills’ Cabinet has been remarkably stable, at least compared to that of her predecessor, Republican Paul LePage, who lost three commissioners in his first year alone and 11 within his first five years in office.

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“I don’t see this departure as all that unusual,” said James Melcher, political science professor at the University of Maine at Farmington. “Where you have a governor who is termed out, like LePage or Mills, and the party in power may not retain the Blaine House, it’s understandable. I don’t see this departure as being a sign of problems or conflict, at least from what we can see from outside. I suspect others will leave early, too.”

So far, Mills has seen turnover in eight of her 15 Cabinet positions, which are subject to confirmation by the Senate. That does not include the departure of Hannah Pingree, who stepped down in May as director of the governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future, a non-Cabinet position, to run as a Democratic candidate for governor.

With the exception of Jerry Reid, who in 2020 went from commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection to Mills’ legal adviser, Mills’ original Cabinet stayed intact for her first five years in office, a period that included the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic, which caused the state to shut down government and businesses for a period of time. The disruption led to economic uncertainty and concerns about state revenue, as well as massive investments from the federal government to states and residents.

Major General Douglas Farnham was the next to leave, announcing his retirement as commissioner of the Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management on Dec. 15, 2023. He was followed by  Jeanne Lambrew, who stepped down as commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services on May 7, 2024, to take a position at a health policy think-tank in Washington, D.C.

Since then, commissioners overseeing the departments of marine resources, economic and community development, transportation and financial regulation have either stepped down or retired.

Mills said the job of DAFS commissioner, which includes drafting biennial and supplemental budgets, is “one of the most challenging in state service.”

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“It is in large part because of (Figueroa) that the state of Maine is in such good financial shape and that we were able to accomplish so much,” Mills said.

Since Mills took office in 2019, the state’s biennial budget has grown from about $7.2 billion to $11.6 billion in the current biennium. Her budgets have fully funded revenue-sharing with municipalities and provided 55% of public education funding to local districts. Funding has also gone toward free school meals, investments in affordable housing and free community college, which is funded for one additional high school class.

The state’s budget stabilization, or “rainy day,” fund also stands at $1.03 billion, which is the statutory limit of 18% of general fund revenues from the prior fiscal year.

DAFS Deputy Commissioner of Operations Elaine Clark will serve as acting commissioner until Mills sends a nominee to lawmakers.

Randy Billings is a government watchdog and political reporter who has been the State House bureau chief since 2021. He was named the Maine Press Association’s Journalist of the Year in 2020. He joined...

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