Author: Jacob Posik

Jacob Posik, of Turner, is the director of communications at Maine Policy Institute. He formerly served as a policy analyst at Maine Policy and editor of The Maine Wire. Posik can be reached at jposik@mainepolicy.org.

Despite economists on both sides of the aisle agreeing that occupational licensing laws hurt workers and consumers by stifling economic freedom, state legislatures have created thousands of licensing regimes for occupations that pose no legitimate threat to the health and safety of the general public. So why do lawmakers choose licensing, especially when less burdensome alternatives exist? Two relevant economic theories that explain why occupational licensing laws exist include regulatory capture and concentrated benefits and diffuse costs. Economist Milton Friedman examined the concept of regulatory capture in his influential book Capitalism and Freedom noting that: “In the arguments that seek…

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After accepting public comment for 30 days on the wording of the upcoming Universal Home Care ballot initiative, Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap on Monday, June 25 released the final language that will appear before Maine voters on Nov. 6. Secretary Dunlap made significant changes to the ballot language, adding new information and reorganizing portions of the question to give voters better clarity of what the measure entails. Dunlap added the terms “home-based assistance” and “regardless of income,” recognized the wage threshold subject to Social Security employment tax is not a static figure and spelled out what exactly what income…

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Kimberly Fichthorn exemplifies what Maine is looking for. A 47-year-old transplant from Texas, Fichthorn has three young children and operates an independent dental hygienist practice in Winthrop called Maine Dental Boutique. A longtime registered dental hygienist (RDH) turned entrepreneur, Fichthorn moved to Maine in April 2017 and invested $40,000 to open her practice in one of the state’s many federally designated dental health professional shortage areas. Fichthorn’s arrival checks many boxes for Maine. Considering the state’s well-documented demographic woes, all readers can appreciate her laying roots in Maine. But Maine is also trying to overcome a significant dental care shortage, and nearly half of the…

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The days are winding down until the June 12th primary elections take place, and negativity has intensified among the candidates. Gubernatorial hopefuls on both sides of the aisle are trading jabs with their opponents, and in the First Congressional District, the three-way race for a seat in the US House of Representatives is heating up between incumbent Democrat Chellie Pingree, Republican Mark Holbrook and unenrolled State Representative Martin Grohman. The Maine Democratic Party recently sent out attacks against Rep. Grohman after he qualified for the ballot, signalling a coordinated effort on behalf of the party to dismember Grohman’s campaign before…

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Despite its relatively minimal impact on Maine workers, the labor issue presently garnering the most attention in Maine politics is the minimum wage. In 2016, Maine voters approved a ballot measure that increased the minimum wage and eliminated the state’s tip credit, an issue that dominated discourse in Augusta during the first session of the 128th Legislature. As a result, there has also been numerous attempts to implement a training wage for young, unskilled workers. Unfortunately, lawmakers have dedicated countless hours to minimum wage issues when just 2.7 percent of Maine workers are paid hourly rates at or below the…

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Something beautiful happened this week – something that should scare every elected official who thinks their opinions supersede those of the people they represent. Scarborough residents on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to oust Board of Education Chairwoman Donna Beeley, along with board members Cari Lyford and Jodi Shea over their handling of a dispute between Superintendent Julie Kukenberger and Scarborough High School principal David Creech. Beeley was removed by a vote of 3,086 to 1,496 (67 percent); Lyford 3,047 to 1,535 (66 percent); and Shea 3,040 to 1,550 (66 percent). In February, Creech announced his resignation with minimal explanation, however members…

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After years of its status as a beacon of opportunity for young people, the city of Seattle is experiencing troublesome migration trends among its millennial population. As highlighted by The Seattle Times, the city is losing its shine for young people concerned about homelessness, property damage and the high cost of living. On April 27, 14-year Seattle resident Alex Berezow penned an Op-Ed to the newspaper expressing his dismay with the current conditions of the city, citing litter, graffiti and homelessness as the major problems contributing to his decision to leave. Berezow’s piece criticizes what he calls self-inflicted wounds caused…

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The clock struck midnight, but what did that mean? The second regular session of the Maine Legislature is supposed to conclude on the third Wednesday in April, or April 18 in 2018 for the 128th Legislature. However, the Maine House of Representatives did not finally adjourn until just shortly after 1:30 a.m. Thursday morning, April 19. In a political game of chicken, the Democratic-led House of Representatives continued to table and indefinitely postpone important issues into the waning moments of the “emergency” session, hoping to call Republican House Minority Leader Ken Fredette’s bluff that his caucus would not vote to…

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Maine still has a chance to fix its broken ballot initiative process this legislative session. In a surprise move, Maine’s House of Representatives passed LD 31 today on a simple majority vote, moving the measure to the Senate for a likely vote tomorrow, April 11. With two-thirds majority votes in both the House and Senate, the bill would appear before Maine voters on the November ballot. LD 31 proposes an amendment to the Maine Constitution that requires petition circulators to collect signatures for ballot initiatives in both of Maine’s congressional districts. The measure would prevent southern Maine from unilaterally imposing its…

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On Monday, April 9, at 1:30 p.m., Maine’s Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs will hold public hearing on LDs 1898 and 1900, two bills that would repeal proficiency-based diploma requirements in Maine. Maine’s proficiency-based diploma law allows districts to employ any method they choose for evaluating proficiency in the eight core content areas and the five guiding principles. It does not require schools to adopt proficiency-based learning systems; it simply mandates that students exhibit proficiency in the required criteria in order to earn a high school diploma. This misunderstanding has been the source of confusion for state…

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If you were pushing one of the largest tax hikes in history on Maine citizens, would you want them to know about it? Would you want them to be able to weigh in on it? Of course you wouldn’t. Because if the Legislature held public hearings on such an idea, there is no question that Mainers, including business owners and everyday citizens, would show up and make their displeasure known. If you thought the disastrous 3 percent surtax that the Maine People’s Alliance tried to saddle Maine with in 2016 was bad, you should be very afraid.  This new proposed tax will…

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Yesterday, Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap announced that “ranked-choice voting can’t occur in June without legislative action.” This was a stunning reversal from his testimony last week when he said, in front of the Maine Advisory Council to the US Commission on Civil Rights, that ranked-choice voting (RCV) would be a “big success come June.” Here we are in March 2018, nearly two years after RCV was passed and just months before a primary election, and nobody in Maine can tell us what voting system we will use in our upcoming elections. It’s a catastrophe. In the June primary,…

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A lot of ink has been spilled detailing the catastrophic consequences of crafting tax policy through public referendum, as left-wing groups in Maine did in 2016 with a 3 percent surtax on high-income Mainers. Passing major legislation without hearings, work sessions, or opportunities for amendment or compromise is a lousy way to make law. But if you thought 2016’s ballot measures were bad, we’ve got a doozy coming down the pike. The latest initiative being pushed by the Maine People’s Alliance would create a massive government program to provide in-home and community support services for disabled and elderly Mainers –…

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The nationwide school walkout scheduled for Wednesday, March 14 at 10 a.m. is not a meaningful civics lesson or a teachable moment for our children. Nor will it provide an open forum for all students to express their political views, despite laws and policies prohibiting this level of activism by students, teachers and administrators during regular school hours. It will, however, compromise the safety of our children and offer yet another glaring example of the lack of impartiality and nonpartisan instruction in our public schools. At its core, the #Enough National School Walkout is political. It spawned from the 2017…

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The Editorial team at the Bangor Daily News (BDN) held onto my recently published Op-Ed just long enough to put out an opposing editorial of their own, one that makes the same meaningless, emotional arguments on child care and offers no long-term solution to Maine’s child care shortage. The BDN attacked LD 1474, a measure that would allow providers to watch more children in their home without a license. In Maine, a person can provide care for only two children before they are required to obtain a license. Most states do not require certification until a provider cares for three…

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Maine’s experimental education model, proficiency-based learning, has received strong pushback in recent weeks from various communities around the state as the Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee considers another year-long delay of the 2012 law.  Students and parents in Scarborough and Lewiston have protested the implementation of proficiency-based policies that they claim are hurting Maine’s future.  In Scarborough, high school principal David Creech abruptly resigned after allegedly being forced out of his job over disagreements with district administration about proficiency-based learning and new school start times. According to the Bangor Daily News, Creech’s lawyer claims Scarborough’s Superintendent, Julie Kukenberger, told Creech…

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The sharing economy, including platforms like Lyft, Uber and Airbnb, present new and unique economic opportunities to the many Mainers who utilize these services. Unfortunately, the Legislature wants to tax these innovative operations out of existence. This session, the Joint Standing Committee on Taxation heard LD 1721, a proposal that would require sellers of online real property rental platforms, such as Airbnb, to register, collect and report sales taxes to the state. The Committee has also moved forward with LD 1805, which contains similar provisions for transient rental platforms. These bills seek to quell competition and prevent the rise of the…

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Maine’s Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services recently held public hearing for a flurry of child care bills that share the same goal — to make child care more accessible and affordable for Maine parents. There’s just one problem; only a few of the bills up for consideration will measurably improve the state of child care in Maine. Overregulating child care providers does not make child care services more affordable or accessible. In fact, overregulation is the problem. Since 2008, Maine has lost 600 providers statewide, with the majority of closures coming in family child care. Over the last…

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One of the few bills making it through Legislative Council this session that actually rises to the emergency threshold outlined in the Maine Constitution is LD 1708, “An Act to Allow Qualifying Medicaid Recipients to Hire Relatives and Legal Guardians for Consumer-directed Attendant Services.” The bill, sponsored by Rep. Patrick Corey, R-Windham, would allow qualifying medicaid recipients to hire spouses and legal guardians as their personal care attendant for in-home care services. Mainers who currently utilize the state’s consumer-directed attendant services have the flexibility to hire some family members as their in-home caregiver. However, federal rules prevent a Medicaid recipient’s…

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Maine employers have been struggling to meet the demands of Question 4 since its passage. The initial swell in 2017 followed by subsequent, one dollar annual increases in the minimum wage has forced employers to recalculate in order to stay afloat. For companies that hire several minimum wage workers, the difference in labor costs is tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars a year. Consider this: A small local grocer has 10 minimum wage workers who work 35 hours a week. From 2016 to 2017, the minimum wage jumped by $1.50. For each hour those 10 minimum wage employees…

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Occupational licensing is intended to safeguard the public from unqualified, incompetent charlatans whose low-quality goods and services put the health and safety of Maine consumers in jeopardy. This level of regulation is necessary for occupations that pose legitimate health and safety risks to the general public. However, rarely are consumers the ones who call on government to license an occupation after receiving low-quality services. Instead, it is often the industry seeking licensure that insists an occupation be regulated by government. Workers wish to be licensed because there is a significant wage premium to be enjoyed by practicing within a licensed…

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In 2016, Maine voters approved Question 4, a measure that incrementally increases Maine’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020 before indexing future wage increases with inflation. However, few voters knew at the time what was buried inside the referendum; the elimination of Maine’s tip credit. The tip credit gives restaurants, which have high expenses and turn minimal profit, the flexibility they need to stay in business. Restaurants pay tipped workers a lower base wage with the expectation that, with tips, a worker’s wages will equate to or surpass the minimum wage. If a worker’s hourly wage does not…

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Legislation in the second session of each Maine Legislature is reserved for the Governor’s bills, budgetary matters and emergency legislation that impacts the health and safety of all Maine citizens. Artivle IV, Part Third, Section 1 of the Maine Constitution says: “The business of the second regular session of the Legislature shall be limited to budgetary matters; legislation in the Governor’s call; legislation of an emergency nature admitted by the Legislature.” What constitutes an emergency? According to the Maine Constitution, “only such measures as are immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health or safety.” Why then, were…

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Every American citizen should have the right to earn a living and the freedom to pursue the profession of his or her choice. However, an individual’s ability to work and provide for their family is often thwarted by government interference in the form of arbitrary and cumbersome occupational licensing laws. Occupational licensing exists as a mechanism for government to promote public health and safety by requiring workers to meet specific requirements before practicing in professions that pose legitimate threats to public safety. These requirements include, but are not limited to, attaining a specific level of educational achievement, amassing experience hours…

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The US House of Representatives passed a concealed carry reciprocity bill on Dec. 6 that requires all states to recognize concealed carry permits issued by other states, enabling US citizens to legally carry concealed weapons across state lines. While most rights we enjoy as US citizens exist no matter where we are in the country, the Second Amendment does not; only a select group of states recognize concealed carry permits issued in other states. While we are supposed to have the right to keep and bear arms, carrying a concealed weapon across state lines is not always legal due to…

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The Portland Press Herald on Sunday, Nov. 26 published an article highlighting recent efforts in Maine to crack down on the black market of counterfeit vehicle inspection stickers. As noted in the article, a group of men in Saco were recently charged for producing and selling fake inspection stickers. Lt. Bruce Scott, who helps oversee Maine’s vehicle inspection program, added the counterfeit stickers from the Saco bust to the “Fake Sticker Hall of Fame,” a board Scott uses to commemorate both the hideous and more authentic counterfeit stickers he and other law enforcement officials have encountered in their years of…

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Maine voters will decide tomorrow at the ballot box whether to expand Medicaid coverage to childless, able-bodied working age adults who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). Luckily, Maine’s past experience with Medicaid expansion provides us with all the evidence we need to reject expansion once more. Leading up to Election Day, proponents of expansion have been using the same worn out talking points they used back in 2002, when Maine expanded Medicaid to those earning up to 125 percent of the FPL. For months now, they’ve been telling you that expansion will be a…

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Lies and deceit continue from the campaign pushing for Medicaid expansion, or Question 2, which would provide health coverage to childless, able-bodied working age adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level at the expense of hardworking, taxpaying Mainers. Maine Equal Justice Partners (MEJP), in conjunction with the Mainers for Health Care and other groups affiliated with the Maine People’s Alliance, has been sponsoring ads in favor of Question 2 on Facebook and other social media platforms for weeks leading up to the election. However, one of their ads caught the attention of a local hospital that…

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The Maine Legislature voted on Monday to delay the implementation of ranked-choice voting until December 2021, meaning ranked-choice voting could not be lawfully applied to an election in Maine until 2022. Lawmakers met for a special session in Augusta and passed committee amendment B on LD 1646, which delays the implementation of the law until 2021 and outright repeals ranked-choice voting if a constitutional amendment is not passed within that timeframe. Proponents of ranked-choice voting continue to assert the Legislature is not “respecting the will” of the voters, but cannot seem to wrap their heads around the impending legal consequences…

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For those who attended or streamed the public hearing for LD 1646, “An Act to Bring Maine’s Ranked-Choice Voting Law into Constitutional Compliance,” on Monday, Oct. 16, proponents of the bill led you to believe that Maine was ready to implement ranked-choice voting. Dozens of campaign volunteers turned out to testify in favor of ranked-choice voting, however they completely overlooked several facets of the law that still conflict with existing statute and the Maine Constitution. So just how bad is Maine’s ranked-choice voting law? According to Julie Flynn, the Deputy Secretary of State, Maine’s citizen-approved ranked-choice voting law needs to…

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A bill to implement ranked-choice voting in Maine, LD 1646, introduced by Kent Ackley, I-Monmouth, received public hearing yesterday at the State House in Augusta. While swaths of proponents, mostly campaign volunteers, turned out to testify in favor of ranked-choice voting, they appeared to misunderstand the bill’s contents and the logistical challenges of implementing ranked-choice voting in Maine. The language of LD 1646 would alter Maine’s voting system by implementing Ranked-Choice Voting in statute for all primary elections, and in the general elections for US Senator and US Representative. This is what makes the implementation of Ranked-Choice Voting so costly…

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The Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs will convene on Monday, Oct. 16 to hold a public hearing on LD 1646, a bill that attempts to bring Maine’s voter-approved ranked-choice voting law into compliance with the state constitution. Maine’s ranked-choice voting measure, Question 5 on the November 2016 ballot, was approved by 52 percent of Maine voters. The Maine Heritage Policy Center joined House and Senate Republicans earlier this year in submitting an amicus brief to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, calling on the high court for an advisory ruling concerning the constitutionality of ranked-choice voting in Maine. Because ranked-choice…

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If you (and your wallet) are fed up with progressive tax-and-spend ballot initiatives, don’t expect them to end any time soon. The Maine People’s Alliance (MPA) announced on Wednesday its newest campaign to raise taxes on top earners and small businesses. The Portland Press Herald reports the group is looking to gather the necessary 61,123 signatures required to move a citizens’ initiative onto the November 2018 ballot. The ballot question would fund in-home care services for people older than 65 and the disabled, regardless of income. It would be funded by imposing a new payroll tax on workers who earn…

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As the debate continues to rage in Congress over the final push to repeal and replace Obamacare, Maine has been targeted as a key state by both proponents and opponents, due to Senator Susan Collins’ status as a key vote on the bill. Opponents, which include several political action committees and special interest groups dedicated to maintaining the status quo in healthcare, have been running ads on television and radio for months, urging Collins to stand against reform. Proponents, including Vice President Mike Pence who joined Portland’s WGAN Morning News on Tuesday morning to stump for the bill, have…

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In July, the city of Sanford enacted a rental registry program that has local landlords at odds with city officials. The ordinance, which requires all rental units and vacant buildings be registered with the city, is filled with unlawful provisions that violate the Fourth Amendment rights of Sanford citizens. Under the ordinance, landlords are required to pay a fee for registering each rental unit they own, and no dwellings in Sanford can be rented out without first being registered with the city. The structure of the fee system is as follows: (1)    $100 for a single family property; (2)    $200…

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After accepting feedback from Maine citizens throughout a 30-day public comment period, Democratic Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap made minuscule changes to the ballot language of Question 2, which would expand Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, in Maine. The Maine Heritage Policy Center (MHPC) sent a detailed letter to Dunlap on Aug. 22 highlighting the organization’s suggested changes to the ballot language, proposed with the intent of giving Maine people a transparent view of what the measure entails. MHPC specifically requested that Dunlap make an honest effort to articulately spell out exactly what service is being…

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Sen. Eric Brakey received the endorsement of former Maine Senate President and Maine Republican Party chairman Rick Bennett on Thursday. Brakey is running for the U.S. Senate against independent incumbent Sen. Angus King. “Over the last several years, I’ve had a front row seat to watch Eric Brakey’s dynamic work in the Maine Senate,” Bennett said. “Bringing Republicans and Democrats together in divided government, Senator Brakey has negotiated the passage of Welfare Reform, restored our 2nd Amendment rights with Constitutional Carry, and consistently put the people of Maine ahead of special interest groups on both sides.” Brakey, a libertarian leaning…

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Two leading conservative lawmakers, Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason of Lisbon and House Minority Leader Ken Fredette of Newport, are setting their sights on the Blaine House, according to multiple media reports. The Portland Press Herald reported Wednesday morning Fredette has scheduled a 10 a.m. press conference at his law offices to announce his campaign for the Republican nomination for governor. Fredette is known for his loyalty to the party and outgoing Gov. Paul LePage, helping keep the Republican caucus in check to sustain a number of LePage’s vetoes over the years. A lawyer and member of the Air National…

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Residents of Paris, Maine exited their homes on Aug. 18 in the humid summer heat to discover a peculiar flyer inside their mailboxes – one that appeared to have originated from the local fire department. At the top of the mailer were headshots of Scott Buffington and Rick Little, two public figures in the local community who chair the Paris Board of Selectmen and Budget Committee, respectively. The heavy cardstock handout accused the two men of “playing politics with public safety,” and was riddled with misinformation regarding the town’s decision to reassess its fire safety needs. The mailer partially reads,…

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There is not a group of like-minded thinkers as counterproductive as liberals. With grand ideas like Medicaid expansion (which did nothing to reduce Maine’s uninsured rate, boost the economy or end charity care at Maine hospitals), it’s no surprise that a liberal group in Portland is pushing for rent control; a policy that has long been debunked for its fruitless outcomes. The group, which calls themselves “Fair Rent Portland,” was established to ensure a local ballot initiative enacting rent stabilization policies finds its way before city voters in November. The housing activists secured enough signatures to move the initiative onto…

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On Wednesday, the editorial board at the Wall Street Journal penned an enlightening piece that critically examines the traditional Medicaid program, Medicaid expansion and impact of the program on the nation’s growing opioid crisis. Proponents of Medicaid paint a rosy picture about expansion; it boosts economies, reduces the uninsured rate, ends charity care at hospitals and saves lives. As Maine knows from its dysfunctional experiment with Medicaid expansion in 2002, none of these claims are true. The newest claim by expansion proponents is that widening Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act, or ObamaCare, will cure opioid addiction and end…

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It’s imperative that government spends public funds in the best interest of its citizens. With this in mind, the people of Maine should have many issues with the upcoming ballot initiative to expand Medicaid expansion. Expanding Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or ObamaCare, means that taxpayers will be subsidizing health care coverage for able-bodied, childless adults between the ages of 21 and 64 who are not impoverished, as well as noncitizens 21 and under. Traditional Medicaid, which is offered to low-income children, pregnant women and the disabled, exists to provide health care coverage to those who are…

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The Office of Fiscal and Program Review released the fiscal note for the Medicaid expansion referendum Maine voters will consider this November. The one-page summary of the ballot initiative’s impact projects an annual appropriation from Maine’s General Fund of roughly $54.5 million and estimates that expansion will save approximately $27 million annually within existing programs. Expanding Medicaid in Maine will provide government subsidized health insurance to able-bodied, childless adults between the ages of 21 and 64 earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. The measure also covers noncitizens 21 and under. Proponents of Medicaid expansion claim that…

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This November, Maine voters will be asked whether they want to expand Medicaid eligibility to able-bodied, childless adults between the ages of 21 and 64 who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). In 2002, under Governor Angus King, Maine expanded Medicaid eligibility to childless adults earning up to 125 percent of the FPL. This move was supposed to boost Maine’s economy, reduce the uninsured rate, end charity care at Maine hospitals and improve the health care system for every Mainer. However, none of these claims came to fruition, and unfortunately, the same arguments are being…

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Proponents of Medicaid expansion often assert that expansion insures more people and leads to a healthier population. As Maine knows from its trial with expansion in 2002, the reality of Medicaid expansion is quite the opposite. Maine’s uninsured rate did not measurably decline after expansion in 2002, nor did our people become healthier. What’s even more troubling is what Medicaid expansion does to traditional Medicaid enrollees. Expansion covers able-bodied, childless adults ages 21 to 64 with earnings up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL), but traditional Medicaid covers our most vulnerable citizens – low-income children, pregnant women,…

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After Question 4 passed at the ballot box last November, an organization called the Restaurant Workers of Maine was formed. The group, comprised of restaurant owners, servers, bartenders and other food service staff, was created to fight back against the Maine People’s Alliance (MPA) and labor union interests that threatened their livelihoods. Many Mainers did not know that a vote in favor of raising the minimum wage was also a vote for removing the state’s tip credit, which allows Maine’s full-service restaurants to pay tipped workers half of the state’s minimum wage, understanding that the bulk of their earnings will…

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The Maine Legislature voted to override Governor Paul LePage’s veto of LD 1170 on Wednesday, raising the legal age to purchase tobacco in Maine from 18 to 21, before adjourning until next session. Proponents of the measure claim that it will save lives and reduce smoking rates, but Maine’s tobacco use rates, much like the rest of the country, have been on the decline in recent years. Additionally, Maine was given a 95.52 percent compliance rating from the FDA, the second highest in the country, in enforcing existing laws that prevent the sale of tobacco to minors. The Bangor Daily…

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An important bill offering ballot initiative reform will be reconsidered by the Senate on Wednesday in what will be Maine’s last chance during the first session of the 128th Legislature to enact meaningful ballot initiative reform. This type of reform is certainly necessary after the Maine Legislature and Maine Supreme Judicial Court, in one way or another, altered all four measures approved by Maine voters in 2016. The initiatives were overreaching and funded by out-of-state liberal interest groups intentionally using Maine as their guinea pig. Our elected officials truly had no choice.   The bill the Senate will revisit, LD…

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The Maine Heritage Policy Center (MHPC) released its newest original research report, Reject Medicaid Expansion, on Monday morning during a press conference at the Holiday Inn in Portland. The report highlights the harmful consequences of expanding Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as ObamaCare, which will cost Maine taxpayers $400 million over the next five years and jeopardize care for Maine’s truly neediest citizens. When Maine expanded its Medicaid program in 2002 under then-Governor Angus King, expansion proponents made many beneficial claims about the effect it would have on the state. MHPC tested these claims by…

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Dedicating more public funds to a government program is not a measure of successful policy. It never has been, and it never will be. Success is measured by outcomes, not dollars. James Myall, a policy analyst at the Maine Center for Economic Policy (MECEP), recently released a blog post on MECEP’s website that asserts expanding Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as ObamaCare, would “tackle” Maine’s opioid crisis. Maine voters will choose whether to expand Medicaid at the ballot box in November. In the post, Myall criticizes Maine for the state’s 21 percent decline, a little…

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According to Gov. Paul LePage and his administration, the state of Maine has finished the fiscal year, ending on June 30, with a $111 million surplus. The announcement came just days after the Portland Press Herald scolded the governor for making Maine taxpayers foot the bill for a mere $35,000 spent on several trips to Washington DC, where LePage met with members of President Trump’s cabinet and other lawmakers to discuss healthcare reforms. The administration plans on sending $36.8 million of that total to the Budget Stabilization Fund, formerly known as the Rainy Day Fund, and $9.4 million will be…

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Gov. Paul LePage vetoed two overreaching proposals on Tuesday, blasting the bills as attempts at “social engineering” society in Maine. One of the bills, LD 1170, would raise the legal age to purchase tobacco in Maine from 18 to 21. The other, LD 1089, would ban the use of hand-held devices while operating a vehicle. While both measures passed the legislature with bipartisan support, the Governor’s vetoes have been well-received by the people of Maine, regardless of party ideology, understanding that government doesn’t need to make decisions for responsible adults. Despite the bills having well-intentioned components to improve public health…

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An important bill offering ballot initiative reform was voted down in the Senate on Thursday after Senate Democrats blocked the measure, helping fellow Democrat Sen. Ben Chipman, of Portland, continue lining his pockets in Southern Maine. The bill, LD 31, would require petitioners gather signatures in both of Maine’s congressional districts. The number of signatures collected in each district cannot be less than 10 percent of the total votes cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election. After failing in the Senate, the bill went back to the House where it passed 107-25. Currently, organizing groups need only the…

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Since being sworn into office in 2011, Gov. Paul LePage has taken necessary steps to get Maine’s fiscal house in order and helped foster a more welcoming environment for business, significantly improving the condition of the state’s economy. In fact, LePage’s administration has taken fiscal responsibility to a whole new level in Maine. In February, the Bangor Daily News reported that the Governor’s “rigid fiscal discipline” resulted in an all-time record for the amount of money in the state’s cash pool, reaching a mark of $1 billion. Additionally, LePage helped grow Maine’s budget stabilization fund, or rainy day fund, to…

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Democrats can pretend to have made out like bandits in budget negotiations, but it’s no enigma who truly won the showdown. The Republicans, in lockstep with Gov. Paul LePage, succeeded in eliminating the surtax imposed by Question 2 and controlled negotiations throughout the process. This is because Republicans made the first moves. LePage released his biennial budget in January, and conservative legislators were on record saying they’d accept nothing less than full repeal of the surtax by the time their counterparts released a “budget” in April. Then, House speaker Sara Gideon conceded on June 7 that liberals were willing to…

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There are numerous anecdotal reasons that conservatives oppose raising the minimum wage. Doing so increases labor costs for companies, which has a plethora of negative impacts on workers and employers. New hires can be postponed, hours scaled back and workers let go of, all due in large part to the “quick fix” of increasing the minimum wage. Many left leaning groups push for minimum wage increases because they believe it will lead to wage growth and even out the income disparity between the dreaded 1-percenters and those at the bottom of the food chain. So, whose perspective is backed by…

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Health care is perhaps the most complex and contentious issue being debated throughout Maine and the country today. At the national level, the Republican-led House and Senate have both offered their own repeal and replacement plans for ObamaCare, which are facing stark opposition from the liberal left. In Maine, conservative leaders have battled rigidly to enact crucial reforms of our state’s healthcare system like Direct Primary Care and the Right to Shop, while their counterparts in Augusta continue to advocate for and obstruct political progress. Among individual citizens, discourse continues over the perception of health care in our society –…

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Maine Democrats want welfare dollars, collected from the hardworking taxpayers of Maine, to be spent outside of our state. Maine welfare dollars have been used in purchases throughout the entire country, as well as the Virgin Islands and Guam. Between 2011 and 2015, Maine taxpayers paid for $65 million in out-of-state welfare spending. Since 2011, Maine welfare recipients have spent $3.7 million in Florida, $5.2 million in Massachusetts and over $1 million in New York and Connecticut. Additionally, a Sun Journal report published in 2014 found that 365,000 electronic benefit transfer (EBT) transactions were made outside of Maine in 2013…

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Due to the hard work and dedication of a number of conservative leaders across the state, Maine recently enacted a major reform of its healthcare system that will reduce costs and enhance competition in the market. Gov. Paul LePage signed into law on Monday a bill that gives Maine citizens the “Right to Shop” for a variety of medical services, saving money for both consumers and insurers. LD 445, sponsored by Sen. Rod Whittemore, R-Somerset, requires health insurance companies offer plans that allow patients to shop for comparable services and provides incentive for them to peruse the healthcare market for…

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Where is the accountability in Augusta? Lawmakers agreed on Tuesday to establish a special committee designed to formulate a bipartisan budget agreement by the June 30 deadline in order to avoid government shutdown. The next fiscal year starts on July 1. For Republicans, Senate President Mike Thibodeau, Sen. Roger Katz and Rep. Tom Winsor will lead negotiations, while House Speaker Sara Gideon, Sen. Cathy Breen and Rep. Aaron Frey will represent Democrats in the budget dealings. While these leaders will likely come to an agreement in time to keep state government open, the move to appoint a committee to tackle…

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The Restaurant Workers of Maine received a major victory Tuesday when the Maine House gave initial approval to LD 673, a bill that would reinstate the tip credit in Maine. The tipped wage was eliminated through the passage of Question 4, which raises Maine’s standard minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020. The procedural vote on the bill sponsored by Sen. Roger Katz, R-Kennebec, passed 110-37 in the House, one week after the Senate approved the measure 23-12. Under the law, owners will once again be able to pay tipped workers half of the minimum wage hourly and will…

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Maine voters narrowly passed Question 5, the Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) initiative, last November, and the proposal has encountered turbulence since gaining voter approval. Maine House Republicans, along with the Maine Heritage Policy Center, filed a joint brief with Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court earlier this year contending the constitutionality of RCV. The Republican-led Senate also submitted a “solemn occasion” request calling for a judgment from the high court on the validity of the measure. Many Democrats criticized Question 5 as well. Attorney General Janet Mills and Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap outlined their concerns with RCV before the November vote, and…

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Leave it to the editorial team at the Bangor Daily News to constantly promote the liberal agenda by misrepresenting facts and pushing false narratives to their readers. They did so a handful of times on the tip credit issue that consumed Augusta much of this legislative session. Now they’ve transitioned to education, where the logical grounding of their argument is just as unstable. I feel I am beginning to sound like a broken record, but without these tactics, I fear they would not sell papers. The BDN published an editorial on June 6 criticizing Maine House and Senate Republicans for…

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Mary Mayhew, former commissioner of Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services, announced her candidacy for governor Tuesday morning on news radio stations WVOM and WGAN. Mayhew, who left DHHS on May 24, seeks to replace outgoing Republican Gov. Paul LePage, the man who appointed her to head the state’s most complex and controversial unit of state government, in 2018. During her time as commissioner, Mayhew spearheaded many of the welfare reforms enacted by the LePage administration, including a 60-month lifetime limit on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds and the reimplementation of asset tests under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance…

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During his first term in the legislature, Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason, R-Androscoggin, spearheaded legislation that established the first charter schools in Maine, providing alternative choices for students looking for alternative and innovative approaches to education. When he and conservatives in Augusta pushed to implement the law enabling charter schools in Maine in 2011, they were operating under a “go-slow, pilot program,” according to Mason.  To ensure the new system had proper oversight and was adequately serving student needs, the original law applies a cap that restricts the state from approving more than 10 charter schools. The cap was included…

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If at first you don’t succeed, try, and try again… with all of the money and misinformation you can accumulate. Maine voters faced a record number of lofty, liberal ballot initiatives in 2016, many of which were plagued with harmful economic consequences and questionable constitutionality. They were measures that our real lawmakers, the Maine Legislature, hadn’t previously enacted because they did not have the support of the Maine people. A frequent call from their playbook, liberal organizations drew up far-reaching initiatives and sold them to Maine voters with deceiving slogans, like “education equality regardless of zip code” from Question 2,…

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Maine voters faced a number of far-reaching ballot initiatives last November, including Question 5, which enacted Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) in Maine after passing with 52 percent of the vote. As we said from the start, Question 5 was unconstitutional and would need review by Maine’s high court before implementation. Maine’s Supreme Judicial Court confirmed that position Tuesday, siding with Maine conservatives in a unanimous, 44-page decision that found the measure unconstitutional due to conflicts with the Maine Constitution. The decision comes in response to the Maine Senate’s submission of a “solemn occasion” request, seeking judgment from the court on the…

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If your car is less than 12 years old, you may be saving money in the near future. Rep. Richard Cebra, R-Naples, has submitted a bill at the request of Gov. Paul LePage that would alter Maine’s vehicle inspection program. The bill, LD 1523, amends state law by exempting cars less than 12 years old from annual inspections. Maine’s first vehicle inspection laws were enacted 87 years ago and have done little to improve safety or provide tangible public benefits. Six major studies have been conducted on motor vehicle inspection programs since 1990, and none of them found statistically significant…

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Policy creation should always be rooted in factual information and statistics. This is the only way we have a shot at determining the efficacy of a law prior to its passage. That is why it is so important that policy makers have accurate information on which they base their decisions. Without this, legislators would vote the party line and become ideological puppets (I suppose one could argue many already have). However, Maine liberals don’t want policy based on facts and logic. They want to tug at your heartstrings and make far-reaching claims to persuade you into bad policy decisions. I…

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When the Maine Clean Elections Act (MCEA) was passed in 1996, it had noble intentions. Maine has a long history of a citizen legislature, and the law aimed to help ordinary people with no political experience run for office. It was also supposed to make races more competitive and reduce the influence of private donors in Maine elections. However, 20 years have passed, and none of these goals have been achieved. Now, the Maine Legislature is considering a bill, LD 126, which would save Maine taxpayers a sizeable amount of their hard-earned money from being spent on elections. The bill, sponsored…

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In August 2016, during the week celebrating the National Park Service’s 100th anniversary, former President Barack Obama designated the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, an 87,500-acre parcel encompassing the Penobscot River’s East Branch and a portion of Maine’s North Woods. The designation came despite emphatic opposition from neighboring towns and state officials. Through executive order, Obama designated the monument after notable Maine businesswoman Roxanne Quimby donated 70,000 acres of land east of Baxter State Park to the federal government. Quimby and her son, Lucas St. Clair, through a private foundation called Elliotsville Plantation Inc., had been acquiring lands for…

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My faith in government was restored yesterday when the Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee (LCRED) voted 11-2 in favor of LD 673, a bill that would reinstate the tip credit in Maine. After a marathon public hearing dominated by restaurant workers and a month of deliberation, the LCRED committee came to a bipartisan agreement to overturn the provision in Question 4 that abolished the tip credit in Maine last November. The agreement includes requiring restaurant owners implement a number protections for their tipped workers, however many of the supplemental conditions already exist under state and federal laws. Additionally,…

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It’s a busy and important day for conservatives in Augusta, where the Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development (LCRED) Committee and Taxation Committee will be holding work sessions on a number of bills that would roll back provisions in Questions 2 and 4 passed by Maine voters last November. The Taxation Committee will be holding work sessions on LD 337 and 571, which both aim to eliminate the 3 percent surtax on incomes earned over $200,000 to fund k-12 public education in Maine. As a result of Question 2, Maine now has the second highest tax rate in the country,…

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Gov. Paul LePage announced late Monday he has filed a lawsuit in Kennebec County Superior Court against Maine Attorney General Janet Mills. LePage alleges Mills has abused her power by refusing to legally represent LePage and the Executive Branch in federal cases. LePage claims that Mills has repeatedly declined representing his administration in lawsuits that do not align with Mills’ political view, forcing LePage to seek outside counsel at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars to Maine taxpayers. “It is no secret that Attorney General Mills and I have differing political views, but that is not the issue,”…

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I hate it when partisan hacks stink up my Sunday morning news programs. Ironically, this weekend it was Maine’s “Independent” U.S. Sen. Angus King who stole the show. Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” for a segment on bipartisanship, Sen. King offered nothing but liberal talking points in response to all of host Chuck Todd’s inquiries. Understandably featured in the segment was Maine’s 20-year veteran Senator, Republican Susan Collins, who for the fourth consecutive year topped a bipartisan index that measures the frequency at which U.S. Senators sponsor and co-sponsor bills from the other side of the aisle. Like many,…

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He strikes again. Mike Tipping, the communications director of the Maine People’s Alliance (MPA), may be the king of tweeting with minimal context. On April 24, Tipping sounded off in response to a tweet by a WMTW political reporter asking viewers how much annual income one must earn to be considered “wealthy” in Maine. Tipping’s tweet cited a visual created by the Maine Center of Economic Policy (MECEP) that showed Maine’s top earners are still paying a lower marginal tax rate than middle-income Mainers after the passage of Question 2 last November. It was incredibly emblematic of the shoot first,…

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The owner of Ahram Halal Market on Forest Avenue in Portland and his brother were charged Tuesday with conspiring to defraud the United States of tens of thousands of dollars in welfare benefits intended to help struggling families. In October 2016, the conservative news site LifeZette.com broke the story of Ali Ratib Daham and his brother, Abdulkareem Daham, who were being investigated by the FBI after Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services found an unusual number of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) redemptions at their Portland store. An investigation into the store found that WIC redemptions also increased exponentially,…

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Maine needs to enact common sense reforms of its welfare system. The public funds we devote to lifting our struggling neighbors out of poverty must be used appropriately to reach the end results we seek. Gov. Paul LePage and his Department of Health and Human Services under Commissioner Mary Mayhew have taken many steps in the right direction, but there’s more the Maine Legislature can do to stop unfettered spending that disincentivizes work, breeds vulnerability and harms Maine taxpayers. Maine welfare dollars have been spent in every single state, as well as the Virgin Islands and Guam. Between 2011 and…

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While liberals ridicule Gov. Paul LePage’s stance on school regionalization, the real issues plaguing Maine’s public school system get lost in the fray. They are the troubles seemingly too tough to tackle, but real discourse is only being offered from one side of the aisle, and it all starts by asking the right questions: Why are public school costs rising when enrollment is down? What causes costs to increase? What percent of public funds actually make it into the classroom? What percent of public funds go to direct instruction and resources for students? Is the current system working for Maine…

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“Consulting” with the Maine Ethics Commission prior to engaging in unethical behavior does not save one from being culpable for ethical wrongdoings. This we know is true. So, when will the ethics woes end for Maine Democrats? Adam Goode, the former Bangor lawmaker turned union lobbyist, has been in hot water over the last month after Rep. Sheldon Hanington, R-Lincoln, called on the Maine Ethics Commission to conduct a full investigation into his lobbying practices. Hanington and other lawmakers are concerned Goode is violating an ethics law that bars former lawmakers from serving as paid lobbyists for a period of…

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There’s nothing more enjoyable as a constituent than seeing your elected officials keep their word. Last July, I attended the Maine Heritage Policy Center’s Milton Friedman Legacy Day Luncheon in Portland. Speaking at the event was my state senator, Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason, R-Androscoggin, who promised to continue championing school choice in Maine. Sure enough, Mason kept his word. Mason has introduced legislation that would remove the cap on the number of charter schools that can operate in Maine. As a result, Maine could invest in additional charter schools, and students across the state could benefit from enhanced school…

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After facing a number of referendums last November with questionable constitutionality, one state senator is looking to prevent such questions from being posed to Maine voters. Republican Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Androscoggin, submitted legislation this week that would amend the Maine State Constitution and prevent unconstitutional referendum questions from appearing on Maine ballots. The bill, LD 1411, would establish a process whereby Maine’s governor, attorney general, state legislature, or five-hundred citizens could request an opinion from Maine’s Supreme Court on the constitutionality of a proposed referendum question. If deemed unconstitutional by the court through majority vote, Maine’s secretary of state would…

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I was in awe Wednesday morning. Just after 8 a.m., the halls of the Burton M. Cross Building began filling up with hundreds of Maine restaurant workers preparing for public hearings on a flurry of bills that would roll back provisions in Question 4 and reinstate the tip credit. They all wanted a chance to tell their story and push back against the out of touch Maine People’s Alliance and the union interests that threaten their livelihoods. I’m no regular in Augusta, but I’ve never seen anything like it. The place was packed, and the grassroots organized Restaurant Workers of…

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The Maine People’s Alliance (MPA) is looking more like a gaggle of used car salesmen these days. After grassroots activists established the Restaurant Workers of Maine group to push back against the removal of Maine’s tip credit, MPA activists have been on the defensive, attempting to sell their excrement-laden referendum question in the media to Mainers already experiencing buyer’s remorse. The tip credit is being phased out as a result of Question 4’s passage last November, which incrementally increases Maine’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020 and indexes future wage hikes with inflation. Included in the referendum was…

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Potential ethics violations are piling up for Democrats in Augusta. Earlier this week, Rep. Sheldon Hanington, R-Lincoln, submitted a letter to the Maine Ethics Commission calling for an investigation into former Rep. Adam Goode, D-Bangor, for illegal lobbying work he has engaged in during this legislative session. Goode, who formerly served as chair of the Taxation Committee in the 127th Legislature, is accused of violating a law that prohibits former state legislators from serving as paid lobbyists for one year after their service ends. The statute, passed unanimously by the Maine Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Paul LePage,…

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Gov. Paul LePage and Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew introduced on Tuesday the Welfare Reform for Increased Security and Employment Act, or RISE Act, which would solidify many of LePage’s executive actions on welfare reform into state law. The RISE Act, according to LePage and Republican colleagues, would enhance the work requirements to receive welfare funds, deter fraud of the system and lead to less overall entitlement spending in Maine. “These reforms have restored confidence in Maine’s welfare system for the taxpayers who fund them. An able-bodied, 30-year-old man without kids should not be able to…

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Nearly two weeks after nixing a House Ethics Committee review of Rep. Ryan Tipping’s ongoing ethics scandal, Democratic Speaker of the House Sara Gideon has amped up her defense of the Orono lawmaker, threatening to leak information regarding Republican ethics violations to the press, according to numerous sources in the House Republican Caucus. On Tuesday, the Republican caucus convened and was told by party leadership that Gideon had informed them that Democrats would “dig up and reveal ethics violations” on Republicans if they didn’t drop the Tipping scandal. Tipping has been in hot water over the last month for failing…

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Despite recent controversy surrounding its House Chair, the Joint Standing Committee on Taxation is forging ahead. The Maine Republican Party erupted in outrage last month after learning that Rep. Ryan Tipping, D-Orono, was co-chairing the committee after failing to accurately disclose $9,000 in payments he received from the Citizens Who Support Maine’s Public Schools PAC for supporting Question 2. Tipping received these funds while serving on the Education Committee last session, but was then chosen by Democratic leadership to chair the Taxation Committee in the 128th Legislature. Now, after accepting these funds as a Clean Elections candidate and failing to…

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The Maine People’s Alliance is the state’s lone defender of a provision in Question 4 that removed the tip credit last November. Now, the Maine Legislature, answering the call of thousands employed in Maine’s food service industry, readies its aim to reinstate the tip credit into Maine labor law.  Luckily for Maine’s food service industry, the process to repeal a key component of Question 4 is underway in Augusta. Sen. Roger Katz, R-Kennebec, has sponsored LD 673, a bill to undo a portion of Question 4, passed in November, by reinstating the tip credit in Maine. The state’s tip credit…

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If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. Someone should relay this message to Rep. Ryan Tipping, D-Orono, who is up to his ears in a mess he alone created. For the last several weeks, the Maine GOP has been shouting from the rooftops in Augusta that Tipping is entangled in a potential conflict of interest regarding campaign work he engaged in last November and his current post as House Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Taxation. During the last election cycle, as a member of the Education Committee, Tipping accepted $9,000 in payment from a PAC called…

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Despite mild political turbulence in Augusta early this session, a Republican State Senator has proposed a common sense reform of the state’s Clean Election system that members of both parties can get behind. Ron Collins, R-York, has sponsored a bill that would disallow taxpayer money funding Clean Elections candidates from being used on post-election parties and events. LD 408, “An Act To Prohibit Taxpayer-funded Campaign Expenditures from Being Used on Post-election Parties,” was sent to the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee for consideration and a hearing was held on Monday regarding the legislation. Under current law, candidates who qualify for…

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Few things are more enjoyable than watching liberals eat their talking points. Prior to Paul LePage’s gubernatorial run and victory in 2011, Maine liberals wanted us to believe that there was no active fraud or abuse of Maine’s  welfare system, and that every last penny in the program was being spent on struggling Mainers who truly needed our support. What a load of hooey. As we’ve learned now, after years of careful inspection and oversight of our state’s welfare system, this simply isn’t true. While Democrats bombastically attacked LePage over the years for targeting low-income Mainers, his administration got to…

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Gov. Paul LePage released his $6.8 billion biennial budget proposal Friday, which calls for the elimination the death tax, 500 state-level jobs, overall reduced government spending and the transition to a flat income tax rate of 5.75 percent by 2020. Along with cutting 500 jobs in state government, the budget proposes statutory limits on government growth and spending, coupled with a vacancy study to further reduce the state government workforce. Evident in the proposal is LePage’s desire to continue reducing the burden on Maine taxpayers, which he offers to tackle by abolishing the death tax and restructuring Maine’s income tax.…

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Vice President-elect Mike Pence visited with House GOP lawmakers on Wednesday morning to discuss President-elect Donald Trump’s first moves in the Oval Office, including a plan to repeal ObamaCare by Feb. 20. The date was put forth by incoming House Budget Committee Chairman Diane Black (R-Tenn.). Pence announced during a press conference Wednesday morning that the Trump Administration’s first order of business will be to follow through on the important campaign promise of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare. Through both executive action and legislation, Trump and GOP lawmakers aim to dismantle the healthcare law…

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The recounts for Questions 1 and 2 are almost ready to begin, but there is no significant hope for either opposition campaign in seeing the results of the Nov. 8 election overturned. According to an article in the Portland Press Herald, Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap says that the recounts (which could cost up to $500,000 to complete, even while done simultaneously) are “unlikely” to change the outcomes from election night, as Maine’s election results have been accurate historically. Unofficial tallies from the Secretary of State’s office show that Question 1, the initiative to legalize marijuana in Maine, passed by…

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It is day seven into Trump’s America, yet the sky hasn’t fallen. In fact, the world looks much as it did before Election Day. There was no shortage of scandal or mudslinging in the campaigns leading up to Nov. 8, but the current reality is that America has chosen its candidate, and it is time to move forward for the good of the nation. Well, that depends on who you ask. Since news of Trump’s victory broke around 3 a.m. Wednesday morning, thousands of millennial snowflakes have taken to the streets, rioting, burning the American flag and chanting “F— Trump!”…

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After months of constant repetition across all forms of media, political advertisements truly become unbearable this time of year. Those who reside in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District must be fed up by now with the non-stop marketing of Bruce Poliquin and Emily Cain. The unadulterated negativity pushed by PACs and other organizations involved in that race have driven me inches closer to insanity up here in Orono. The good news is that I am not alone. People in other areas of the state are experiencing these troubles too, but from a source projecting attacks even more malicious in nature, but…

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Maine’s citizen’s initiative process promotes civic engagement and gives every day Mainers a direct participatory role in our democracy. Over the years, however, this process has been abused by out of state plutocrats who target Maine and dump unfathomable amounts of cash into these races from start to finish. In this regard, consider the 2016 cycle an utter onslaught. Among the substandard ballot initiatives this cycle is Question 2, which intends to impose a three percent surtax on incomes earned over $200,000 to fund K-12 public education. This initiative, its supporters claim, will end funding disparities between school districts and…

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As many may have seen, this week the Cato Institute published their 13th biennial report on fiscal policy of US governors, grading their taxing and spending records on an academic scale. Scoring highest in the report with an A grading was Maine Gov. Paul LePage, making him the most fiscally responsible governor in the country. LePage was one of just five governors in the nation to receive the highest possible mark in the report. The report “examines state budget actions since 2014… Governors who have cut taxes and spending the most receive the highest grades, while those who have increased…

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As if it comes as any surprise, there is something remarkably hypocritical about a stance many liberals running for re-election in Maine are taking on a particular ballot question this year. Question 2, known as the “Stand Up for Students” referendum, would impose a three percent surtax on household incomes earned over $200,000 to “fund public education” in Maine. In other words, Question 2 creates an additional three percent tax on earned income in our state, which was already taxed at the tenth highest rate in the nation in 2015. With top earners in Maine facing a tax rate of…

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