Author: John Andrews

The following is a speech given by Rep. John Andrews (R-Paris) for Maine Taxpayers United. It is republished here with permission. Today is tax day and in a perfect world tomorrow would be election day. Maybe then voters in Maine would stop electing politicians who can’t even make a commitment to return surplus tax money to the people from whom it was confiscated in the first place. In Maine, it seems that every penny of tax money taken must be spent and every unnecessary pet project must be funded when tax and spend liberals control the levers of power in…

With apologies to the Bard, there’s something rotten in Augusta. This is my fifth legislative session in the start of my third term. I have seen things get progressively worse and more partisan over the last five years. What I saw this week was a complete breakdown of trust and a small flame of growing bipartisanship stamped out by the jackboot of one-party rule. If that wasn’t enough, the week ended with a Proclamation from the Governor that spirals Maine in a constitutional crisis. Democrats have complete and total control of the House and Senate in Augusta. They control Blaine…

Recently the SAD 17 school district in western Maine, my kid’s school district, tried to enact a policy based on transgender ideology. The bulk of this policy involved five pages of authoritarian mandates using the imperative command of ‘Shall’ thirty-three times in 5 pages. If that wasn’t bad enough, the real reason for this policy was only a few lines that you would have missed if you weren’t looking. The actual objective of this unnecessary policy was to take away a parent’s right to know what is going on with their child during school hours. The goal of this policy…

Yesterday, the first legislative day of the second session of the 130th Legislature, majority Democrats moved to return to remote work, at least through January and most likely longer than that. It’s important to note that Maine is no longer under a state of civil emergency declared by the chief executive, Governor Janet Mills. Before yesterday’s action, there was no active statute or resolution in place allowing all public proceedings of the second session to be conducted remotely, despite Democrat leaders saying last month that’s the way it would be this session. The statute that previously allowed for remote legislative…

This week, my legislative colleagues on the Taxation Committee held a public hearing on my bill to reform Maine’s income tax code; LD 1369, “An Act To Provide Stimulus for Economic Recovery by Enacting a Flat 5 Percent Flat Income Tax.” The bill does exactly what the title suggests: It would eliminate the three income tax brackets that currently exist in Maine and replace them with a single, flat 5% rate. To be clear, times are tough for Maine businesses and workers, and many are struggling to make ends meet. Maine’s tax brackets currently go from 5.8% to 6.75%, to…

“Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you.” – George Orwell, “1984” My colleagues on the Maine Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee held a public hearing Monday on LD 1278, a bill that I am co-sponsoring with Republicans, Democrats and Independents to end the Maine Information Analysis Center Program. The year may be 2021, but we continue to find ourselves moving towards a perpetual Orwellian 1984. The Maine Information and Analysis Center is evidence of that. Americans…

On Saturday evening, the Republican leaders in the House and Senate, with the backing of their caucus, sent a letter to the presiding officers of the Maine House and Senate urging them to bring the legislature back for a special session. Only these officers, Senate President Troy Jackson and House Speaker Sara Gideon (or the governor) can call the legislature into a special session. For the good of the state and future generations, they must. Before adjourning in March, the legislature granted Governor Mills limited emergency powers with the passage of LD 2167. These included executive authority over election and…

This piece was first published in the Sun Journal. “We will develop a world-class workforce. Fewer than half of Maine adults now hold a postsecondary credential – either a college degree or a professional certification. Yet two out of three jobs require such credentials. This imbalance is why we have — at the same time — employers saying they can’t find workers, and workers saying that they are stuck in dead-end jobs…Attracting talented young people to move here and make Maine their home will be a top priority of my Administration.” -Governor Mills’ Inaugural Address Maine is the oldest state…

I have sponsored LD 665, “An Act to Enact the Campus Free Expression Act” this session to codify into state law protections of our natural right to free speech for all current and future students on public college and university campuses in Maine. Natural rights are those most basic rights which are innate to humankind and do not need government to exist. Man created government to secure and protect these rights. They are the foundation of our civilization and representative democracy. As Thomas Paine explained in “The Rights of Man”, “Man did not enter into society to become worse than…

Our founders established a system of checks and balances designed to protect everyone, especially minorities, from the tyranny of the majority. It is a result of comprise that brings people together for the good of the whole. The Legislature’s Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs, of which I am a member, recently held a public hearing on two bills designed to subvert the Electoral College in electing the President of the United States. Rather than amend the Constitution, which requires overwhelming agreement, supporters of this approach are seeking to get around the Constitution by committing Maine into entering an interstate…