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No, higher wages aren’t a ‘silver lining’ of inflation
A recent CNBC article highlights a common economic fallacy surrounding the concept of...
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Mills signs offshore wind ban amid lingering skepticism from fishermen
Though the ban is a win for now, Mills’ next moves towards offshore...
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Mills kills another misguided drug pricing bill
LD 1117 would have accomplished nothing in terms of lowering prescription drug costs...
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Though the state of emergency has expired, some of Mills’ pandemic-related executive orders remain in effect
Though Maine’s state of emergency expired on June 30, some changes to rules...
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Almost half of Maine’s COVID-19 deaths occurred in nursing homes
According to data provided by the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...
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Maine-based school choice case headed for Supreme Court
The Court’s decision on Carson v. Makin could stop this kind of state-sanctioned...
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Facial recognition ban comes as a victory for the privacy of all Mainers
Facial recognition tech cannot be used as a tool by the government for...
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Department of Labor announces updates to its Back-to-Work grant program
If all 300 workers received the $1,500 benefit, the grant program has already...
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Mills bucks her party on environment, drug pricing in newest vetoes
The vetoes, among some of her other recent ones, are a welcome check...
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Legislature, governor pass $8.5 billion supplemental budget
The bill passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 123-23 and...
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BDN Editorial Board confuses terms regarding Delta variant
In its July 5 piece, the editorial board of the Bangor Daily News...
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DHHS failures prove: It’s time for child welfare reform
If the tragedies of the last month show us anything, it is that...
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Hospital group pushes for mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for workers
COVID-19 vaccines: a personal choice or a workplace requirement? Well, to Maine’s top...
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In missed opportunity, SCOTUS declines to rule on WFH tax case
The issue of how this subset of workers is taxed is not going...
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People are leaving unemployment rolls faster in states that are ending enhanced benefits
A new report in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) quotes an analysis from...
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New report shows opioid deaths on the rise in Maine
Between 2019 and 2020, drug deaths in Maine rose by 33% according to...
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Lawmakers right to nix flavored tobacco ban in final budget agreement
The Legislature’s Appropriations Committee voted unanimously Sunday to advance a supplemental budget, and...
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Legislature sustains Mills’ veto on LD 920, a victory for communities and consumers alike
Gov. Janet Mills made the right choice in vetoing LD 920, sponsored by...
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Supreme Court charts path to greater benefits for collegiate athletes
On June 21, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a decision...
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Governor Mills’ steady stream of vetoes continues
Gov. Mills recently issued vetoes for seven pieces of legislation approved by the...
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NH budget brings school choice, emergency power reform in stark contrast to Maine
The Granite State passed a new budget last week that should have people...
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Appropriations Committee removes flavored tobacco ban from final budget agreement
A measure that would have compensated for the expected loss in revenue from...
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Mills’ veto stops new graduated real estate transfer tax
Should Mainers have to pay more in taxes for buying a new piece...
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Budget agreement suggests lawmakers may have learned lessons from the pandemic
A new bipartisan budget agreement might prove that lawmakers learned a valuable fiscal...
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Systemic tax reform is better than one-time gimmicks
This week, Maine lawmakers will vote on LD 221, Governor Janet Mills’ supplemental...
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Should California be able to set drug prices in Maine?
Imagine if California passed a law telling Maine lobstermen how much to charge...
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Supreme Court sides with cheerleader in case targeting students’ First Amendment rights
In an 8-1 vote, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of cheerleader Brandi...
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New data offer more proof price inflation is on the rise
Proponents of big government spending have desperately argued that mounting price inflation is...
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Governor Mills issues her first vetoes of the 130th Legislature
The governor’s office recently posted veto messages for seven bills rejected by Gov....
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Governor Mills signs a full slate of election, campaign finance reforms into law
Governor Mills recently signed into law several bills that affect campaigns and elections...
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Effort to elect constitutional officers fails again in Maine
Making our government more representative and fair is an idea both sides of...
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Lockdowns devastated the poor, not the virus
A new Harvard analysis of various data points throughout the pandemic shows that...
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Governor Mills signs bills on energy, telemedicine and remote meetings into law
Bills passed by the Maine Legislature during its recently convened special session have...
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Lockdowns led to more deaths, not fewer
The primary finding of the study was that following the implementation of SIP...
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Healthcare group asks Gov. Mills to veto prescription drug price control bill
The Maine Legislature recently passed LD 1117, a bill that would prohibit excessive...
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Bills to increase income and estate taxes die in the Legislature
Two bills to increase taxes on hardworking Mainers failed to pass at the...
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Legislature advances civil asset forfeiture reform bill
An attempt to rein in one of the state’s most troublesome acts is...
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Maine Senate votes to keep controversial ‘fusion center’
Even if the allegations in Loder’s lawsuit are not true, the fact that...
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‘Modern taxation without representation’: Legal pushback on unfair work from home taxes
During the stress, added financial and mental burden brought on by the pandemic...
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New Harvard data (accidentally) reveal how lockdowns crushed the working class while leaving elites unscathed
The picture painted is one of working-class destruction.
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Gov. Mills announces ‘Vaccinationland’ lottery sweepstakes
On June 16, Gov. Mills announced the creation of a sweepstakes for Mainers...
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Six years after deregulating them, lawmakers are cracking down on vanity plates again
A bill to limit license plates with profane or vulgar references passed under...
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House Democrats kill bipartisan COVID-19 review commission
Policymakers have, yet again, committed an act that is sorely ironic: they have...
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Semi-open primaries bill advances in Maine House and Senate
L.D. 231 aims to increase voter turnout and bipartisanship in an increasingly partisan...
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Paid to stay home: study finds lucrative unemployment helps fuel labor shortage
This study on the nationwide impacts of the historically high UI has simply...
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More wrangling to come on supplemental budget, federal relief spending
On June 17, the Maine Legislature is expected to adjourn a special session...
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Shifting recycling costs to producers an easy way to raise the cost of groceries
A recent study by Dr. Calvin Lakhan of York University has found that...
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Generic prescriptions provide savings for Maine patients
This week, the Maine Senate passed “Making Health Care Work for Maine,” a...
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Maine launches ‘Back to Work’ program while leaving federal pandemic unemployment benefits in place
On June 14, Gov. Mills announced a program to incentivize unemployed Mainers to...
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ProPublica misleads the public on ‘bombshell’ tax report
Over the last few days, headlines have been dominated by a story that...
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Bill to end at-will employment dies between chambers
To force these new labor restrictions upon employers now would be a grave...
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Few states remain in the failed Transportation Climate Initiative
The Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI) began in 2010 when 11 states and the...
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Fifteen months later, Maine is finally terminating its state of emergency
On June 11, Maine Gov. Janet Mills announced she was renewing the state...
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Maine schools to be freed of pandemic mandates starting July 1
On June 9, the Maine Department of Education (DOE) updated its PreK-12 and...
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ProPublica’s bombshell tax report that wasn’t
ProPublica’s deceptive and misguided campaign to convince the American electorate that billionaires don’t...
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Battle over consumer-owned utility pits Gov. Mills against her legislative allies
If a bill recently approved by the Maine Legislature’s Committee on Energy, Utilities...
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Imminent SCOTUS ruling to have major First Amendment implications for schools and students
On April 28, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments...
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Biden’s ‘infrastructure’ bill: High cost, little reward
If the administration wanted to pass these items not directly tied to infrastructure,...
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Maine families deserve school choice, and the pandemic underscores its necessity
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new light and perspectives to many issues we...
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States are moving to reform emergency executive power, but not Maine
On June 2, the Maine House of Representatives defeated eight bills aimed at...
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Maine’s flavored tobacco ban is destined to fail
As we all learned in our high school history classes, the United States...
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Legislators missed the mark on child care reform this session
A prominent refrain in the pandemic recession-recovery story has been the persistent labor...
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State legislatures returning to in-person sessions
After more than a year away, the Maine Legislature returned to the State...
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There’s no need for a government-owned network in Knox County
Many advocates in Maine and around the nation have highlighted the need for...
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It’s time to reopen the US-Canada border
Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that at least 50% of...
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Tax Committee at odds with Mills administration on increases to income, estate taxes
A pair of bills recently voted out of the Committee on Taxation have...
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Mask rules persist for children in Maine schools. Why?
On Monday, May 24, nearly eight months after it was first ordered, Maine Gov....
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Saving face: Unmasking the mask hypocrisy
On Monday, May 24, a fascinating social experiment began to unfold across Maine...
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Maine should pump the brakes on controversial voting reform efforts
This legislative session, lawmakers on the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee held public...
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The dizzying pace of Governor Mills’ executive orders
Maine Gov. Janet Mills is on pace to exercise her executive authority almost...
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Seven lawmakers stripped of committee assignments after entering State House without masks
Seven Maine lawmakers were stripped of their committee assignments on Monday by House...
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State takeover of CMP, Versant Power a boondoggle in the making
Lawmakers on Maine’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee held a public hearing last...
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Starting today, Maine businesses are no longer Gov. Mills’ COVID police
Last week, Heather Johnson, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Economic and Community...
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Some states are ending enhanced unemployment benefits to get residents back to work
Maine’s Department of Labor currently has no plans to end enhanced employment benefits....
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Maine leads the nation in COVID-19 infection rate in nursing homes
In four of the last six weeks, Maine has led the nation in...
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Why should Mainers pay more for closed government schools?
Governor Janet Mills unveiled a new supplemental budget last week that would grow...
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Why inflation is at a 12-year high
Yesterday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released numbers indicating that the average...
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Governor Mills’ flavored tobacco ban, state bailout is dead wrong
When President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan, he provided state and local...
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The problems with Governor Mills’ giveaways for vaccines
On Tuesday, Maine Governor Janet Mills joined President Joe Biden and a small...
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Sen. Collins slams CDC for ‘confusing, conflicting guidance’
Maine Sen. Susan Collins grilled US CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Tuesday...
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Jobs report shows the government gets the unemployment it’s paying for
A disappointing new jobs report shows that hiring is down and the unemployment...
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Debunking the myths of Maine’s proposed flavored tobacco ban
Now that the dust has settled on the Health and Human Services Committee...
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New Hampshire the beneficiary of New England’s misguided tobacco policies
Last week, Maine’s Health and Human Services Committee held a public hearing on...
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Cable fee legislation would strip away local control, increase customer costs
Over the past year, there have been numerous instances of top-down solutions being...
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Time to pursue real tax fairness in Maine with a flat income tax
This week, my legislative colleagues on the Taxation Committee held a public hearing...
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Raising tobacco taxes will hurt residents, businesses struggling to recover post-pandemic
The nonpartisan Revenue Forecasting Committee met recently and determined Maine is in a...
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Mills’ abuse of power as governor predictable after conduct as attorney general
Janet Mills is notorious for her abuses of power and seeming disregard for...
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When Joe Biden talks about worker choice, he means only one choice
President Joe Biden believes joining a union isn’t merely a right that workers...
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Maine’s congressional delegation should listen to independent workers and reject the PRO Act
With Maine’s economy still recovering from the pandemic, it’s important that our lawmakers...
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Maine’s flavored tobacco ban goes too far
The Maine Legislature will soon debate LD 1550, a bill that would ban...
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Population growth in Maine trails region and nation
On Monday, the US Census Bureau released its first estimate of state and...
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Democrats oppose emergency power reform bills along party line votes
Governor Janet Mills’ reign over Maine people doesn’t appear to be ending anytime...
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Mainers, not Governor Mills, should decide Maine’s participation in the TCI
Maine’s Committee on State and Local Government held public hearings last Friday on...
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The lockdown paradigm is collapsing
It’s taken much longer than it should have but at last it seems...
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Drug overdose deaths skyrocketed to record levels amid pandemic lockdowns
With each day that passes, the number of lives lost in COVID-19-related deaths...
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Should Mainers be fined $500 for recording their child’s virtual learning?
Lawmakers on Maine’s Judiciary Committee held a public hearing Wednesday on LD 864,...
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New England governors are lifting pandemic mandates, but not Governor Mills
On Tuesday, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont announced that he will lift all business...
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Tobacco tax increase would reduce revenue, hurt the poor and undermine safe alternatives
The 100 percent increase in taxes on all tobacco products as proposed recently...
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Where’s Dr. Fauci as another corona-myth dies?
For over a year well-to-do Americans have quite literally been “quarantining” packages shipped...
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The Czech Republic has the highest COVID mortality in the world, despite strict lockdowns
On March 1, facing the highest COVID-19 infection rate in the world, the...
