Blog Posts

Bangor Daily News: Students Urge Maine Lawmakers to Support Arts Education

3/25/2016

On March 24, the State House was swarmed by a lively group of middle and high school kids arriving to advocate for the importance of arts education in the schools. I was delighted to meet with several of them who had come from Portland, including Maeve Porter Holliday and Maggie Ruff.

All too often art, theater, music and dance are dismissed as expendible items in a society that is ever more focused on so-called "STEM" education. To be sure I support STEM, though, as a person who has had a career in cultural administration, and one who is married to a person with degrees in both English and Engineering, I am a strong believer in the importance of both domains if any education is worthy of the name. You can read the whole story of the kids and their message here:

https://bangordailynews.com/2016/03/24/living/students-urge-maine-lawmakers-to-support-art-education/?ref=moreInstate

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So Long Cary, Farewell Oxbow

3/22/2016

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Next week or maybe the week after, I’ll be voting to end the existence of two Maine towns. I’ve taken votes like this before and I am guessing that these will likely occur without any floor debate and without opposition, reflecting the desires of local residents. The deorganization of a town is always a poignant moment, and it’s one that I think deserves more notice than it gets, tucked into a corner of the House agenda, along with water district and rural cemetery charter changes.
Just a few weeks after these votes pass, both former towns will become part of Maine’s unorganized territory. This is a vast region, with a land area larger than Maryland, but with a population of just around 8,000 people. Consider that Portland’s average population density is over 3,000 people per square mile, and it quickly becomes clear that trying to maintain even a skeletal municipal government in the most rural areas of Maine becomes costly. As the industries that created these communities in the first place (lumbering mostly) shrink and become less locally based, many of our smallest towns are simply fading out of existence. I’ve not found exact statistics, but it appears that at least half a dozen Maine townships have deorganized in recent years, ceding their self-government, and becoming mere names on a map, just wide spots on rural roads. Later this month, the municipalities of Oxbow and Cary Plantation, both in Aroostook County, will join that list.

We often hear that Maine has the oldest population in the nation, and deorganizations like this directly illustrate the problem. My office mate, the walking history book known as Representative John Martin, notes that “there’s just nobody left in these places except for few elderly folks. No students, no jobs.” And while it’s not likely that any policy change will reverse this trend for Oxbow and Cary, shifts like these point up the need to keep our population growing and our young people in Maine. This is a tall order, but it’s going to involve for starters, proper funding of public education at all levels, encouragement of diversity and immigration, and extensions of some of the business development efforts that have helped make greater Portland and Bangor the engines for whole regions. In my estimation, our aging population is the number one challenge facing Maine. And if we fail to find a way to change that, the consequences are serious—whether in a deepening inability for Maine businesses to find workers, or in a shrinking tax base, or even in our state losing national clout in going from two to just one representatives in the US Congress, a likely outcome of the next census, if current trends persist.

So as we say farewell to Oxbow and Cary—and it will be a quiet farewell—I’d like to raise a toast before I press the button. Alas, that’s not permitted in the Maine House, so instead, I’ll urge you to see this not as something happening to a few folks up near Canada, but as something happening to all of us across Maine, something in which we all have a stake and of which we should all take notice.

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Op-Ed: Tax Breaks at the Expense of Students

2/16/2016

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The tax conformity debate in the State House boils down to this: Democrats are fighting against an unproven tax giveaway that would come at the expense of Maine students and taxpayers. Democrats and Republicans are in complete agreement that Maine should fully conform to the federal tax code for the next two years. We are delighted that Republicans can agree with President Barack Obama and other Democrats that the middle class and small businesses deserve the tax breaks in the federal tax code.
We’re glad they’re on board with adding mortgage insurance to the mortgage interest deduction, making higher education and child care more affordable and providing deductions to teachers who use their own money to provide supplies in their classrooms. We’re glad that they recognize the importance of incentives for small businesses like mom-and-pop ice cream parlors and flower shops and for Mainers who make a living as plumbers, carpenters, fishermen and loggers.
Republicans and Democrats part ways on a questionable tax break called the Maine Capital Investment Credit.

Read The Complete Op-Ed Here:
http://www.centralmaine.com/2016/02/16/tax-breaks-hurt-maine-students/

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A Look Back at the First Session of the 127th Legislature

12/10/2015

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The Maine Legislature limped across the finish line during the summer, having endured six months of bruising work and narrowly avoiding a state shutdown. It did not have to be that way, but contention and division have become the hallmarks of governance during this frustrating period. It’s one where Maine is beginning to feel a little too much like Washington. Whether one measures dysfunction by the hundreds (!) of vetoes, the Governor’s choice to withhold voter-approved bonds, the state boards and commissions being hobbled by a lack of appointments, or by various bizarre diversions from the important business that the state is facing, nothing seems to be running smoothly. Add to it all a steady beat of anti-Portland rhetoric, and the picture, though not without some notable bright spots, is pretty bleak.

I am the first to acknowledge the validity of different political viewpoints, even those I don’t agree with, but only harm comes when arguments turn personal, and “my-way-or-the-highway” politics become the norm. This fall, the most frequent comment I’ve heard from people is some version of “I don’t know how you stand it up there”. And while my standard response has been to smile and acknowledge that I don’t know either, I want to reiterate that despite the difficulties, I’m grateful to represent this city. We are getting things done, and –perhaps just as significantly-- we have been able to block some very bad policies from taking effect.

We found funds to rebuild the Hall Elementary School, to support the rail improvements at the international Marine terminal, and expand the homestead exemption. We increased funding for higher and K-12 education, and we passed legislation encouraging local community renewable energy. We also stopped the Governor’s devastating cuts proposed for the Drugs for the Elderly program and a dangerous weakening of mining rules, just to note a few examples.

There’s every indication that the upcoming session will continue to be a roller coaster ride, likely to be made worse by posturing around next year’s critical election. That said, I remain what is probably best described as a “pathological optimist” – I believe that good things can happen when we focus on the immediate work at hand, bill by bill, issue by issue. And while that’s not necessarily the expansive statewide vision I would prefer, it is a pragmatic approach to assure that we will, at the end of next year, continue to make progress, regardless of what happens around us. I’m grateful for my talented and very hard working colleagues in the Portland delegation, and for the hard work of city officials, led by Mayor Brennan, who has been relentless in coordinating our efforts, and advocating for this city and its needs.

As for the coming session, I’d just urge you to hold on tight.

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Tempest in a Cat Food Can

4/3/2015

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Recently I have received dozens of letters decrying the Governor's plan to remove a $20 surcharge being paid to Maine by pet food manufacturers. This surcharge helps pay for spaying an neutering of unwanted pets, and it's a contributor to the fact that we are among the states with the lowest incidences of euthanasia. I am opposed to this proposal to provide "tax relief" to an industry that is clearly not having any difficulty in selling its products here.

When you buy a car battery or tires you pay a fee to help offset the environmental costs. My clumsy analogy is that un-spayed / neutered animals are an environmental side effect to domestic pets, and a robust (and easily funded) spay and neuter program is both humane and economical. I am the happy owner of a succession of shelter cats. Maine's animal shelter system has done a great deal to manage the problem of unwanted pets - our very low rate of euthanasia is almost certainly the result of the Help Fix Me program.

I am very pleased to report that as of yesterday, the Agriculture Committee voted unanimously to drop this proposal from the budget. It's not dead yet, but it's been dealt, I am happy to say, a severe blow.

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Voting While Holding My Nose

2/14/2015

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Every year, the Legislature passes a tax conformity bill to keep Maine law in conformity with the Federal tax code. This year, one of the provisions that the Federal Government adopted was to extend so-called "Bonus Depreciation", which allows companies to accelerate the depreciation on equipment that they purchase - if done as a one-time measure at the start of a year, there is an argument that businesses thinking about buying equipment will be moved to do so, thereby stimulating the economy. But like "tax amnesty" plans these things don't work as stimulus if they take place year after year. This year, the Federal government extended bonus depreciation right around Christmas - at a time when any purchases made in 2014 would have already occurred.

So when it came time to conform Maine to Federal law, a bonus depreciation component was added to the bill. We explored a number of ideas to use the cost of this piece (around $10,000,000) to accomplish something else, such as property tax relief or early childhood education, but we counted and did not have the votes to accomplish that.

I don't think the Federal Government providing a post-facto "incentive" of this sort accomplishes much of anything, It's a dumb policy.

That said it's not a policy that benefits just giant corporations, which is how it has been characterized. Indeed, it will provide accelerated depreciation for equipment purchases for more than 4000 Maine businesses, the vast majority of which are small businesses, many of which are sole proprietors, and a lot of whom are in Portland. I'm sure it benefits big business too, but as I looked at the list of distribution of payees, they were not the bulk of the beneficiaries.

It's also worth noting that because this is a depreciation schedule change, it's money that will come to the state anyway - on a different schedule. True this provides a sort of no-interest loan to these businesses, but it's worth noting that our revenues this year are up by about $5m thanks to Bonus depreciation granted in years past. It does not make this less of a stupid policy, but it's not quite the giveaway that opponents have described it as.

For that reason, I supported the conformity bill (with my nose held around the bonus depreciation issue) AND in recognition of the fact that there are other provisions in the bill that benefit schoolteachers who use out of pocket funds for their classrooms, mortgage holders, and other small businesses. If the whole tax conformity bill went down because of the bonus depreciation issue it would have been a disaster.

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Skeletal Holiday Greetings

12/20/2014

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Stevens Memorial Hospital is a "critical access hospital" - a small facility serving the rural community of Norway, Maine. I had the opportunity tour the hospital on Tuesday as part of an effort to better understand the rural health care network in Maine, where, as with so many other services, our dispersed population makes it difficult to cover every town. I was impressed by the level of care being provided there, and enjoyed many of the staff members. One of the more memorable parts of the tour included this bulletin board in the X-ray department.

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My Time with the Supremes

12/11/2014

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In early December I had the opportunity to spend a day at the Cumberland County Court House, where I had a chance to view various aspects of the judicial system as it operates in Maine. The volume of the people moving through the system, the thinness of the staffing, the critical aspect of the indigent legal aid system, and the frequent complexity and nuance of almost every case are challenges. I was greatly impressed by the care and "customization" provided by the various judges and court staff as they sort through this massive workload. My impression was that the judges went out of their way to provide respectful, fair, and humane treatment of those who came before them.

My question is how can we slow down the volume of cases in this strained system? Our criminal code is way overdue for an overhaul - and aspects like mandatory minimum sentences are among the issues that are causing the most trouble. The other thing that was abundantly clear was the need to find a way to assure support for indigent legal services, which are in constant demand and chronically underfunded.

I also had a chance to briefly view the Maine Supreme Court, which happened to be in session that day, which led to the photo taken above. Thanks to Chief Justice Sauffley for taking the time to answer my questions, and for suggesting that we take a picture!

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Thank You!

11/5/2014

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Legislative elections, at least as they are done in Maine, don't generate giant parties and balloons and press conferences. But if they did, and if I were at the mic making the sort of speech that politicians are wont to do, I would thank you for your help over the past few months during my run for re-election.

I appreciate everyone who pulled one oar or another; grateful for people like Craig Beaulieu, who handled my signs; and my treasurer Jerry Conley; and Al Brewer, the ace mailing guy at GG Direct; and Glenn Cummings and Steve Lovejoy, who occupied the seat before me, and Mayor Brennan, whose advice has always been correct; and my colleagues in the House whom I saw at countless fundraisers over the summer; and everyone else who cheered me on, who dropped lit, and otherwise provided a sense of community during the sometimes lonely and always-hard-to-gauge process of doing doors and attending events.

And of course I'm SO grateful for Tamara and Will, who have graciously put up with this whole enterprise now, and cheered me on - twice!

I won 78% of the votes in my race - this is, as far as I can tell, the second highest margin of any contested legislative race in the state. Of course, it is the City of Portland we're talking about, so it's not quite as impressive a number as it would appear. That said, I feel good about it, as more than 50% of my district is new thanks to redistricting, and I spent quite a bit of time and effort getting to know the residents of those neighborhoods.

As for the bigger picture, as those of you on my side of the aisle know, it was a tough night. We have only a very slim majority in the House (no chance of overriding vetoes now), and we lost the Senate. While I was sorry but not surprised to see the remarkable Shenna Bellows fall to Susan Collins, I was terribly upset to see Emily Cain, who in my opinion is the most respected, smart, and knowledgeable person in Maine politics, lose in her bid for the 2nd Congressional district seat.

And of course I don't need to remind anyone that our feisty tea party governor, Paul LePage, was re-elected. So I expect that the next two years are going to be acrimonious and focused steadily on divisive issues like immigration, welfare, and more unaffordable tax cuts.

I think Maine is in for another rough four years - the big disconnect being that in virtually all rural states, Government is the largest employer and the largest spender. Maine is no different (our two biggest private companies are Federal defense contractors, just to name a couple), and the relentless cuts at all levels, from the Federal to the local, have seriously slowed down the economic recovery here. We also failed to accept Federal Obamacare funding, which has taken almost a million dollars per day out of our hospitals and health care sector (this is aside from the moral issue of leaving insurance for 70,000 low income people on the table).

Regardless of one's position vis a vis the size of government or whether one assumes a Keynesian or a Reaganesque philosophy, people wondering why the Maine economy outside of Portland is lagging the rest of the country, should recognize that top-to-bottom public disinvestment as a significant contributing factor. I'll admit it's a challenge to figure out what the correct and affordable size of government should be, but we have cut enough over the past eight years (the Democratic administration before LePage made numerous cuts before the recession) to really impede our capacity to function. When you combine that with a relatively low level of higher educational achievement, a reliance on dying natural resource industries, and our status as the state with the oldest population in America, it's not a pretty picture. Southern and Coastal sections of Maine are doing as well as anywhere, but the so-called "rim counties" are getting clobbered.

That said, I like to think of myself as a pragmatist - and I do think that with the House and Senate under divided leadership in the 127th legislature, there could possibly be a mandate to work together in a way that is different than it was in the 125th and 126th. How that will work or play out remains to be seen (alternatively it could be gridlock), but I'll be working to do whatever I can to help form workable policy

Anyway - those are my thoughts of a November Saturday!

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On the Issues in the Portland Press Herald And Bangor Daily News Voters' Guides...

10/26/2014

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There is a useful side-by-side comparison from the Bangor Daily News between my positions and those of my opponent on a number of key issues facing Maine. The link will show summary answers, and you can click on any one of them to find more detailed answers. link http://maineelections.bangordailynews.com/2014-general-election/race/maine-house-district-41/

There is also a voter guide with some different questions located in the Portland Press Herald.

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Bangor Daily News: Students Urge Maine Lawmakers to Support Arts Education

So Long Cary, Farewell Oxbow

Op-Ed: Tax Breaks at the Expense of Students

A Look Back at the First Session of the 127th Legislature

Tempest in a Cat Food Can

Voting While Holding My Nose

Skeletal Holiday Greetings

My Time with the Supremes

Thank You!

On the Issues in the Portland Press Herald And Bangor Daily News Voters' Guides...

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