November 2009 Archives

Senate President and Gubernatorial candidate Libby Mitchell (D), as well as Blaine House hopeful Senator Peter Mills (R) are upset because there isn't enough taxpayer dollars to fund their personal campaigns for the state's top job.

The two candidates, among others, are running "clean", with clean elections funds that are drawn from taxpayer dollars. Each candidate will get $400,000 for the primary and $600,000 for the general election initially and could receive up to double that amount in matching funds.

So Sen. Mitchell and Sen. Mills want to use your money to run their campaigns, but that's not enough. Now, with word that the clean elections money is underfunded (doesn't Sen. Mitchell have to take some responsibility for that as President of the Senate?) these two entrenched Augusta politicians are asking for special permission  to raise money to go along with the millions of taxpayer dollars they will undoubtedly receive to run their campaigns.

Two long-time Augusta insiders with lots of connections to fund-raise who have chosen to take public money (lots of it) to campaign with are now whining because they might not get every dime they need. Now they want favors from their August friends to allow them to have it both ways.

What's "clean" about that?

With budget gaps at every turn, the UMaine Chancellor was tasked with finding areas within the system to save millions, $43 million in the next couple years in fact. Today chancellor Richard Pattenaude and the UMaine trustees offered their solution, a plan title "The University of Maine system and the future of Maine".

In this plan they outling various ways to save money, including enrolling more online students, a three-year degree program, and some other cost saving measures. Also included in the text is the idea that tution will not rise more than 6 percent between now and 2013.

The most disturbing thing in the report, is an initiative that would "invest" $5.3 million to "Create strategic investment fund" as you can see in the picture below, pulled from the report.

There is very little additional detail about what would be done with this $5.3 million to create long-term system savings.

I have a suggestion for the Chancellor...Before adding millions of dollars in vague "investment" plans to the UMaine system's expenditures, and then raising tution on poor college students, why doesn't he take a look at cutting his own salary of over  $300,000 a year?

 

This is a state government blog. But without question, the HR 3962 bill, or the health care "reform" bill, that will be voted on soon by our U.S. House of Representatives, has a huge impact on Maine and it's businesses and people. We're posting about the bill here in the name of greater overall government transparency.

So what exactly does the bill do, and how should Reps. Pingree and Michaud vote on the bill?

Take a look yourself and then let them know.

HR 3962 Summary (read it and weep): "Complete Summary"

A couple excerpts (warning, some readers will find this offensive. May not be appropriate reading for intelligent, reasoning, or freedom loving Americans): Individuals. Individuals are required to obtain health insurance coverage or pay a fee equal to lower of 2.5 percent of their adjusted income...Government responsibility. It is the responsibility of the federal government to ensure that essential health coverage is affordable and available to all Americans...

Happy reading. 

HR 3962 - Full Text (if you even scan the whole thing you'll be more informed than our Reps. I'll bet): All 1,992 pages of so called "reform"