MaineOpenGov Blog

Maine legislator wants cell phone regulations

2009-12-21T14:00:25Z

Again we find Maine leading the way in the wrong direction.

In a story that is making national headlines, Maine state rep. Andrea Boland, a Democrat from Sanford, wants to force cell phone manufacturers to include warnings on all devices and packaging that state that cell phones carry a risk of causing cancer (although, much like global warming, no scientific evidence exists to verify that "fact").

Boland has convinced the appropriate people in the state house to let her bill come through in the 2010 session that is normally reserved for "emergency" and "governors" bills only.

Nowhere in the country is this required, and only the extremely liberal San Fransisco is trying to push through a similar requirement.

Interestingly enough, Boland is listed as a "Independent Nutriceutical Distributor" (nutriceuticals is the practice of adding "vitatmins" to regular food and then claiming them to be more "healthy") an industry that is known for its extreme lack of regulations...

These salespeople, of which Boland is one, also claim their "nutriceuticals" help prevent cancer, another unproven claim that at least one doctor says is rubbish.

Obama issues "Open Government Directive"

2009-12-08T17:30:00Z

Two quick thoughts about Obama's directive to make government more accountable.

First, he asked this directive (11 pages total) to be drafted on January 21st, 2009. It's now December 8, 2009, almost a full year later.

Second, one of the very first items on the directive is the date, which reads "December 8, 2008". Ummm...isn't it 2009?

Government...they can't get the date right, can we expect them to offer true transparency?

Maine spending more tax dollars on art

2009-12-08T13:56:48Z

They are at it again.

Our friends at the Maine Arts Commission are looking for artists to complete three art projects, one at the new Brewer Elementary/Middle School (a brand new school needs brand new art projects already?) one at Aubert Hall at the University of Maine in Orono, and a third one at the University of Southern Maine in Portland.

These three projects will cost taxpayers a total of $122,000 at a time when the state is facing about a $380 million shortfall.

We've highlighted some of the state's expensive "art" projects before, including a feature in the 2009 Maine Piglet Book of the out-of-state artist's dog paintings that reside in some choice rest-stops along I-95.

As the article mentions, Maine law designates one percent of consturction funds as "art funds," but this writer, for one, thinks there should be a "no new spending" provision on that law during budget shortfalls like the one the state is currently facing.

When you are facing a budget crunch in your household, do you immediately run out and buy "Mona Lisa" for the living room? I don't think so...

Maine DOT official admits need to "prioritize" spending

2009-12-03T17:54:44Z

In a refreshing bit of news out of Augusta this morning, a deputy commissioner for the Maine Department of Transportation stated the need to "prioritize like we never have before" when it comes to spending.

Why does government wait for tough times to prioritize how they spend taxpayer dollars?

Maine's Nanny State ways continue

2009-12-03T15:15:39Z

We hear today from the anti-business, Maine "environmental officials" who are letting us know that "federal laws to protect the public from toxic chemicals are too weak."

Maine already has stringent laws and regulations regarding toxins, along with plenty of "anti-toxin" programs including "policies to promote safer chemicals in child products and prioritize hazardous chemicals."

I have heard from sources that there is a "list" of "toxins and chemicals" on the table that these "environmental officials" would like to see banned from use, one of which is some type of binding chemical that is used in everyday items, and has no known replacement. Banning products like this, or others, would come at a huge expense to already struggling business.

As if over regulating business isn't enough (not like it's anything new for Maine government) the "environmental officials" would also like some more of your money, to fund their efforts to further handcuff business, making the products you buy everyday more expensive than ever.

Sen. Elizabeth "Libby" Mitchell wants it both ways

2009-11-20T14:11:09Z

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?

UMaine "cost saving plan" spends additional millions

2009-11-17T14:35:31Z

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?

Read up on the so called Health Care "Reform"

2009-11-06T14:38:10Z

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"

The 2009 Maine Piglet Book makes some noise

2009-09-28T16:22:52Z

The 2009 Maine Piglet Book hit with a bang last Thursday. The Bangor Daily News story ran above the fold and the KJ and Portland Press Herald stories were featured along with the Morning Sentinal piece, while the books release was also featured on several local TV news broadcasts, including My Fox Maine and WGME-Portland (below) and WABI-Bangor (CBS).

Opponents of the Yes on 4 (TABOR) campaign have tried to discredit the book, and defend government spending. They say the $102,000 for 3 dog paintings in a Kennebunk rest stop are "privately funded" - but what they are not saying is that "privately funded" to them means toll money gathered from commuters.

The spokesperson for the opponents of the piglet book is Crystal Canney, who is also the communications director for the anti-TABOR group "Citizens for Maine's Future", who do not want government spending limited. Interestingly enough, it's easy to see why Canney is so opposed to controlling government spending. Canney has been paid, and paid well, by tax dollars in the past few years while working for the Baldacci administration, as you can see from this data found on MaineOpenGov.org:

Yes on 4 (TABOR) supporters point to the Piglet Book as a great example of why TABOR is needed in Maine more than ever - to reign in wasteful government spending.

2009 Maine Piglet Book

2009-09-24T20:42:08Z

Today The Maine Heritage Policy Center and Citizens Against Government Waste released the 2009 Maine Piglet Book, which details at least $2 billion in Maine government waste.

Some of the highlights (or lowlights) in the book:

$82,533 for bottled water in 2008.
$20,000 to produce "My Fair Lady" in an Ogunquit playhouse.
$155,000,000 on the failed government-run Dirigo health program.

I'll blog about the reaction to the 2009 Piglet Book in the next couple days.

Confusion in Maine's legislature leads to struggles for businesses

2009-08-31T13:01:40Z

Two of the more bizarre stories in some time involve bills that came out of the legislature this past term and are doing damage to small business and local students.

The first law, L.D. 498, included an amendment by Rep. David Webster (D) of Freeport that bans any children from even observing adults participating in wine-tasting. This obviously (not so obviously to the representative) causes problems for tot toting tourists who would like to sample the wine produced by local Maine wineries.

There is much confusion about what to do about this bizarre and unecessary law, but for now, some small bussiness in Maine will be forced to board up windows to make sure no passing children can see wine tasting in progress and post signs banning families with children from entering the business.

Along the same lines of confusion comes another gem of a story out the 124th Maine Legislature. In an attempt to keep the medical records of youth's out of the hands of marketing companies, some short-sighted legislation has caused big problems.

As of now, the bill bans colleges from recruiting Maine's students with good test scores. It would also require that media stop talking with young people and reporting what they said.
This law goes into effect in just a few short days on September 12th, and eventually the problem should be ironed out with a lengthy and expensive court process.

These examples show why transparency is so vital. When citizens and interested parties know about and can see what particular legislation will do before it is passed, many of the issues could be taken care of before they become a problem.

State of Maine Spending Trivia

2009-07-24T14:28:03Z

Our Investment in Art

2009-07-17T19:21:08Z

From the world of over-the-top, ridiculous, and unnecessary spending comes an example from none other than the Maine Arts Commission.

The Maine Arts Commission gets tax payers' money from direct funding by the legislature. It states that its purpose, although it claims it struggles to meet this objective, is to "support the arts primarily through artists working at the local level in a community context" by issuing grants that need to be matched one to one. In other words it props up art, or what could loosely be defined as art, which would fail in Maine or any other environment on its own. You must be wondering why the commission warrants such a negative indictment (Beside the fact that it is a State Agency). My cynicism about the arts commission comes from watching this YouTube video:

This production called "Quarryography", by the Opera House in Stonington, Maine was funded by your tax dollars in the 2008 fiscal year. How much of your money did the state spend on this "work of art?" This production cost the Maine tax payers $5000. If you think the Opera House was finished taking your money, you are wrong. The next investor was, once again, you and your tax dollars in the form of a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. That's right: the YouTube video you just watched cost you $15,000.

"Quarryography" is only one example of a vast list of grants issued by the State of Maine for "art". Along with the grant to Stonington's Opera House there were 99 other grants that totaled a massive $586,000 in fiscal year 2008 and this nightmare perpetually repeats itself each year and has since 1978. Not only does this toilet with our money in it continue to flush each year, but some organizations are repeat grant recipients including the Opera House. In fiscal year 2009 the director of "Quarryography," Alison Chase received $13,000 for an art fellowship. Maybe she needed it to pay the fines for all the OSHA violations in Quarryography's production. (Yah, right)

The madness does not end there. Your governor, John Baldacci feels this sort of spending stimulates the economy: "The Creative Economy is a catalyst for the creation of new jobs in Maine communities. People who create jobs want to live in places that have a diverse cultural mix and an innovative and educated workforce. Maine will be competitive economically if we continue to capitalize on the synergies between entrepreneurship, education, the arts and quality of life." A sentiment even President Obama can agree on. His "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" included a grant that went to the Maine Arts Commission totaling $293,100; that on top of the $816,500 in tax payers' money that is channeled through the National Endowment of the Arts to the Maine Arts Commission, each year, in the form of a "partnership grant". What goods and services could projects like "Quarryography" possibly create? The answer to that is in the net benefit the economy has gained through Obama's stimulus. (Nearly zero)

File this away for the next time anyone says we cannot afford a budget or tax cut.

Senate Democrat Assistant Leader given "Muzzle Award"

2009-07-14T15:44:24Z

Senator Lisa Marrache (D) - Waterville, was awarded a "Muzzle Award" as part of the Portland Phoenix' 12th annual "Muzzle Awards - A look at the dishonorable enemies of free speech and personal liberty in New England."

The Senator earned this distinction by trying to ram through legislation to shut down the website MaineOpenGov.org, which lists the salaries of Maine government employees, as well as state spending.

Marrache's bill was eventually defeated unanimously out of the judiciary committee.

View Marrache's Testimony at the hearing:

Maine Turnpike Authority drops $12 million on new employee facility

2009-07-10T12:42:50Z

With new news that the State is facing an additional $50 million in revenue shortfall, there is a story today in the Portland Press Herald that details the opening of a new turnpike "administrative building" with a price tag of $11.9 million dollars.

Somewhat ironically, these stories are listed back to back in the online portland press herald.

The executive director of the Maine Turnpike Authority - Paul Violette "said he is also aware that many Mainers are probably questioning the need for a new multimillion-dollar administration building. 'I can understand why some folks would say, 'Geez,' but when you run the numbers, it made better sense not to lease.'"

For further insight into how the Maine Turnpike spends its money - look for all their employees salaries, and all the MTA vendor payments, to be posted soon on MaineOpenGov.org.

In the meantime - here is a preview:

Paul Violette - The Executive Director of MTA earned $129,674 in 2008. This is excluding overtime and benefits.

This is not the first time the company has employed Wright Ryan Construction of Portland to do major projects - they spent $6,820,081 with them in 2008.

Look for more MTA data coming soon to MaineOpenGov.org