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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?

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.

Post your guess to comments.

An online petition against LD 1353, a bill to hide public employees names from public view, has gathered hundreds of signatures from citizens and taxpayers.

In the comments section of the petition, many have expressed frustration with Maine Democrat leaders, who have co-sponsored this bill..."Any Legislator in favor of LD 1353 is countering the Obama transparency doctrine and would be pandering to their voters instead of looking at the larger picture to do the right thing. I hope that electioneering is behind us and our elected officials would vote for what is right for the entire State of Maine" says one petition signer.

Another petitioner pleads with legislators to take a stand. "I urge my representatives to vote against LD 1353. Maine citizens should know how their taxes are being spent. This information should not be censored."

Included in the list of those signing are State Employees, "I am an employee of the University of Maine so my salary is available for viewing . . . but I believe that tax payers should have access to all state employees salaries, including names, position, etc."

To read more comments click here: Online Petition Comments

To read the entire petition text, click here: Online Petition against LD 1353, a bill to hide Public Employee Salary Information

The public hearing on LD 1353, a bill that would hide public employee names from public access and attempt to shut down MaineOpenGov.org, drew a large crowd at the State House Thursday afternoon and into the evening.

(click on the names below to read the written testimony)

Supporters of the bill, six in all, included Senator Lisa Marrache of Waterville, Senator Deb Simpson of Auburn, Timothy Belcher, the Executive Director of the Maine State Employees Association and Bruce Hodsdon, The President of the Maine State Employees Association.

Fifteen people testified in opposition to LD 1353, including Tarren Bragdon, CEO of The Maine Heritage Policy Center, Mal Leary, President of the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition Jeff Inglis, Managing Editor of the Portland Phoenix, and , Chris Cinquemani, Public Affairs Director at Maine Leads. Also testifying were Pem Schaeffer of Brunswick and the President of Maine Taxpayers United, Gary Foster

As you can watch in the video below, the bills sponsor, Senator Lisa Marrache, contends that posting this public information is dangerous, and that allowing people to comment anonymously on the public information is wrong and there should be government censorship applied.
 
More Video to come later....