Over an oil barrel
I see where Mr. Obama has ordered an investigation into the rising prices of gas. Another investigation? I am sure the results will be the same as any other investigation that has been done — nothing.
As far as I am concerned, it is nothing but price gouging. The idea that gas pricing is based on supply and demand is nothing but a joke. We all know that there is ample supply and that the demand has gone down. What does that tell you?
I firmly believe that the way to stop this price gouging is to take crude oil off of futures trading. Why hasn’t this been done long ago, I don’t understand. It is time that our government stepped up to the plate and take some real action.
Robert Beaulieu
Mapleton
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Marketing, saving Maine
The April 22 guest opinion column (“More to tourism than mottos and marketing”) had some great suggestions for revitalizing Maine’s economy that might actually work.
Do your best memories, like mine, feature Maine’s North Woods, where wilderness camps hold generations of memories of campfires, the smell of balsam fir or the thrill of sighting a moose? To people like us, Gov. Paul LePage’s message that Maine is “open for business” doesn’t ring true. Are marketing strategies really so perplexing? “The interests of those who want to work and invest in Maine” are to preserve the image of pristine wilderness and rugged outdoor recreation that define our state.
LePage would open a third of Maine’s wilderness to development. Picture that rustic camp on the Carrabassett, with the tall white pines. Now imagine a Chilies across the stream and a Walmart down the lane. LePage’s slash-and-burn approach to environmental regulation won’t promote business in our state. It will only destroy our greatest asset and degrade our image as a haven for anglers, hunters and campers.
Alexi Russ
Orono
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Pension realities
The Bangor Daily News editorial on the state pension fund left out some vital information.
The pension fund is supposed to be “sound funded” as of July 1, 1996, under the amendment and the unfunded liability is supposed to be paid off by 2028 under the amendment. The pension fund unfunded liability was on track to be paid off in 2019. The Legislature added to the liability in 2003 in contravention of the amendment and extended the payoff date to 2028 to cover the new liability.
The pension fund currently has $10.3 billion in it and earns an average 7.75 percent return every year. The interest alone more than covers the current pensions and management of the fund.
The unfunded liability is a lark that is simply based on projections. Under the amendment, what is owed for a particular fiscal cycle is what is supposed to be paid on an actuarial sound basis, not on “projected” amounts. As long as there is more than adequate interest in the fund to pay retirees, the state should contribute nothing that particular year, because it is sound funded. After all, the fund itself earns about $800 million a year.
If you take out the unfunded liability added in 2003 and 2008, then the liability as of July 1996 will be paid as of 2019 or sooner on the basis of the constitutional amendment. The pension “sky is falling” syndrome needs to stop and the Legislature needs to look at it on a year-to-year basis.
Bobby Cox
Raymond
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More brainwashing?
Some things being enacted by the current state administration can be undone by future governors and legislatures. The mural, if it hasn’t already been destroyed, can be hung again. Other actions, however, are not so reversible.
If billboard restrictions are eased, and our highways become nothing more than a string of advertisements, a new governor or Legislature will be unable to return the unspoiled views of Maine’s dramatic scenery.
If you don’t want billboards, please write to the governor and tell him that billboards remind you of the brain-washing tactics used by North Korea. Apparently, this is an effective means of sparking him to action. Seriously, contact your legislator and do whatever it takes to keep billboards from our highways.
Bud Walkup
Bradley
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Runaway train
“When was the last time, sir, that you went grocery shopping?”
That was a question recently asked of New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley by an audience member in Queens, N.Y., at a speech on inflation. Dudley explained that although food and energy prices are rapidly increasing, the cost of iPads is going down.
In keeping with this “Don’t Worry, be happy” theme, White House press secretary Jay Carney downplayed a recent announcement by Standard and Poor’s that it was downgrading the credit outlook for the nation to “negative.” A corresponding decrease in our AAA credit rating would be a financial disaster for a nation that owes $14 trillion.
Although the President was not able to submit a serious budget proposal to alleviate these concerns, he was able to give the term “bully pulpit” a whole new meaning and to mock and excoriate Republicans and Congressman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., for submitting a budget which would, ostensibly, starve children, take away their medical care and leave granny cooling her heels in a snow bank.
Or at least that is what Mr. Obama would have you believe.
It is incumbent on the president to dispense with his own divisive, prepackaged political rhetoric and soberly assess the oncoming inflationary-debt freight train now gaining momentum, and which could adversely impact virtually all Americans, by means of cascading price increases throughout the economy. The result could well be a catastrophic loss in consumer purchasing power, skyrocketing interest rates, dramatically slowed business growth and a guaranteed collision with a double-dip recession.
Or worse.
David D. Wilson
Levant
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Ballot questions
The May 4 Bangor city ballot must be changed, or it will open the door for the City Council to spend whatever they want to from whatever source of funding they choose to use.
The sample ballot does not specify that they must only use the money from Hollywood Slots or that they can only spend $65 million. It also does not address the cost of making a new larger parking area and other hidden costs associated with this project.
Randy Perkins
Bangor