Gov. Paul LePage deserves credit for delivering a State of the State address that avoided the combative tone and harsh partisan pronouncements that have been typical of many of his public appearances.
He struck a tone of empathy, particularly when he was talking about the scourge of domestic violence. And his call that we find ways to increase the median family income in the state is on track.
The governor’s speech avoided an emphasis on policy and specifics that would give his critics easy targets. It was reminiscent in content — if not in form for its lack of bluster — to his campaign stump speech.
He stayed true to familiar themes about government regulations, taxes and welfare that helped to carry him to the Blaine House, sticking with the broad rhetorical strokes that many people can agree with.
But it’s at this point that the speech suffers a break with reality.
While many people seem to believe that Maine’s system of public, anti-poverty programs are overly generous, when they are confronted with the actual cuts that Gov. LePage is presenting, they are opposed. As the more than 125 people who attended a candlelight vigil outside the State House before the governor’s speech — including me, as one of the participants — can attest, the governor’s plans to take health insurance away from people who make less than $11,000 a year are unpopular.
His plan to end funding for housing and medical care for people with disabilities and the elderly have been rejected even by otherwise supportive members of his own party. His goal to cut funding for prescription medicine for seniors is despised.
And his proposed cuts to Head Start, ugly and unnecessary, already have been partially rejected.
On and on and down the line, the compact and neat rhetoric that draws applause runs into fierce opposition when the discussion moves from the general to the specific.
And while the governor talks about protecting the most vulnerable and sustaining the safety net, in truth his proposals would deny the very poor predictable health care, sending them to emergency rooms and uncertain futures. He would give up federal dollars for health care and pass the costs of caring for these very poor and often sick individuals onto families with private insurance, onto hospitals and onto communities.
And the cuts could cost Maine more than 4,000 jobs on top of the 7,200 jobs that have been lost since the governor took office last year.
The same can be said about energy, taxation and education.
The idea of lower energy prices is appealing. Despite the fact that Maine has the lowest electricity prices in New England, our rates are high compared to states outside our region, especially those with large publicly funded energy projects or deep reserves of coal.
But the solution to our energy costs is not to discover coal in the North Woods. Instead, the most cost-effective way to cut costs is through energy efficiency and increased competition and expansion of new, local renewable energy.
According to the Efficiency Maine Trust’s annual report for last year, the cheapest and best way to reduce energy costs is to invest in energy efficiency, which creates jobs as an additional benefit.
On taxation, the governor is proud of his accomplishments. But the overwhelming percentage of the benefits of his policy go to the top 1 percent, who have an average annual income of more than $733,000 a year. While middle-class families need relief and the poor are desperate for opportunity, it’s the rich who benefit the most.
And on education, the governor is exactly right when he says that our policy should start with a straightforward question: “What is best for the student?”
But then he takes aim at teachers, who along with parents, are the linchpins of successful education. Whether raiding their pensions or attacking them as union pawns, he misdiagnoses the problem with education today.
As I listened to the governor’s speech, I was impressed with his tone and delivery and with work done by his speechwriters and staff to appeal to a broad audience, who might otherwise pay little attention to political speeches.
But the policies hiding behind the words are wrong. They hurt too many, leave too many behind. They seek to divide our state and to benefit those who need help the least.
The governor said during his speech: “It’s time to be outraged.” He’s right. But the outrage should be directed at his policies.
David Farmer is a political and media consultant. He was formerly deputy chief of staff and communications director for Gov. John E. Baldacci and a longtime journalist. His clients include Maine Equal Justice Partners and EngageMaine. You can reach him at dfarmer14@hotmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @dfarmer14.
We are dealing with cause and effect. David Farmer was on the “inside” of the previous administration and did nothing but “kick the proverbial can down the road.” We are in the current situation by that administration letting benefit “creep” continue and perhaps in some cases encouraged its growth. If your are the cause you need to scream very loudly so people will not remember you past mistakes especially at election time. After all Democrats haven’t met a tax they wouldn’t like to raise while Republicans haven’t met one they wouldn’t like to cut. You had your opportunity for “reform” but let it pass you by.
Stop living in the past and live (and let live) in the present and future.
We are all working on getting into the present and will be just as soon as the mess from the previous administrations are cleaned up. You do not clean up 40 years worth of garbage politics in a year.
remember that when you complain about Obama
I don’t remember one party rule in Washington DC for 40 years, do you? I do remember the democrats ruling the house of representatives for an extended period of time although I do not recall how many years that was. In any event, how does what you say compare to my statement? Obama has done NOTHING in three years. LePage has done more in one year than Obama has in three. Obama deserves much more criticism than he gets. This newspaper rarely carries a story about him and completely left out the fact that Obama singlehandedly refused to allow a pipeline through this country from Canada that would have created thousands of jobs. The man is stupid, leaderless, clueless and out of touch with us America.
David Wind Farmer.
Farmer does not like LePage me thinks
Wise opinion, both of you. I don’t like LePage’s policies either and although I’ve never met him, he makes it easy to dislike him.
Sour grapes makes fine whine.
Farmer should stop whining. He lost.
Who does!!!!! not many!!!
LePage is outragous and his approach is wrong. Help to create jobs. Cut the government fat. Streamline programs without being so drastic. Cut from the top not the bottom. He is creating a mess.
In what way??
Local renewables like wood and hydro yes.
But wind is just a scam that lines the pockets of Baldacci cronies like his former Chief of Staff Kurt Adams who took over $ 1million in stock options from future employer First Wind while Chairman of the PUC! While there, Adams greased the skids for the $1.5 billion CMP transmission upgrade. It is needed solely for Balacci’s wind friends who without it are dead in the water with their big plans to fleece us. Yet Baldacci and company said it was needed for reliability because our lines were old. BULL. They were and are fine and if Baldacci ever paid a CMP bill he’d know we all pay a monthly charge for maintenance.
Of course when Kurt Adams, who had been interviewing with First Wind for months while running the PUC was hired by First Wind, he comes aboard as Director of Transmission. Is there no shame?
Meanwhile, Baldacci tells us not to worry for we only will pay our 8% share of the ISO-NE grid on the $1.5 billion. But he neglects to tell us that we will also pay the same 8% on the $30 billion of similar wind-required transmission across the New England grid. That is an extra $4,500 per Maine ratepayer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BULL, that wind power does not increase costs.
Read all about this Kurt Adams tale at the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting
http://pinetreewatchdog.org/2010/05/06/puc-chairman-took-equity-stake-in-wind-company/
and
http://pinetreewatchdog.org/2010/07/18/first-wind-sec-filing-change-questioned/
and
http://pinetreewatchdog.org/2010/07/18/group-asks-ag-to-probe-official-of-first-wind/
Glad Governor LePage is cleaning things up in Augusta.
Thank you, BDN, for properly identifying Mr. Farmer as an operative for Baldacci, the worst Governor Maine has had in the 6 decades of my life in this state. Renewables? Ha! Baldacci made sure that our highly productive hydro producers could not be classified as “renewable” in order to open the doors for wind to be the favored “renewable” for PRS purposes. Then he cobbled together his infamous Governor’s Wind Task Force to conduct a charade to lay the basis for creating the heinous “Expedited Wind Permitting” statute, rammed through an unknowing Legislature in the closing days of the short term in April 2008.
This has opened the floodgates for the destruction of rural Maine’s uplands by sprawling industrial wind sites. We must overbuild the transmission system at great expense for the few days of the year there is actually substantial wind power generation, but mostly it is a fickle trickle of electricity. And wind power in Maine is NOT “local renewable energy”, as it is all shipped right to the grid and counted by ISO New England only as surplus because it is unreliable and unpredictable.
The wind industry would not exist without the heavy subsidization and mandates. The taxpayers are robbed now by the subsidies; when those are inevitably gone (happening in Europe now!), the mandates will remain, saddling ratepayers and our Maine economy with huge cincreased electricity costs. Yeah, Mr. Farmer, great legacy Baldacci left! Quit shilling for the wind industry!
no, the worst governor the state has had in recent years is the present one.. good thing he is a 1 termer
So the past 40 years have been LIBERAL gov’s in Maine. They have screwed the pooch year after year the taxes go up those that work have lees to show for it while those who do NOTHING get more and more.
That said you think the guy who is trying hard to undo 40 years of what we know for a fact DOES NOT WORK is the worst and not the ones who left this mess? Really????
By the way: WHERE IS BALDACCI?
Shouldn’t he be here in Maine enjoying his legacy as the Wind Governor? Basking in the blatant success of land-based wind? After all, those turbines are supplying Mainers with cheap electricity, aren’t they? (sarcasm intended).
Baldacci “Past Wind”
Under a rock!!!!
An excellent and accurate article.
And where is the factual, i.e. surveys, etc. accuracy in this statement:
“While many people seem to believe that Maine’s system of public, anti-poverty programs are overly generous, when they are confronted with the actual cuts that Gov. LePage is presenting, they are opposed”.
Congregating with 125 ‘protesters’ all of whom probably are paid from tax dollars; isn’t a real reflection of what Maine people think. And isn’t the ‘seem to believe’ a snarky reference to Farmer’s belief that only he knows what they believe or that they have diminished mental capacity since they support the Governor’s policies?
In the first place, it’s unlikely (and you have no way to know, anyhow) that all the protesters receive state benefits. Even if they did, that would certainly not disqualify them from having input.
I often see remarks from Commenters to the effect that people who speak in favor of a social safety net are those who currently need these services.
For the record, I’m solidly in favor of social services, including MaineCare, Medicare, SSI, food stamps, and so on, and I am a person who has worked (and paid taxes) all my life and currently work 50-hour weeks for a decent salary with benefits; the same goes for my husband, who in addition is a Vietnam vet.
Having an adult daughter with a genetic deletion syndrome, who is disabled and has needed the social safety net, has been enliightening to me.
Many people seem to believe that good things reliably happen to good people, and that losing one’s job, going bankrupt, having a serious illness, or being born with a disability somehow indicate that a person is not “good” and thus does not deserve any sort of help.
Bad things do happen to good people. One day YOU or one of your kids or grandkids might need MaineCare or SSI.
….
It’s easy to cast stones when you’re on the outside, isn’t it?
I can’t see that the administration Mr. Farmer served did anything other than perpetuate economically unsustainable government practices. His administration did nothing significant to bring responsibility to government spending of taxpayers’ money. There seemed to never be any sentiment that government spent too much, but that it simply didn’t tax enough. Perhaps, if Mr. Farmer’s boss, and his predecessors, had been more dedicated to a much needed cleaning of the house, we wouldn’t be faced with such a big mess to clean up today.
When a state, or a nation, becomes so dedicated to an entitlement society, it can be very unpopular to speak honestly about the tough choices that have to be made. Are LePage’s proposals perfect? Not likely – most never are. That’s why there should be bipartisan participation to arrive at the best approach possible. Our legislature has become too much like their federal counterpart, one party intent on thwarting the party on the other side of the aisle at the expense of the state’s future.
Chances are they’re both wrong AND they’re both right. So, stop with the political ideology and start working together to fix the indisputably broken and unsustainable policies, that we have been patching for years, with practical solutions – not ideological theories.
Well writen armichka. One wonders if Mr. Farmer supports Paul Violett’s receiveing his pension while in prison or better yet, what his thoughts are on the need ofor a Pension forfeiture law?
Farmer: “Instead, the most cost-effective way to cut costs is through energy efficiency and increased competition and expansion of new, local renewable energy.”
If efficiency is truly cost effective – and often it is – then smart businesses would make those changes and be rewarded with a reduction in expenses. But, if our government is simply handing out grants (someone else’s money) to these same businesses for efficiency upgrades, what motivation do they have to invest their own money?
Mr. Farmer owes us a detailed explanation of how an expansion of wind power (it’s the only renewable Maine is pursuing with any real vigor or scale) will be broadly beneficial in terms of reduced energy costs. Sound bites don’t cut it anymore.
Farmer: “According to the Efficiency Maine Trust’s annual report for last year, the cheapest and best way to reduce energy costs is to invest in energy efficiency, which creates jobs as an additional benefit.”
I’m not arguing Mr. Farmer’s point that energy efficiency could produce jobs, but, please, no more modeled estimates of job creation – they’re always rosy, overoptimistic and easy to manipulate. How many jobs? How many permanent jobs? Is that net or gross? What’s the price to taxpayers per job created? Mr. Farmer and others who make these statements rarely provide any convincing evidence that their ideas are rooted in reality.
“But the outrage should be directed at his policies.” The outrage is rightfully directed at your policies that were enacted during your term with Baldacci, a corrupt and dishonest administration.
untrue,
I keep getting this visual of Baldacci in flouresecent orange one day and he ain’t hunting.
David Farmer’s columns are valuable additions to the BDN’s op ed page. He provides us with important facts and insights that otherwise might be missed. Nonetheless, it is regrettable that he remains uncritical concerning at least one policy legacy of the Baldacci administration and that is the imposition of unreliable and very exprensive wind power. Mr. Farmer sweeps that under the rug by foolishly divering our attention with the words, “the solution to our energy costs is not to discover coal in the North Woods.” Really! Can he not admit that the solution is getting rid of the mandate that requires Maine rate payers each year to absorb the costs of wind power generated electricity? It is too late to eliminate the costs of Maine’s new unneeded transmission lines that are being built simply to make expensive wind power possible, but we can eliminate the mandate. That is part of what Governor LePage meant when he spoke of Maine”s unnecessarily high costs of energy. He also meant there is a need for more natural gas and hydro, but those same politiciaans also rigged the game so as to make wind appear less expensive by making hydro from Quebec more expensive. Now it is embarrassing for former members of the Baldacci administration and legislators from both parties to call attention to the policies they developed and supported that each year will saddle Maine ratepayers with ever increasing electricity rates. I am no general supporter of Governor LePage, but I applaud his understanding of energy matters and of his recognition that Maine people need to make use hydro from Quebec and natural gas from other sources.
“I DO NOT support Augusta being in the business of increasing costs on Maine ratepayers to pad the pockets of special interest groups.
I believe it is morally and ethically wrong to take more money from those who can least afford it to line the pockets of those that are politically connected here in Augusta.
I have met and spoken with companies ranging from natural gas providers, oil dealers, electric utilities, and biomass suppliers to gather input regarding how to lower Maine’s overall energy prices.”
Well said Lepage. Wind Scamming is well recognized by Paul.
Once again Mr. Farmer proves he is a moron
Mr. Farmer, part of the worst administration this state ever had
Which one? Baldacci had two.
Farmboy loves to tweak conservatives espewing garbage to see what may stick. Lepage has been there only one year but I can sense he has made you nervous. Watch out Mayhew and McCormick,Violette is only the start. Perhaps Lepage has to keep on the attack.