Gov. Paul LePage, from his first days in office, has shown a reckless disregard for good government.
He has thumbed his nose at the Legislature — which, of course, is an easy target. He has called people names; he has bullied and blustered; and he has stretched the truth, which is a kind way of saying he has told a few lies.
But now, in a confusing display of governance, he has thrown down the gauntlet to voters.
Last week, LePage vetoed one of five bond proposals, while letting four continue on to the ballot without his signature.
The bonds were approved by more than two-thirds of the Legislature, which will return Thursday to consider a veto override.
Regardless of whether or not the Legislature overrides the governor’s veto, at least four bonds will appear on the ballot in November.
The governor — blinded by ideology and without regard for the jobs that would be created — said that even if voters approve the bonds, he would use his authority as governor to make sure none of the money is used on things such as roads and bridges.
The governor could have vetoed all the bonds or any combination. But if he had gone that far, the Legislature may well have handed him his political hat, with his head still attached.
The five bonds, taken together, would have made important investments that would help the economy today and into the future.
The four bonds that the governor has threatened to ignore would provide $51 million for transportation; $11.3 million for the University of Maine System, the state’s community colleges and Maine Maritime Academy; $8 million for clean water projects; and $5 million for the Land for Maine’s Future program, which focuses on land conservation.
The governor vetoed a bond that would have invested $20 million in innovation, helping to directly create jobs and support entrepreneurs building new businesses in the state.
Voters have a history of supporting such investments.
And why shouldn’t they? Maine has a low debt burden, pays its bonds back more quickly than most other states and interest rates are so low that there’s little downside to the investment.
Polls across the country show that voters remain skeptical of government spending, though such sentiment is contradicted at the ballot box when people go to vote. An attack on spending is red meat to the GOP faithful, but when it comes to rutted roads and better jobs, feelings are a bit more muddled.
One trip down some of Maine’s secondary roads and it’s clear that our state needs to put some money into transportation.
A walk around our college campuses shows that there’s much to be gained from smart investments there.
Land conservation and clean water, which pay substantial dividends for even modest investments, are critical not only to our state’s quality of life, but also to improve our economy.
And even as the rest of the world rushes to invest in the cutting edge companies and technologies that can help to create new jobs and opportunities, our governor prefers a governing philosophy that disparages a college education, focuses on political vendetta and puts special interests ahead of the real people.
While the governor is pushing an agenda that gives tax breaks to wealthy, out-of-state interests, he’s ignoring strategies that would put people to work in Maine and strengthen our economy.
The governor has made dividing people into little groups against one another a hallmark of his administration.
But this time, he might have picked the wrong group to target: “Even with voters’ authorization to borrow this money, my administration will not spend it until we’ve lowered our debt significantly,” the governor said in a press release.
With an open threat to void the will of the voters, to ignore the law and to abuse his power, LePage has drawn a line in the sand.
On one side, he stands with the most ideological of Republicans, the few who would throw good governance, good schools and good roads away to prove a political point.
On the other side?
Voters who drive on crumbling roads, wish for a quality education for their children, trust they will have clean water, and hope for a robust economy that will allow them to get a good job with benefits and provide the opportunities that will give their kids a chance for prosperity.
Through his policies, the governor has demonstrated that he will ignore voters. Now he has made it explicit. He will do what he wants, regardless of the effect on the economy or the will of the people.
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. You can reach him at dfarmer14@hotmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @dfarmer14.
The sooner we get to the polls in November so we can turn this BUFFOON of a governor into a lame duck by crushing his radical TeaPublican backers at the polls, the sooner we can start bringing some sanity back to Maine government.
Farmer winning again
LePage tells voters he plans to ignore them
I am going out on a limb here!
WE got the hint!
Folks – The sad truth is the money created by these bonds go the same same political cronies time after time. Few new “jobs” are actually created. Rather, its goes to the University System or pals of well-connected politicians. Remember the Green Energy fiasco created by bonds? Stop being duped.
Bond money aside, he is there to do the will of the voters. Granted only 38% put him there, but now he is responsible to the majority of them. Publicly saying he is going to flout the will of the people he works for (meaning the people of Maine, and assuming passage of bonds) is not the act of a man who considers himself an elected representative of the people, it is an act of a man who considers himself above the people he represents. He needs to be reminded that his title for duration of his one and only term is Governor, not Emperor.
Why cant we begin the process of having him thrown out as governor…Other states have done it…and i would think the other politicians in Augusta are as sick of his shananigans as the people are.
Those other states had mechanisms in place to recall governors. We don’t. We would have to have such a process approved by the legislature, but it’s a republican majority.
Such an amendment to the Maine Constitution would require many years before being implemented, if the Legislature even allowed the amendment to move forward to a voter referendum.
You need to read the Maine Constitution. Maine does not have a recall process for the Governor’s position.
Well that is why i asked. thanks for giving me the information. Much appreciated. Guess we gotta wait two years to get his obnoxious butt outta here.
The Governor is responsible for the overall financial health of the State. I think he has a few more smarts than a lot of voters, who, like our Republican and Democrat legislature would only like to spend, spend, spend – far too excessive on social programs. I’m happy to see Gov. LePage put the brakes on!
So when he gets kicked out of office by the voters in the next gubernatorial election, does he get to say, “A majority of Maine voters voted for the other person, but I am smarter than they are so I have decided I am going to keep being governor”? Sorry doesn’t work that way. When the Maine voters vote on any referendum or bond issue, and it passes, it is his duty to do the will of the voters. If SSM passes he does not get to say, “I’m smarter and don’t like it so too bad, you aren’t getting it”
His grand IQ was demonstrated in the smiley face?
The will of the people regarding SSM has been totally disregarded by the Dems but no one here is screaming about the Bald one going against the voters wishes. LePage is protecting our youth from having to pay back the $$ that politicians award to their cronies today to stay in power. Can anyone demonstrate with real numbers the benefits of these bonds?
No, the referendum for SSM has been done exactly according to law. If it wins this time, the anti’s can try and referendum it away next year. It doesn’t matter LePage’s rationale, if he does not sell these bonds as the voters have instructed him to do (assuming they pass) he is in the wrong. He is there to govern daily operations of the state, not to disregard a democratic process.
The only people that i would think would vote to pass the University Bond are those actually working in the system itself. After seeing the raises they recently gave out and the fact that this coming year is the first in 30 years that tuitions have NOT been hiked, should let the Maine Voters know that there is no need to give them MORE money….not for a long long time.
=-===
Mr. Farmer I hate to say this but I am ashamed of you. What in the name of all that is holy makes you think that a person as wonderful and as smart as Paul Richard LePage and his merry band of Tea Party Parrot supporters would be concerned about what common Mainers think? They certainly haven’t shown any interest in the common Mainer during the current legislative session which is soon to end. Voters for the most part are just those people who get up in the morning and go to work to feed, house and provide their families with things needed to live and pay taxes. They aren’t the really important people like the “Job Creators” we are constantly giving tax cuts. They aren’t important like Insurance Companies who we pass special legislation for. What makes you think that Mr. LePage thinks that the voters count for anything? To hear him tell it we are nothing but a bunch of couch laying bums who just want to live in a Welfare State. Voters are the people who he has called idiots, lazy, unskilled, lied to and told to kiss his butt. As long as he keeps his Tea Party Parrots happy that is all that is important. You act surprised that he is telling Maine voters that he doesn’t care what they think. He has been doing that since the day he took office and told us his first big lie “People Before Politics”.
I hate LePage and would love to see him retired the next time he runs for governor. However Maine never saw a bond it didn’t approve and enough is enough. Roads need to be budgeted and the group (Maine Better Transportation Association) who every freaking year pushes for yet another bond to fund road construction is actually a consortium of companies which stand to make money on the projects. R&D funding needs to have time limits imposed upon the applicants. Some companies live off these federal and state research grants for a decade or more. Some, after all those years, never do not create jobs or even a viable product. That is no idle statement on my part. I once worked for such a company. Our great university system is another annual beggar for new bond issues. Again, this should come from the general fund. As for land conservation, we have a Department of Conservation. Do we want to add to our current investments? Well the Bureau of Lands and Parks just gave Fort Knox to the Friends of Fort Knox so they could save a few thousand dollars. Imagine that, they gave the place away in all but deed. So really the larger question is, do we want to pay for conservation of precious Maine lands or not? If we do then we must budget for it.
Careful George, you’re coming dangerously close to both making sense and making a declaration for running for State Treasurer. And I hope you do ! Common sense, fiscal reality and discipline and knowing that not every R&D Project is a winner are trait’s that have long been missing in Augusta. It’s time they came back !
State Treasurer is not an elected office, unfortunately…
Oh but it is if you go look at the process. George could almost walkaway with this if the Governor had any sense. But that’s expecting too much from Paulie and Company.
King LePage.
One(term) and done!And the main reason why he behaves in such an arrogant/boorish manner…..is because HE knows that he is a ‘one and done’ governor.He KNOWS that a ‘split’ vote that got him elected the first time,won’t happen a ‘second’ time.Expect more boorish behavior….it’s all he has left….. and all he’ll ever be.
A lot of voters have long memories. It is too bad he is going to destroy the State before he leaves. I have lived in other States and I came back to Maine because it is different, I don’t want to be like New Hampshire.
I’m pretty sure the offending digit was not a thumb.
We certainly got used to being ignored by the Ds in the Blaine House and legislature, so why should this be different. You do lose me at the first sentence, tho…I’m not in the choir anyway.
When did the Ds blatantly object or ignore something directly passed by voters?
Every time Baldacci siphoned money from the DOT and other state departments, to fund his unsustainable expansion of welfare and social programs.
That’s not what I asked for an example of. Bonds are specific questions we vote on, either up or down. We voted up and LePage voted down. Find and example of that and come back to me.
SSM
No pumpkin. They passed it, then we voted on it. Try again.
If Mr. Farmer is defining “good government” as the last forty years of Maine government, then yes. I take it that Mr. Farmer’s point is that returning the Democrats to power will bring back ‘the good old days’?
Incidentally, wasn’t there a certain amount of popular unhappiness with Gov. Baldacci’s school consolidation program?
Are you sure you are not writing about the Baldacci administration?
Well, let’s see:
David Farmer is a political and media consultant. He was formerly deputy chief of staff and communications director for Gov. John E. Baldacci . . . .
This background is sure to lead us in a well rounded discussion.
NOT.
But do you have an actual point relevant to the topic at hand or…?
The mistake the writer made with his story is calling these expenditures investments. Fixing roads and bridges, givign money to the Universities and the other projects are expenses. Investments have ROI, fixing a road does not produce ROI nor does giving money to budget institutions. Lepage might be a buffoon and these bonds are probably ok, but they are an expense.
Roads and bridges are necessary if tourists are to visit Maine if companies are to consider locating here, and if Mainers are to be able to get to and from their jobs. I’d call that an investment in Maine and its future.
How many tourists do you know who don’t come here because of the conditions of the roads ? How many working folks do you know that can’t get to work because of the conditions of the roads ?
Do roads and bridges magically repair themselves?
If they are not kept up, year after year, so many get into disrepair that the task becomes gargantuan. It’s vital not to let that happen, because then (try to think in terms of the future) it is indeed true that people won’t be able to get to work and visitors won’t feel safe driving here.
In your view, is it not worth maintaining and repairing Maine’s roads and bridges until your very own car tumbles into a river?
Roads fall to disrepair when the former administration takes tax monies dedicated to roads and bridges and uses the money for social programs
It’s interesting that you’re setting this up as a social programs vs. roads thing.
They hope to turn over virtually all services that are now public (e.g., schools, Social Security, Medicare, whatever shreds might remain of social services) to corporations. This would be a tremendous transfer of wealth and power from the middle class to folks who are already wealthy and powerful.
One important tactic is to convince people that social programs only benefit “other” people–people who are undeserving by definition–people we could never possibly become. Surely, no Republican could ever lose his or her job and not be able to find another! Surely, they themselves could never possibly go bankrupt over medical bills, or become disabled (or have a disabled child or grandchild), or find themselves impoverished in retirement because an unregulated Wall Street crashed the stock market (again), or their pension was destroyed by a Romney-clone’s buyout and dismantling of the business they worked for.
Nope! That only happens to Bad People, people who don’t deserve help.
By the time disaster does strike A Republican or his/her family, the social programs they desperately need will have been dismantled (along with roads and bridges left to decay for lack of bond issues).
Only in government do we not count that which we build as assets.
“How do we keep books on this? Every dollar we spend to put the
unemployed to work is carefully entered on the red side of the ledger.
But for all the national wealth they have created in permanent
improvements in public services, not one dollar is entered on the black
side of the ledger as assets or credit. All this money is listed as
expenditures, none as capital investments. I do not care how the
bookkeeping is done, except that it should not confuse the average
citizen about the actual fiscal condition and operations of his
Government.” – Harry Hopkins
Exactly. Assets listed on the left side of the balance sheet should be depreciated. They are not increasing in value. But these bonds might be ok, but the state needs to pay them back nest paw?
and people wonder why I don’t vote…They just do what they want no matter what the voters say
That’s a cop-out. Maybe if you and others like you had voted, he wouldn’t be in office. I think it’s pretty damned lazy and irresponsible to throw your hands in the air and say, “they’re all the same,” no matter what end of the political spectrum you’re on.
When Aunt Susie sends Junior a $100 check for deposit in his underfunded college
savings account, Mom and Dad do him no favors if they allow him to buy a
new stereo, instead. Like a good parent, the Governor is acting with Maine’s overall best
interests in mind.
Just as parents need to rein in irresponsible teenagers, the Governor is acting responsibly in saying he will not allow the state to fund certain bonds, even if those bonds are approved at the ballot box in November. He knows that Maine already has unsustainable debt levels, and that until our existing debts are paid down, it would not be prudent to borrow more money.
Paul LePage is NOT our parent. He is an elected official. He is not an authoritarian ruler, such as a parent would be in your horrible analogy. If you can’t ascertain the inherent differences between the two, you need more help then I give you credit for.
If the voters want newer roads and bridges kept up to snuff, he should honor what the people of this State want. Since, you know, he said that is what he’d do. I don’t really care about the other three bonds, and will likely vote no on them, but to look at the roads and bridges we have, and pretend they aren’t in serious dis-repair is to take obtuseness to a new level.
A good infrastructure helps with tourism, job creation and it keeps more money in your pockets, via less wear and tear on our cars.
If the people of the state of Maine pass a referendum that states that every governor must do ten jumping jacks outside the Blaine House before heading to their office every day, I expect that the governor will do them, get the law changed, or resign. It doesn’t matter how bloody ludicrous the bill may be — and these bonds are NOT, in fact, that ludicrous — if the voters say to do it, then it better well be done.
Most people, liberal, progressive, conservative, libertarian, or anywhere in between, will recognize that we do not elect dictators that tell us what’s best for us in this country. We elect people to do OUR will, and they answer to US. I reject your defense of this governor and the power of the unitary executive, regardless of who wields it.
LePage is the political equivalent of a business consultant that is hired by a company to come in and make drastic cuts that nobody else could stomach, and then leaves others to clean up the wreckage he creates as he moves out of Maine to his next assignement…in business they’re known as hatchet men and they have little to no regard for peoples well being or the financial security of their families. You have to be a little sociopathic to be a hatchet man
This article makes as much sense as Bangor Daily News: “Watchdog agency finds no wrongdoing at MaineHousing after months of furor” did, that being zip when.
– OPEGA found that at least $458,410 was spent between 2007 and 2011 on
“contributions specifically for sponsorships, donations, and membership.”
– The report found that former director McCormick incurred at least $50,000 in reimbursements for travel and meals in just five years. That total included at least 40 out-of-state trips and two international trips.
– In all, 62 MaineHousing staff members attended 89 conferences in just five years
between 2007 and 2011. The total cost exceeded $115,000.
– The report also stated that receipts for travel, meals and lodging were not always provided, leaving the door open for fraud.
– McCormick spent, or was reimbursed for $9,625 in meals that took place when she was not travelling and when no business purpose was documented.
– MaineHousing spent $309,400 on “teambuilding, recognition and appreciation, and wellness incentives,”according to the report. This total includes more than $70,000 in gift cards, awards, gift, flowers and coffee. Another $106,000 was for staff training including “leadership” and “diversity training.”
– Staff “celebrations” costs taxpayers a total of more than $44,000 in just the five years OPEGA looked at. OPEGA questioned the practice, noting that, “the frequency with which these expenses were incurred cause us to question whether they were all truly
necessary.”
– The OPEGA report also highlights a purchase of $17,412 for artwork for the MaineHousing offices. The art was purchased from Greenhut Galleries, in Portland. Greenhut Galleries is owned by Peggy Greenhut Golden, who previously worked as the head of the Maine Art Commission under former Governor Angus King.
– Also of concern to OPEGA was $3,500 in bonuses given to vendors. Also, former director Dale McCormick used MaineHousing funds to pay for consultants to accompany her to conferences associated with MaineHousing’s “carbon project.” The OPEGA report does not give details, but does highlight a 2008 conference when McCormick was reimbursed $3,245, some of which covered the cost of a consultant attending the New
York carbon conference.
-Hundreds of “Mainers” protested today, May 31, 2012, at a meeting in Dover-Foxcroft on a proposed east-west highway that would facilitate tourism. According to Maine citizens who filled the gymnasium where the meeting was held, “We don’t need improved roads which would only serve Canadians and other tourists coming traveling across Maine from western border destinations all the way to coastal destinations. We don’t want them here.”
-The “Oxford Casino” required years of repeated votes to get approved promoted as a “jobs project” for an area desperately in need of jobs with high unemployment. The casino is having difficulty opening because people are not applying for the $14 an hour plus benefits jobs. Why would they work for $14 an hour plus benefits when they can sit at home or do whatever whenever on welfare with the kids in state paid daycare out of the way?
-Tourism? Can you say Plum Creek? NO! Not in Maine. Like one job generating privately funded tourism project after another the answer has been NO.
-The same NO is what has echoed for private one private job creating industry after another from refineries, to clean energy, to wood pellets. . . the list is endless as the exodus of Maine’s ready, willing and able to work youth at graduation.
-Cutting Edge Companies and Technology? Can we say SOLYNDRA!
Thank you Gov. LePage for doing your part in trying to stop the insanity.