Yes on Question 3
I urge voters to support the transportation bond, Question 3, on the Nov. 3 ballot. This $85 million bond will match with more than $121 million in federal and local funds at a time when we desperately need improvements to our transportation infrastructure.
Question 3 will invest $22 million to fix Maine roads and more than $46 million to repair and rebuild Maine’s bridges. The Maine Department of Transportation can only stretch a dollar so far, and it is underfunded, with no consistent revenue stream for maintaining our infrastructure, leading to a shortfall of $125 million per year.
The bridge report released earlier this year indicates the need of an additional $70 million per year just to maintain our bridges. If the bond doesn’t pass, the DOT will have to cut $40 million from its work plan.
Question 3 also will provide $17 million for ports, harbors, transit, freight and passenger rail service, making it a well-balanced program.
Our families deserve safe bridges and roads. People deserve opportunities to work. Our economy depends on a strong infrastructure.
Please join me in voting yes on Nov. 3 for the transportation bond.
Rod Lane
Bangor
Silencer misinformation
Don Loprieno’s Oct. 26 BDN OpEd, “Maine now allows silencers on guns,” was extremely misleading and full of factual errors and missing information.
To start, silencers are legal to own under federal law. But a gun owner must apply for a federal suppressor permit and pay a $200 fee. A suppressor cannot legally be purchased without this permit.
To possess the device in Maine, a gun owner must also apply for a Maine suppressor permit, where the same background search required to buy any firearm is done, and then pay a $12 fee.
Once the permits are received, a gun owner can purchase the suppressor. Suppressors cost hundreds of dollars.
I would doubt that any Maine nighttime poachers could obtain a suppressor legally. If I could afford it, I would love to use a silencer to hunt, to save what hearing I have left.
Larry Ferrell
Newport
Yes on Question 1
Last November, volunteers in all Maine counties collected more than 80,000 signatures from Mainers who wanted to regain control over the “dark money” pouring into Maine politics and buying the allegiance of our elected leaders. We, the people, got Question 1 on the ballot — now we have to vote on it and get it passed.
We have a chance to lead the nation. We had the best clean elections law in the country, and it was used by more than 80 percent of Maine state legislators in 2008 to finance campaigns. But by 2014, only 53 percent of candidates ran as “clean.” The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2011 ruling in McComish v. Bennett and subsequent decisions on the part of the governor have weakened and damaged our clean elections law here in Maine. This is an opportunity to take it back.
Restoring the clean elections law will not be paid for by taxpayers. It will be funded by eliminating corporate tax expenditures the Legislature’s nonpartisan oversight group finds ineffective in boosting Maine’s economy and creating jobs.
People running for state office do not have to be clean elections candidates. They can still use private funding to conduct their campaign. But with the clean elections law restored, the playing field will be more even for ordinary Mainers who want to run for office. It will be possible for clean elections candidates to win elections on the basis of sound ideas, hard work and widespread support, not dollars.
Julie Meltzer
Bass Harbor
Be an informed patient
Happy Health Literacy Month. Health literacy is all about understanding and taking charge of your health. Gone are the days when a doctor told a patient “what to do.” Now you are encouraged to take charge of your health. This means asking the doctor or provider questions.
Make sure you understand what your doctor is telling you about your disease. Ask about treatments and all options available to you. Usually, there are many ways to treat a disease, so make sure you know all possible treatments so you can decide which is best for you.
Do you understand your diagnosis? If not, ask questions. Sometimes when you go to the doctor you forget what questions you were going to ask. Keep a list and write down your questions. Then bring the list to the doctor’s office and have the questions answered. Make sure you really understand what the doctor says. There are no dumb questions. Keep asking until you understand.
If you get medication, make sure you know what the medication is, what it treats, how you are supposed to take it — how many times each day, when, why, does this drug interfere with my other medications? You and your doctor are a team. Be a team player.
Alexandria Nesbit
Ellsworth
Bucksport’s future
Once upon a time, there was a town with a looming decision. The concerned residents gathered, and there were great debates of its future. The town had lost its greatest source of revenue, a place where men and women had labored for years to support their loved ones. And this is how the tale was told.
One town tried to be all things to all people with no regard for fiscal responsibility. Its priorities were well-intended but misplaced, spending to the point of using savings that had been set aside, passing along debt to the people’s children and grandchildren.
The other was a town of greatness, building on its past, rising up from the ashes, building on its strengths, using the restraints of fiscal responsibility and growing into the future with a slow, steady march, not passing debt along to the people’s children and grandchildren.
It will be a matter of conviction next week at the polls, and it will be up to the residents of Bucksport to follow their hearts. This will be for the love of our town and the way we want the future to remember the tale of our town.
Stephen St. Peter Sr.
Bucksport
Election notice
The BDN will stop accepting letters and OpEds related to the Nov. 3 election on Wednesday, Oct. 28.