The Government Oversight Committee meets Thursday to consider further action regarding Gov. Paul LePage’s intervention in Good Will-Hinckley’s hiring — and unhiring — of House Speaker Mark Eves as its president. There have been reports and hearings, but one large inconsistency remains and the committee must publicly clarify it.
In testimony, under oath, before the committee last month, officials from the LePage administration said the governor did not threaten to withhold state money from the school if it hired Eves.
Yet, the governor himself said he threatened to take the money away. The Government Oversight Committee must confirm which version of events is true before it can decide what, if anything, should happen next.
At the end of June, before the committee voted unanimously to look into LePage’s actions, there was little question LePage threatened to withhold $530,000 in state funds from the Fairfield nonprofit organization over its decision to hire House Speaker Mark Eves as its next president.
LePage essentially admitted to it in a June 25 news release.
“To provide half a million dollars in taxpayer funding to a charter school that would be headed by Maine’s most vehement anti-charter-school politician is not only the height of hypocrisy, it is absolutely unacceptable,” the statement from LePage read.
He made an even more unequivocal statement four days later, responding to a question from WMTW reporter Paul Merrill.
“Yeah, I did.” he said. “If I could, I would. Absolutely. Why wouldn’t I? Tell me why I wouldn’t take the taxpayer money to prevent somebody to go into a school and destroy it. Because his heart’s not into doing the right thing for Maine people.”
Further, a report by the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability, requested by the oversight committee, found that there was such a threat.
“Those on the receiving end of these communications report that they clearly understood the Governor’s ‘support’ to mean the $530,000 in (state) funding for the upcoming biennium and that the Governor’s withdrawal of this support was directly linked to the school’s decision to hire the Speaker,” the report stated.
Before the Government Oversight Committee last month, those affiliated with Good Will-Hinckley confirmed what the OPEGA report said. LePage senior adviser Aaron Chadbourne “said that the governor had been very supportive of Good Will-Hinckley in the past, and he did not think that support would continue if Good Will-Hinckley hired Speaker Eves,” Sara Vanderwood, who was a lobbyist for the organization, told the committee. “To me, the issue of support was directly related to funding.”
Good Will-Hinckley found the threat of loss of support so dire it rescinded its offer to hire Eves.
But, when questioned by members of the oversight committee last month, LePage staff members, including Chadbourne, staunchly denied any threats to take away money were made.
So, which is it? Is the governor telling the truth when he said he threatened to withhold money? Or is his staff telling the truth when they said no threat was made? Both versions cannot be correct.
The committee will get an updated report from OPEGA this week, adding a summary of last month’s hearing. This likely will only reiterate the original point: LePage crossed a line in threatening the financial stability of Good Will-Hinckley if it installed Eves as president.
For the sake of other lawmakers, private businesses, nonprofits and others who may cross the governor, the committee can’t simply accept the report and move on.
