Raise the minimum wage
It’s no surprise to anyone that families are struggling. In 2008, when the economy tanked, we all struggled, but now, corporate profits have risen. You would never know it, though, looking at communities across Maine. That’s because, while corporate profits have returned, wages have not risen with them. Corporations are back on top, but the people making Wal-Mart and McDonald’s function are forced to live in poverty.
People I know and love are affected by this policy. One couple has a total of three jobs between them, and even though they only have one child, they still struggle to keep food on the table. Another couple has two low-wage jobs, and they can’t even afford an apartment, so they are confined to living with family. Another person I know had to drop out of college because he couldn’t afford to live and pay for school.
These people are just some of the 160,000 Mainers who would be affected by the minimum wage increase on the ballot this year. These people work hard, and they deserve a living wage. Moreover, our economy needs this boost. We need families like these to be able to shop in our stores, eat in our restaurants and buy homes in our neighborhoods. That grows our state, our businesses and gives thousands more Mainers a good shot.
Santa Barbosa
Bangor
LePage’s improper conduct
While watching the news recently, I heard Senate President Mike Thibodeau say that the governor was doing what he thought was right when he refused to swear in senator-elect Susan Deschambault. Why refuse to fulfill his duties as Maine’s chief executive?
LePage evidently decided to punish Deschambault, her family and the people of Senate District 32 because seven Democrats did not approve his nominee to a state commission. Such childish, immature action is not worthy of the chief executive of the great state of Maine.
Making matters worse, senator-elect Deschambault and her family were invited to Augusta to be sworn in April 1. That morning she and her family made the trip to Augusta only to be told the governor was not going to swear her in at that time. What should have been a very proud and rewarding event in their lives had a spiteful wet blanket thrown on it. Too bad that someone in the governor’s office did not have the courtesy to call Deschambault to let her know she would not be sworn in after all.
The governor may consider politics a game, but even games have rules and a code of proper conduct and so do the games played by the governor.
Richard Gould
Greenville
Give Dunlap the boot
Matthew Dunlap is our secretary of state, and he just gave the go-ahead for an already-doomed effort to keep the LGBTQ community a legal grey-area by removing protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation from the Maine Human Rights Act. Actually, it’s a ballot to turn back the clock and reverse a decision most of Mainers voted in favor of a decade ago.
What might not be fresh in your mind is his recent foray into what looks very much to me like dirty politics. In November, he invalidated nearly 30,000 signatures on a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana for recreational use. The campaign sued, and the decision was overturned by a Maine Superior Court.
Our secretary of state also was responsible for another shady decision, which says that libertarians simply don’t count as a political party, at least not for the rest of 2016. It was another finger-wagging, “Oh, look here, you technically don’t have all the signatures you actually have” maneuver. Since this is so common for him, I’ve decided to christen it the Dunlap Dodge.
Do we really want this man as our secretary of state? If I (or the libertarians, or the pot smokers, or our giant LGBTQ population) have any say in it, he’s getting the boot next election cycle.
Kurtis Mello
Old Town
A $12 wage not high enough
Gov. Paul LePage and his allies are fighting a ballot initiative to increase the state’s minimum wage to $12 per hour, saying it is too much too fast.
A living wage in Maine for a single adult with no children is $15.77 per hour, according to a national report released last December. This means that the position that LePage and others are advocating would not only not allow people to feed their kids, but even to feed themselves.
I believe we need a minimum wage that truly is a living wage, so it should be at least $20 per hour, which would still fall short of the cost of living for a single adult with one dependent.
The notion that a $12 per hour minimum wage is too high is ridiculous, as many states begin to enact considerably higher wages, but it is a good step in the right direction.
What’s even more ridiculous is the notion that ending blatant pay discrimination in the tipped worker credit will end restaurants as we know them. Seven states have thriving restaurant industries and pay waitresses a full minimum wage before tips. Despite this, restaurants still are open for business. Waitresses were not laid off, and people continue to tip. Alaska averages the highest tips in the U.S. and pays waitresses the same wage as all other workers.
Corporate lobbyists have already been caught lying about this policy, and it’s time that the opponents of a living wages be honest.
Carla Casimir
Bangor
No bailout for biomass
The biomass electricity industry is in trouble again. It is time to solve the real problem here. We have hard-working loggers in Maine who need a market for their waste wood that does not involve burning it in an inefficient, high polluting, subsidized biomass electric plant. Let’s put the emphasis on finding socially useful ways to use this product.
If the University of Maine can invent a bridge that fits in a backpack, then I am confident that they and other smart creative people can come up with a plan. Extending more corporate welfare to the biomass electric industry is not the answer. They say they need a short-term financial bailout. If the banks are not willing to extend them credit, why should Maine taxpayers and ratepayers?
Edward Miller
Hallowell