LePage will get retirement benefits
On Nov. 5, 2018, Paul Lepage announced that he was “ done with politics and headed to Florida.” Spoiler alert! When LePage leaves the state he will take along an annual retirement allotment of $26,250 as per Maine Revised Statutes, Title 2; Chapter 1, Subsection A. Also as part of his retirement, he will will be eligible to buy into state-provided health insurance for the rest of his life. This benefit is afforded to him after only eight years of public service.
Let us not forget that as governor, LePage disparaged retired teachers who chose to move to Florida where they would no longer pay Maine income tax. Let us also not forget that as governor, he refused to expand MaineCare through Medicaid.
My thoughts on this subject: What’s good for the goose is good for the gander; people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones; good bye, good riddance and don’t let the door hit you on your way out.
Better times are ahead. Gov.-elect Janet Mills will move forward on MaineCare and show respect for all public servants. Maine, the way life should be.
Margaret T. Clancey
Orono
Trump should pay for wall
For months Donald Trump has talked about wanting to shut down the government. He has said it more than two dozen times. He even welcomed it a couple of weeks ago in the Oval Office on live television. He openly said he’d take the heat for it. And finally, he got talked into it by radio and television personalities who seem to have more control over Trump’s behavior than he has.
But I don’t understand the problem. If Trump is worth the $10 billion he claimed during the 2016 election, why doesn’t he just use half that money or take a loan out on it to build his precious wall? Then he can take all this “indirect” money he claims were going to get from Mexico and pay himself back.
Problem solved, right?
Ed Woods
Newport
Not all companies offer paid leave
I feel compelled to respond to the Dec. 29 BDN column, “Paid sick leave will raise costs for small businesses — and they can’t afford it” and to challenge its author, Peter Gore’s, assertion that “if a business is not providing paid sick time, it’s either because they provide PTO or they cannot afford to do so.” I was employed as a full-time emergency nurse practitioner at The Aroostook Medical Center and Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems EMHS for more than 27 years. Sick or earned benefit time was not offered to emergency room providers; “paid leave” was seven vacation days a year. Each year I approached the subject of leave with my employer and the response was “If you want it, it will be taken out of your salary.”
Meanwhile all executives at EMHS enjoyed the “Executive Paid Leave Program,” instituted in April 2017: “each year, eligible executives receive an allotment benefit of 40 paid days off at their base salary for scheduling time off for vacations, holidays, illness and other personal needs …”
Even large employers fail to voluntarily act in the best interests of their employees. I support Sen. Rebecca Millett and any efforts to mandate paid leave in our state.
Dale Gordon
Caribou