What is one new policy that the state should embrace to make housing easier to build and afford?
Free up State-owned vacant properties for long-term land leases for affordable housing development, using the well respected capabilities of the Maine State Housing Authority.
Transmission lines, solar incentives and offshore wind development have been controversial over the past several years. What steps should Maine take to meet growing demand for electricity?
Moving away from our reliance on legacy fossil fuels is critical. The State should continue to advance the Sears Island windport development both for its clean energy potential AND its regional economic development benefits. My work on the Environment and Natural Resources Committee over the past two years has persuaded me that this is a once in a generation opportunity for Maine.
Should the state make changes to its tax laws? If so, outline your priorities.
Yes. The State relies far too heavily on the regressive property tax. I will support policies that shift away from that archaic levy and create a more equitable reliance on the two broad based and progressive income and sales tax resources.
We are closing in on the one-year anniversary of the Lewiston mass shooting. Are further legislative responses required around guns, mental health, supporting victims and families or other policy areas?
I have hunted and been a gun owner since my childhood in Aroostook County. I am also one who supports reasonable gun safety legislation like a true “red flag” law and limits on magazine capacity for semi-automatic weapons – both of which I will support in the next Legislature – as well as expanded resources directed to treatment of mental illness.
Describe a unique attribute or area of focus that you will bring to the Legislature.
I believe that my forty-plus year career as a city manager (the last twenty-three in Augusta) has been a great help to me in keeping the issues I face as a legislator in proper perspective – including the need to work with colleagues on both side of the partisan aisle.
