Inside The Blaine House Transcripts
Episode #2
Steve Wallace, President of Southern Midcoast Chamber of Commerce - In 1919, Harriet Blaine Beale donated this beautiful home to the state of Maine. It’s a home rich in history as well as the home of our Governor. Today Governor LePage is going to speak directly to us. He is going to talk about the legislature, the budget as well as the items he would like to see in it. He is also going to speak about some of the policies that he would like to see instituted.
We are also going to sit down with the Commissioner of Education, and talk about the future of our Maine students. We are also going to highlight a successful business that has been caught up in the red tape and regulation.
You’re Inside the Blaine House.
Introduction - We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty, to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
People before Politics starts here.
Steve Wallace - Governor, thanks for being with us today.
Governor Paul LePage - It’s a pleasure.
SW - We are here inside the Blaine House, literally.
Gov. - It’s an absolute beautiful historic building for the State of Maine. The museum part, as we are in now, is a beautiful spot. Governor Blaine office is my favorite. Abraham Lincoln left a message for James Blaine to cross into Richmond and then back to Washington and I’d like to make a deal with the museum to keep that piece.
SW - Sounds beautiful, and for those who don’t know, the Blaine House is literally across the street from the State House.
Gov. - That is correct.
SW - And the State House is very active these days, and one of the big things is the budget. Can you tell us a little bit about the budget?
Gov. - Well the budget is a very very big project because we are looking at two years ahead and this is the first biennium. In our campaign trail we said we were going to come here to make permanent and final fixes to some very serious problems and of course we have the retirement system, the pension fund, health care for retirees are big issues, welfare reform, which is what the people of Maine have said all along needs to be looked at, and of course tax reform.
It’s going to be challenging. You know you are doing your job when everybody is angry at you, because every constituent is going to have to share the pain. We have to fill in the hole of 1.3 billion dollars. We are already coming off with 12.9 billion dollars in debt, so there is a lot of cutting going on.
It’s really not so much cutting as it is spending for priorities and when you run out of money, you run out of money. That’s really what people of Maine need to understand.
We are not cutting anything, we are just spending in those areas that we are required to. 82% of the budget we have no say in; it is legislated by law. We have to put the money there first and then we have those areas that everybody would like, discretionary, but when you run out of money there is no discretionary.
SW - You know, along with putting the net budget together, you also got, you talked about priorities of how you were going to use that money. You’ve got several bills that you have as your priorities. Can you tell us a little bit about those?
Gov. - Well in order to move Maine forward, we need to look at what has happened over the last 35 -40 years and where have we made mistakes, where have we been good, and we need to emphasize the good and work on the problems.
Maine needs regulatory reforms. We are 48th in the nation as far as regulatory environment and we can’t continue to be there and expect to have a quality of life and attract new businesses, new adventurists and good paying jobs. So we need to take a look at regulatory form.
And regulatory reform doesn’t mean that you get rid of good regulatory laws. What you do is speed up the process and get people through the process and know what the end game is. So that’s what we are working on. We are working on streamlining, speeding it up, getting quicker answers from state government, from bureaucracy, and let’s move on and let people create jobs.
Then we all know health care is a major issue in the state of Maine. We are dead last in business climate, we need some sizable improvements in the health care delivery system and the amount it costs, and our energy costs are some of the highest in the country. We have to lower the cost in order to be able to afford to live, work, and play in the state of Maine.
So those are some of the areas that we are going into. The tax reform, we’re not really trying to reinvent the wheel here. We’re trying to conform to the federal regulations, the federal bureaucracy so that we are on an equal playing field with the rest of the country.
If we are too much different, people will just ignore us; and it is not easy to get to Maine. You have to come through New Hampshire. They have no sales tax, they have no income tax, and it’s “live free or die”. So it is pretty hard to cross that boarder and want to establish in Maine what you could get in New Hampshire.
SW - Well, you definitely say things the way you see them Governor, and one of the things that there is a little bit of controversy out there on is a mural. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Gov. - The mural, the Department of Labor. The whole issue with the mural and the State House is that it’s all about labor. Labor needs employees and it needs employers. We have had this culture over the years of ‘us - them, us - them, us - them’. It’s time that we all get together, embrace each other and say, ‘We the people of Maine can move together.’ That’s the message I’m trying to send. It’s ‘We the People’, not organized labor verses the rest of us. It’s ‘We the People of Maine’. The Department of Labor works for everyone.
SW - Well Governor, you are not afraid to answer the tough questions and give the folks the honest answers the way you see them. When we come back from the break we have a few questions from the street. Are you ready to answer them?
Gov. - Absolutely.
SW - Folks, don’t go away. We’re here Inside the Blaine House.
Break -
Street Talk
Aaron Hutchins, Fairfield, Maine - Thank you Mr. Governor for taking my question. I am a small business person in central Maine. I’m a painter, and in the first few years of my business I’ve seen bureaucracy and red tape mound and mound, and it seems like there is something new I have to deal with, with the Government, each year.
I was wondering what it is that your administration is doing right now to take that red tape and make it a little simpler for my business to operate?
Governor LePage - To answer the question is very simply, one, we have established a hot line so if people in the public have a business and are trying to get some answers they can call the hot line and we will react immediately.
Secondly, the Department of Economic Community Development is establishing a program where account executives are going to be assigned to get a business person through the regulatory environment. And just recently, from start to finish, we had DEP get an application in and through the application process in twenty days, which is historical for the state of Maine. What we are doing, what I’ve told our Commissioners is, get the job done.
It’s all about serving the public and we need good customer service.
Mike Wing, West Gardiner, Maine - I’m retired from education after 40 years, in June. Would he like to know my opinion of his cuts on my retirement? I’d like for him to call my up and ask me what the problem is. I haven’t got the time in 30 seconds, but it is really going to kill us.
Governor LePage - As it relates to retired state employees or teachers, there is no one that is going to be losing money in the reforms we made to the retirement system.
No one is losing any money. That’s important to know. What is happening is the growth in the COLA (cost of living allowance) will slow down, the same way that social security has not received the COLA the last few years. People in retirement will not be getting an increase. There is a difference between not getting an increase and having your pensions cut.
So anyone who is saying their pension is going to be cut is not true. I fully understand that the cost of living keeps increasing. We know that. Unfortunately when you run out of money, you run out of money, and the Governor has not the ability to print money.
The thing we need to remember is if we do nothing, the system will go bankrupt; and those people who have worked 40 years, excepting a retirement will have nothing left. We are trying to salvage the retirement system, not destroy it. It needs reforming. As hard and as painful as it is, it needs to be reformed to be kept alive.
Susan Emmet, West Gardiner, Maine - I would like to know if Governor LePage sincerely wants to sit down with people, from all different walks of life, backgrounds and professions, to hear what their concerns are. He certainly made it clear repeatedly since his inauguration that he wants to, and I hope that happens. I’d like to know if he is still dedicated to that.
Governor LePage - As to the question of what do I want to do with people from all walks of life and understanding the problems of Maine, we are doing this already. We are doing Capitol for the Day, we have constituent hours every Saturday morning where I call people directly if they live too far away from the Capitol and we’ll give them 10-15 minutes to talk to me. From 9-noon we have visitors come into the office and I sit and give everyone time to discuss their issues, and their problems. They can write to me, they can call the office at 287-3531, that’s 287-3531 to make an appointment and you come in on Saturday morning and we’ll talk over any problems you have, any topic you’d like to discuss.
William Gillespie, Bowdoinham, Maine - Getting the education expenditure under control. I know that a county like Duval County in Florida, with a population equal to that of the state of Maine have just one school superintendent. Why do we have more school superintendents in Maine, practically, than we have students?
Governor LePage - The question about too many superintendents in Maine is a very real question, and it’s a good question. The fact is, we have too many superintendents of schools in Maine. Our program is calling for Charter Schools, and for Choice; and along with that, what we want to do is develop a program where the state funding follows the student. So it doesn’t follow the school, it doesn’t follow the principle, it doesn’t follow the superintendent; it follows the student.
We are going to look at quality education, and allow the communities to decide how much money they want to spend on administration. Not the state. We are going to try to educate our kids the best that we can, get the best system, get the resources into the classrooms with the teacher and then let the community decide how much overhead they want to spend to support the children in the classroom.
Steve Wallace - Governor, as we listen to the questions from your constituents, one of the things that continues to come back around time and time again is regulation and red tape. A little earlier in the show you mentioned that the Department of Economic and Community Development had set up a hot line for people to be able to call. What type of issues can people call in with?
Gov. - Well, the hot line as will show up on your screen - the number to call is 207-624-7486. We will take any questions, any problems, any comments that the people of Maine have to direct to the Governor, in relation to making life easier in the state of Maine; whether it be regulatory, health reform, whatever is of concern to the people of Maine. Please call in and we will talk to you about it.
SW - Well Governor, as always, we appreciate you taking time to speak with us, and thank you for letting the Maine citizens see inside the Blaine House.
Gov. - It’s been a pleasure. Come again.
SW - It’s been a privilege. Thank you Governor.
People before Politics - Inside the Issues
Kim Linlorf, President, Midcoast Chamber of Commerce - Welcome back to Inside the Blaine House, we are joined by Steve Bowen. Steve is our new Commissioner of Education. Welcome.
Steve Bowen, Commissioner of Department of Education - Thank you.
KL - Well you have been on the job for a few weeks now and can you tell me what you see as the state of education in Maine?
SB - Well I think the challenge that we have is we’ve got great teachers, we’ve got great principles and superintendents, school boards and people working hard all the way across the schools, but, we’ve got some performance issues.
We’re trying hard. We’re putting a lot effort into it, but when we look at student performance we don’t seem to be seeing a lot of gains. So we’ve got to start doing some new things.
KL - And from what I’ve heard recently, the Governor said in his speech that he gave to our chamber a couple weeks ago, the dollars going into our schools are higher than other states and programs that are performing better. So it’s not about the money, and he also said it’s not about the class size.
SB - Right.
KL - So it’s about the caliber of the teacher, I think he was talking about.
SB - That’s a big part of it; and part of it is are we giving our teachers the training and support and the things that they need. A lot of big states, more densely populated with bigger districts do a lot of professional development for their teachers and in our districts it a little bit more of a struggle for them.
And it hasn’t always been a focus to offer training and support for teachers and administrators. We hear from them; we hear, ‘We are ready to step up and do what we can to make sure all these kids meet the learning results but we need support and we need training.’ And so we are going to try to do that.
KL - The Governor spoke a lot about having a five year high school and the model that North Carolina has shown us. Can you speak to that a little bit?
SB - The idea is that we are not going to add a fifth year of high school and have grade thirteen, but if we are going to figure out how to allow kids who want to, be able to access college level classes while they are still in high school. So that may mean that there are more college courses taught in high schools, students can go to community colleges in their area while they are in high school and take courses, and it may be we need more on line learning.
It may be that we build classes where if you are in high school and you taking a senior chemistry class you’re going to get credit for college and high school from that same class. So we are looking at a bunch of different ways to essentially get kids started on their college post secondary career while they are still in high school.
KL - So if I took advanced math class and I’m a senior at a local high school, I could get both high school credits and college credits?
SB - That’s exactly the idea. So we do training so that the teacher is certified so that those credits carry automatically over into college so when you are starting college you already have a few credits ready to go.
KL - Now it is my understanding in the proposed budget that the Governor put funds in there to start this off at Good Will Hinkley and in cooperation with Kennebec Valley Community College. How will that work?
SB - Well that’s going to be an initiative where we are going to have a facility on the Good Will Hinkley side for at risk kids and we’re going to use the farm facility that are out there at Good Will Hinkley and the Community College is going to move into a chunk of that campus. They are going to build some facilities out there as well as make use of the facilities that are there.
They’re going to have an agriculture program out there, and other programs as well, but specifically they are going to start with a two year agriculture program that we don’t have in Maine today. Those kids on the Good Will Hinkley side will be able to take those courses, they’ll be able to ease that transition into the Community College system.
We are going to make sure the credits that come out of the agriculture program at the Community College level are able to be transferred up to the University level for those kids who want to keep going. So it really is consistent with the idea that we want to transition kids to some kind of post secondary education.
It doesn’t have to be college. It could be career training, those types of things, but we know as we look toward the end of this decade that 60% of the jobs that are going to be out there are going to require some type of post secondary education, training of some kind. Right now we’ve only got about 30% of the population that have some kind to post secondary education.
KL - And the Governor is very high on the Technical School aspect of things. What about the University of Maine system?
SB - Well we’ve been talking with them and actually talking about this issue. The thing is, how do we transition more kids into the University system and one of the things that the University deals with is, and we need to confront, is that too many kids are coming out of our high schools not ready for college. So the University and the Community Colleges are both getting hit with kids who are right out of high school and need to take remedial courses when they get there because they are not graduating ready to move on to post secondary education.
So we’ve got to go back to our K-12 system, and the career technical system, and see what we can do to make sure when kids do reach the point where they’ve graduated from high school and are ready to move on, that they are ready to go. That may mean new standards, different kinds of assessments, different kinds of things we do in the classroom, and/or better integration of learning technology.
There are a number of things we need to look at so that we can figure out how to improve where kids are when they get out of high school, so that they are ready to go when they hit college.
KL - Maine has a really strong, and in my opinion we have some fantastic private colleges, are you working with them as well? Granted, you just got on the job, but is that part of the picture too?
SB - Yes. It’s about making a streamline process. We know for that there are already kids in high school who are taking courses at Husson, for instance. So we know that we already have kids moving in to our private colleges and they have to be part of the solution.
We’ve got a number of high education facilities throughout the state and we need to make sure we work with all of them.
KL - Legislatively, what’s on your plate? What are you really focused on right now?
SB - Well, right now we trying to get through the budget and make sure we have funding lined up. The schools and superintendents are sort of waiting for the folks in Augusta to decide how much money are we going to spend on our schools, then they can go forward and develop their budgets. We certainly need to do that.
We need to work on expanding access to early college opportunities, figuring out ways to do that. We know that is happening in places, but not in a coordinated fashion, so we want to be sure to move that forward. We want to do some things around teacher quality, and making sure we have training and support for teachers as they need it.
The Governor also supports choice, so that if ‘this school’ is not working out for them they’ll have other choices. The Governor is interested in Charter Schools, which are all over the country. Forty other states have them, they are not in Maine but we are working hard to get legislation passed.
We have a number of things on the agenda and we want to look ahead and do some forward planning. What do we want our schools to look like in five, ten years. Can we develop a plan that says, here is where we go and make sure we are all pointed in the same direction; raise the student achievement and get these kids ready for a life after school.
KL - You’ve got a daunting task ahead of you. It’s really been a pleasure having you here today. I hope we can have you back in the future, maybe after the legislative session.
SB - Sure, be glad to.
KL - We’ll see how you survive!
SB - That would be great.
KL - Thank you for joining us on Inside the Blaine House.
Straight Talk from the Governor
Governor LePage - As we move forward, it’s important that all Mainers come together as one. As we move this state forward, we can bicker, and bicker, and bicker, but at the end of the day we need to be one. We need to work together to make Maine a better place for all of us.
Inside The Blaine House Transcripts
Episode #1
“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union,
establish justice and insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common
defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this constitution of the
United States of America.”
People before Politics starts here.
Kim Lindlof - Welcome to the Premiere Edition of Inside the Blaine House, my name is Kim Lindlof and we are joined today by Steve Wallace.
Steve Wallace - Kim, we are someplace that we have never been before.
KL – That’s true we are inside the Governor’s Office.
SW – That’s right, and you know, this Governor has said over and over again that it is “People before Politics”. And so, that’s how we came here with Inside the Blaine House. The Governor wants to talk directly to the folks of Maine.
KL - And I think we will have the opportunity to do that as this show will be taped and broadcasted on Time Warner Network 9 and it will also be simulcasted on the Governor’s web site so that he can get the word out across the state of Maine.
SW – I’m looking forward to what he has to say, and I’m also looking forward to the issues that this show will bring about. Because again, the Governor is serious when he says he want to talk to the people on the street and I think that is something we haven’t seen before.
KL - Absolutely.
SW - So, I’m excited about today’s show and with that we’ll be back with the Honorable, Governor Paul LePage.
Inside the Blaine House - People before Politics
Kim Lindlof - Welcome back to Inside the Blaine House, We are here with Governor Paul LePage. Hello Governor LePage.
Gov. Paul LePage - How are you Kim?
KL - Very well thank you. Governor, you’ve been in office for less than two months, you’ve already passed the supplemental budget, you proposed a 600 page two year bi-annual budget, you have facilitated regulatory reform workshops around the state, and proposed LD 1; what’s been the biggest
challenge for you so far?
Gov. - The biggest challenge in government is trying to keep the political rhetoric out of the daily work. It’s a challenge every day. We’ve done very well and I commend both the Republican party leadership and the Democratic party for the way they approached the supplemental budget and I just hope that we can do that in the bi-annual, to finally break that gridlock and break this us-them mentality that will change the culture and work for the Maine people.
KL – Let’s talk a little bit about LD 1. As I just mentioned, that came up out of the red tape workshops that you hosted around the state for local and state chamber of commerce. How do you feel that’s going?
Gov. - Slow. Coming out of the business sector you like to get things done with a snap, snap, snap. I think it’s going very well. We’ve broken it down to three categories, one is rule making, one is executive orders and one is legislative and we’ve presented the legislation first hand and that is basically a very small down payment on regulatory reform in the sense that LD 1 is for the regulatory environment. But there is much more to come, for welfare, for health care, for rules for basic agencies. We need to change the culture from adversarial to much friendlier customer service related distribution of state services and that is the challenge. You’ve got thousands of people that look at it one way and we’ve got to change the way of thinking.
KL - Chris Hall was quoted, he is the lobbyist for the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce, and he said the other day that your attempt to (in the budget, the bi-annual budget) to reduce the income tax rate will actually have more of an effect on job creation than your regulatory reform. What do you think of that?
Gov. - Absolutely. There is not question in my mind. I think overall it is a balance of everything; but generally speaking, if the private sector sees that the State of Maine is really serious about changing its image, and really serious about becoming a business friendly state, then I think that conforming to Federal Tax Code which is basically what we are attempting to do, is going to go along way in helping people take a second look at Maine.
KL - I know when we were working to recruit T-Mobil, the first park in our region, that was the first thing the big wigs who came to town took a look at and said, “Wheww, what is this income tax rate!”.
Gov. - The income tax rate is clearly one, but there are many other little fees and obscure taxes that are really hard to move Maine forward. For instance, most states in the unions have special tax incentives for TV making, movie making, we have the opportunity to have five movies made in the state of Maine right now, but not one of them will come to Maine unless we are able to show that we are competitive with the rest of the states. For instance, there are two movies, big name movies, the settings are in Maine it’s about Maine but they are considering making them in North Carolina. That’s absurd.
KL - Like On Golden Pond?
Gov. - Like On Golden Pond. There are two and we just need to be very diligent in addressing that because we need to get Maine on the map. Maine is a beautiful state. What better advertising than having Maine be the back drop setting for movies?
KL - I agree. Representative Pichiotti has actually proposed legislation, I want to say it is LD 384, and the person who is working on that with him is speaking at our Chamber meeting on Wednesday so we are going to hear more about that piece.
Gov. – That’s a real big issue with me. I think we have real opportunity. People will say, “Well they have to pay their fair share.”, well let’s say they spend 80 million on a movie and they have the option to do it here in Maine or North Carolina, and we decide we don’t want to give them any incentive so we get 0 of 80 million is still 0.
KL - Correct, and we saw the impact of Empire Falls in our region. What if we had actually filmed On Golden Pond in Belgrade, we could have felt the impact of that as well.
Gov. - And that is the whole point. There are so many opportunities. Another tax that we really need to address is, and we are going to address it quickly and in this session, if an executive comes from another a major corporation and let’s say National Semi-conductor CEO comes to Maine and he happens to stay more than ten days he has to pay income tax to Maine. That’s absurd.
KL – It’s crazy.
Gov. - He hasn’t earned his money here.
KL - So is there legislation in the works to address that?
Gov. - Yes, it’s being addressed as we speak; but, it’s not in LD form yet.
KL - I think both currently, and on the campaign trail, there was some criticism of you, that you are anti-environment. But what I here you saying is, Maine has a wonderful quality of place, we’ve just talked about regulatory reform, could you speak to that fact?
Gov. - This is the same old rhetoric of the, hey, they call me wacko, look in the mirror. Basically Maine has a very, very good environment, and what we need to do is just have the regulations that can stream-line the way we do business in Maine, and not hurt the environment. In fact, people tout Maine’s air and water, well I hate to break the bubble but to be honest with Maine folks, we have some of the worst pulmonary disease in the country, and it is not due to anything Maine does. It’s everything to do with what the Western states are doing with their coal fire power plant. So those are the issues we should be addressing and we haven’t proposed one thing to the legislature that will damage the environment. If science says that it is dangerous to our environment, science wins.
KL – Let’s talk about transparency. You had said often on the campaign trail that you were going to be very transparent. We talked about, or you talked about doing a Maine-span. Have you made any strides towards that, or how are you working to make your administration more transparent than perhaps past administrations?
Gov. - Well, quite frankly, we haven’t made any strides in that, and I would love to, but there are only 24 hours in a day, unfortunately.
KL - Well, you’ve been here six weeks.
Gov. - We are working on it. That is something I want to see done. Another thing I want to see done is every Maine expenditure on the web site and I want to assure Maine people that the one thing that I’ve said I would do and I am doing is to have transparency, because the Governor’s door is always open. You call the office and you can get in to see the Governor. Every Saturday morning we are having our constituent services hours from 8:00 AM to noon. From 8-9:00 I call people who live a fair distance away from Augusta and from 9- noon I take visitors here at the Governorʼs office and we discuss issues.
KL - And you did this while you were mayor of Waterville, but I presuming that back then it was a little easier to get in. Do you have a line out the door? How does it work now?
Gov. - What we do now is, people call in and want to come in and we give them a slot. So rather than have a line of people, they are pre-scheduled. It’s the only way you can do it because you’d fill the halls and people would leave disappointed. So what we do is, people are calling in and book them on a date and time so they get here and they have15 minutes and they come in. It has been a revolving door. There is no shortage of people wanting to visit.
KL - So they can just call the Governor’s office if they want to get on the schedule. Susanne will point them in the right direction?
Gov. – That’s right. In fact, right now I think we are scheduled out quite a ways.
Break in program
Inside the Blaine House - People before Politics continues:
Kim Lindlof - Governor, before we went to break we talked about the Capitol for a day and you ran on the slogan of “People before Politics”, and so now you’ve started hosting these town hall meetings. Why have you done this?
Gov. – It’s important for two reasons. One is that we need to bring government back to the people, and secondly we need to show the people of Maine we are responsive to their needs. I believe going out and listening to people and meeting people then coming back here to Augusta and fixing the problems or working towards fixing the problems is what Capitol for Day is all about.
KL - Adrienne Bennett was with him when they did Capitol for the Day so stay tuned, she has more.
Adrienne Bennett – Maine’s Capitol building is in Augusta where it has been since 1827, however, the first Capitol building wasn’t in the Capitol at all. When Maine separated from Massachusetts and became a state in 1820, Portland became the temporary Capitol city. That’s where Governor Paul LePage took his Capitol for a Day campaign. The program was first introduced by Governor John McKernan and was designed to bring the two Maine’s together; that is, Portland and the rest of the state. Governor LePage’s goal is to connect with Maine people through hosting Capitol for a Day. Each month he will travel to different communities to visit businesses and participate in a town hall style meeting.
Westbrook event host - Good evening and welcome to the very special town hall meeting.
AB - The town of Westbrook hosted the Governor’s debut meeting, mid February where Governor LePage and four Commissioners were greeted by more than 100 people, eager to get some answers.
Gentleman from audience - How are you going to address the unfunded pension obligations that our previous administration have imposed?
Gentleman from audience - We are concerned about the proposed cuts to the welfare and social safety net.
AB - The topics ranged from transportation to social issues. One of the more notable questions of the night came from Patricia Lerner of Windham
Patricia Lerner - My question is: what happens to all the toll money and gas tax money? Our roads are terrible, where is this money going and do you have a plan?
Commissioner ? - Yes. I can’t answer for the toll money because that is the Maine Turnpike Authority and I only have authority over the Department of Transportation, but what I can tell you regarding the gas tax is, we plan to take the money that is given to us and prioritize across the state and put it on those roads that need it most.
AB - Donna LIttle of Falmouth was interested in hearing what the Governor had to say about regulatory reform.
Donna Little - I have to say that I like you all, and I am Democrat. I know that a lot of fiscally responsible people think that the environment is an esthetic and nothing is really tangible. When we say, “Maine is open for business”, I’m afraid we are going to have chaos.
Gov. - People who are way way over on the left are trying to distract and confuse the issue. There is a significant difference, in my mind, between regulatory reform and protecting the environment. They are two completely different topics.
AB - Earlier in the day, Governor LePage toured Barber Food’s Portland 150,000 square foot production facility. Company President and CEO, David Barber spoke with the Governor about environmental laws that aren’t business friendly and simply don’t make sense.
David Barber - We talked about the frustration of having what used to be all of our waste being put into composting that now has to be shipped all the way to Vermont in order to have the same activity done. It just seems like it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense that you should have to ship all that material so far away to get recycled.
AB - As the Governor proposes regulatory reform he is keeping business owners like Barber on the front burner.
Gov. - To do a good job, to do even an acceptable job, you have to understand the needs of the people.
AB - Not just some, but all Maine people, and that is exactly why the Governor LePage is bringing the Capitol to a town near you soon.
Short break -
Kim Lindlof - Welcome back to Inside the Blaine House. I’m joined now by the Senior Economic Advisor to Governor Paul LePage, John Butera. Welcome John.
John Butera - Thank you Kim, it’s a pleasure to be here.
KL - What does the Senior Economic Advisor to the Governor do?
JB - Well I do a number of things. Primarily I advise the Governor and the administration on policy issues that are going to positively impact our state’s economy. Dealing with the legislature, dealing with various groups, lobbyists, and hearing different opinions on how we can move Maine’s economy forward and then setting those policies and initiatives in place.
KL - So how does that differ from being a Commissioner? Aren’t they advising as well?
JB - Well, the Commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development has a multitude of departments underneath him, that’s Commissioner Condon, tourism, Office of Business Development, and several others, and it is more of an administrative role. Looking at setting a strategy from a state wide prospective that can advance the state. Not so much getting into the policy area. In addition, I have other departments, such as the Department of Labor and the Taxation Committee which impact and effect our ability to grow our economy.
KL - So, on the campaign trail, since he has taken office, the Governor has been very clear about changing the attitude of the state of Maine and making us more business friendly. Where do you begin? How do you go about changing a culture that has been around for 30 years?
JB - I think we start from the top, obviously with the Governor and trying to get that message as far down as we can. It’s very important as we look at bringing Commissioners on board that they look and understand our policy, our philosophy and how we are going to grow our economy. And make sure we get the right people to infuse that culture and message down into the departments. The Governor has made it very clear that profit is not a dirty word, and we are going to need the private sector to bring us out of this economic Boulay. It’s a challenge but it’s one that we are getting the right people in place and we just need to stay on message and continue to get that message as far down to the departments as we can.
KL - And the Governor has been pretty clear on wanting to change the regulatory environment and working collaboratively with the state and local chamber, hosting these red tape work shops across the state. What reforms are in the works this session that will help create economic growth in the state of Maine?
JB - Well as you know, we have LD 1, which is an act look at regulatory reform, and that is underway. I think what we are trying to do is look at again at common sense and science. We are really trying to work with departments and agencies and the groups such as the environmental groups and look at how we can strike a balance between keeping our state beautiful and keeping our state where it continues to maintain that brand, but yet get some of those regulations and rules that are in place that really stifle business growth out. We’ve heard numerous examples of whether it is a financial burden or a time burden, it really inhibits the private sector from what it does best and that is create jobs which creates wealth, which is again, going to be the key to creating an economic opportunity for our state.
KL - So you mentioned costs, how do we lower the cost of doing business?
JB - Well the cost of doing business has numerous factors. There’s health care, there’s the cost of labor, there’s the cost of energy, taxes, and we need to look holistically at all those factors and try to see how we can reduce them. Energy is one that is high on the list of the Governor’s agenda and the bottom line is that we need to look at all sources of energy and find that right mix that ultimately reduces the cost of electricity to the Maine consumer, and Maine business. Same thing with taxes, we’ve got to look at how we can conform more to the Federal Standards. I think a lot of our tax code and a lot of our tax laws go above and beyond what the Federal requirements are; and that costs money, time and distain for some of the business community.
KL - Well it’s incredibly burdensome.
JB - Absolutely. Maine is a small business state. Maine’s small businesses spent numerous, countless hours, sifting through tax laws and tax codes and it just gets over burdensome. It’s not letting them do what they do, make money.
KL - Exactly. Let’s talk a little bit about labor, how can we build a more skilled work force in this state? What is the Governor’s vision for that?
JB - One of the key elements of any economic development is strategy has to be to get the right people, to get the people with the skill for the businesses that are hiring. And the Governor has several initiatives that I think are going to put us in the right position. The Governor is very keen on bringing vocational education to the fore front of our schools. We are also looking at a five year high school program. It’s very important for us to look at the skill level of our work force and make sure it matches up with the business community, and we are big proponents on making sure that the business and education are sitting together at the table. I think that is one of the reasons, if you look at the legislature, that they have combined the former labor committee with the former business, research and economic development committee. It makes sense. It’s really the jobs committee. That’s what we are trying to do, create skills and opportunities for folks in Maine.
KL - As he said on the trail, that if we can raise that average wage so that we are not 80% in the nation, raise it up to 110%, a lot of the other ills will take care of themselves.
JB - Absolutely. It’s very simple. The way we raise money in this state is sales tax and income tax. If people had better jobs and if there are more jobs, they will buy more products and services and we will have more revenues in the state coffers to do all the things we need to do, and should do as a state.
KL - Well, thank you John. We are all out of time, but I really appreciate you being here and providing your insight.
Straight Talk From the Governor
Gov. - Ladies and Gentlemen, the reason we are doing this show is for Maine people to see what Government is all about and for me to have the opportunity to bring Government to you, to discuss some of the problems you have so that we can bring them back to Augusta and work on them.Also, to let you know what we are working on in Augusta that benefit your lives every day. As you can see, from the first 48 days we’ve been in office, that we are moving as fast as we can. We’ve put out two budgets, we’ve put out some legislation for reform and the debate for the bi-annual budget will starting any day now. One thing I want to say is that if you want to see the Governor, you call the Governor’s office and you can make an appointment. We have constituent hours every Saturday. I look forward to meeting with you, discussing any issues that you might want to discuss, and our door is always open to Maine people.
