1. What are your three top priorities?

1. Top Three Priorities :    (a)  An affordable Housing Bond  of some $25-50 Million , to be issued over a period of about 10 years.  ( The pent-up need statewide is more than this figure, and the legislature will no doubt bond a different figure whatever the need, but this is a long overdue bond issue.  Efforts in the 123rd Legislature to put this on the ballot failed, even tho’ the bond was sponsored by Senate President Edmonds ) .  (b)  Sustainability of Life Bills  (  I hope to sponsor a set of initiatives that fall into this category – bills on privacy rights, expansion of the Groundfishing Initiative of 2007, tenant/landlord  issues, and the possibility that Maine might join the Canadian Maritimes in energy consortiums that will promote mutually beneficial alternative energy sources, such as tidal and hydro.  Please ask me about these individually – too long to be properly elaborated upon here ) .   (c)  $25 Million Alternative Energy Bond – to make resources available to public buildings – town halls, schools, community centers, etc – for conversion and installation of alternative energy generators.  Existing  and well-established programs in the Efficiency Maine  division of the PUC distribute such dollars to qualified agencies and applicants.  My proposal would add public buildings ( which we all pay for, and can all enjoy energy savings from ) to the scheduled list of qualifying structures when qualifying tests are done.  This program needs a big financial shot in the arm.  Again, I’ll be glad to elaborate about the details in the interview.

2. The past few years, Maine Housing Authority has utilized the HOME Fund (Housing Opportunities for Maine) to help finance fundamental programs as loans for first-time homebuyers, housing for people who are homeless, affordable rental housing, home repair, and housing for people with special needs. The Fund also helps finance programs that makes homes safer for children and makes homes accessible for people with disabilities. Over the last two years, the legislature has considered taking money from the HOME Fund in order to balance the budget. If elected, would you support the protection of the HOME fund? If so, what other ways would you suggest balancing the budget?

2. I do indeed support protection of the HOME fund, and similar dedicated funds.  The HOME Fund and similar funds ( EG :  The Fund for A Healthy Maine , the E-9ll Emergency Fund , the Clean Elections Fund, the Land For Maine’s Future Fund ) should be given Constitutional protection against budget raids, and should be off-limits to all purposes other than those they were created for.  This Cons- titutional protection is already given to certain Highway and MDOT funds and Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Funds – and should be given to these other listed funds as well.      As for alternatives for budget balancing resources :  EXPAND the Maine sales tax, already one of the narrowest-based in the US, to include non-essentials ( EG :  Ski-lift tickets, or dog-grooming ) ; and ELIMINATE some of the sales tax exemptions that cost Maine over $2 billion a year.  This does NOT mean increasing the sales tax above the current rate – just extending it as cited above.  As well, we should visit the BETR Program – a tax rebate program for business – and review all such  programs to see if the promised new jobs were in fact created, or if the tax base was really expanded as promised.  Currently, as OPEGA  ( Maine’s government watchdog agency ) has pointed out, no such review or reporting has ever been done on this rapidly-expanding business giveaway program, and no one knows if the investment has been effective at all.

3. A major concern among young people is the rising cost of health care. 17,000 more Mainers are now uninsured since HMOs first arrived in Maine.  State-funded health care programs like MaineCare is facing consistent cuts, while publicly financed heath insurance like Dirigo, has a current freeze on new applicants. Many First World countries have supported comprehensive health care systems that cover every person with health care. Within the United States, states like Massachusetts and Maine have taken steps towards universal, comprehensive health care coverage. Would you support state legislation for universal single payer health care in Maine?

3. Universal Single Payer – Yes, I do support this reform, and was a co-sponsor of Rep. Beaudoin’s  ( D-Biddeford ) bill that passed this last session.  It became a study, alas, not a program, but it was one of the few successful steps Maine has taken toward single payer in recent sessions.   The goal of  single-payer systems is to remove the profit motive from one part of health care.  DIRIGO Health does not do that, for example, but it does anticipate using the savings generated by a single source  doing  all the paperwork  to re-invest in providing the hands-on health care .  This is a good step toward single-payer ; until that system comes, DIRIGO is also a system worth fighting for.

4. It seems that every month there is another recall or concern about children's toys or consumer products.   The fact is that Maine families are exposed to hazardous toxic chemicals found in the consumer products that we use everyday. Toxic chemicals in the environment are among the causes of critical health problems that can be prevented. What would you do to help Maine ensure that hazardous chemicals in everyday consumer products are replaced with safer substitutes?

4. Toxics Protections :  Last session I was co-sponsor of, and certainly voted for , a number of toxic-use reduction, toxic-labelings, and toxic-detection bills that have made Maine a leader in this emerging field.  In the long run Maine has now committed to maintaining a list of the most dangerous toxins found in everyday items and to updating that public list regularly.  Maine should work to insure that other states adopt similar standards and to share information with large consumer states, like California, whose impact on the market is greater than ours, to guarantee that a large number of consumers speak with a relatively similar voice.  Maine should then outright ban such identified dangerous toxins from all items sold within the state.  A good example of this approach was Maine’s outright ban in the first Session of the flame retardant DECCA, for which workable safer substitutes exist.  The actions taken by Maine, allied with similar actions in other states, has set DECCA on the road to extinction as a chemical additive of choice.  Lastly, if more states, like Maine, keep an updated list of known dangerous toxins, and share those lists, then it is possible to ban entire classes of toxins, not just single toxins by name, as was done with DECCA.  This makes it more difficult for specific-item industries to mount well-funded lobbying efforts in individual legislatures to turn aside specific-item bans.

5. The State of Maine is currently a participant in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an innovative project geared toward cutting global warming emissions by establishing a cap-and-trade system for power plant emissions.  Do you support Maine's participation in RGGI? Would you support the establishment of an economy-wide cap-and-trade program in Maine that would cut greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors (i.e. transportation, commercial and residential heating, etc.)?

5. Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative--   I was a co-sponsor of  Maine’s successful REGGI  bill, served on the committee that drafted its final version, and still serve on the Utilities and Energy Committee that oversees its progress and crafts its mid-course revisions.  I do support its eventual extension into other fields of the economy ; we hope that the successful sale of carbon credits generated by Maine’s part in the program will help fund this extension. My own amendments to the REGGI act, for example, ban speculator’s attempts to corner the carbon trade market once the Maine auctions come to mean real money – a bitter lesson the Europeans now struggle with. Cap and trade programs can indeed work – a strong example is the ongoing success of the sulphur emissions cap and trade program of the 90’s that has demonstrated great success in cutting the acid rain, generated out west, that so harmed the eastern states.   A very good overview of the Maine  program can be found in “ A Primer For Maine :  The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative “ by the Muskie School and the Smith Policy Center at U-Maine ( 2006 and revisions ) and the “ Climate Change 101 :  Understanding and Responding to Climate Change “ by the Pew Center for the States  ( 2007 )

6. The Maine Department of Transportation estimates that it faces a shortfall of more than $2 billion to simply maintain the existing transportation infrastructure. What, if any, funding solution do you support: (yes or no)

a) LD 2019, An Act to Implement the Recommendations of the Governor's Task Force on Funding Passenger Rail, which would secure funding for transit by dedicating a portion of revenues from general fund sources like meals and lodging, sales tax, and car rental fees?

b) Using Maine Turnpike Authority funds, which are currently dedicated to highway maintenance and expansion, for all transportation projects, including transit?

c) Raising car rental fees to subsidize transit?

6a. Please detail other funding options you might propose or for which you might advocate:

6. DOT Sustainability Questions --  (a) YES.  But be aware it may be necessary to ban these dedicated funds against budget-balancing raids, as per my answers to question 2 above.  (b) Definitely YES – but the turnpike lobby and the Turnpike Authority itself is one of the biggest stonewalls to reform that you ever have seen !~  But it is a fight worth fighting.  (c) YES – but remember that raising the car rental fee has also been proposed as a method of generating general fund revenues for social programs, too.  This reform has always, sadly, pitted ally against ally – social service needs against overdue transportation needs.  So nothing gets done.

7. With the state facing a $200 million revenue shortfall in the current biennium (a projection that may change when April receipts are tallied).  Do you support increasing the sales tax in order to avoid balancing the budget entirely through program cuts? If you do not support a tax increase of any kind – and given that “enhanced government efficiencies” will provide only very modest savings if any at all -- which programs do you propose to cut and by how much?

I tried to address this same dilemma in previous questions above, as well.  Simply raising the sales tax a penny seems simple and quick.  ( Every penny increase in sales tax nets Maine an estimated $120--!40 million a year ) But it leaves untouched much of the fundamental unfairness in our narrow-based tax structure.  EXPANDING the sales tax to items usually covered in most other states is a better idea, I believe ; ELIMINATING some Maine sales tax exemptions is even a better idea – Maine loses some estimated $2 Billion of such exemptions every year ( for comparison, the entire state budget is $6 Billion ! )  And I refer you to my discussion above of why we should revisit Maine’s costly business tax-rebate programs like BETR , which today have no review, no oversight, and no requirement to prove they ever created one single promised job.  But I emphatically state it is NOT possible to balance the state Budget solely on “more efficiencies “ in government when 79-80% of the state budget today goes to local aid to education and MaineCare , the two fastest growing slices of the state budget pie.  The very things government is supposed to do is what government is already spending the money for – and is anyone seriously  advocating cuts to education and health care  ?  Thus, we either figure out a way to expand the budget pie, or to explain cuts to the very things most precious to most Mainers.  This is the struggle upon which the legislature usually adjourns in weary confusion – just as we did this year.  I say :  cook a bigger pie.  Mainers need it.

8. As municipalities continue to provide what are increasingly expensive public goods (like education, police and fire protection), what is your plan for controlling growth in property taxes while maintaining these fundamental government services?

8. Property Taxes – First, we must expand the “ Circuit Breaker “ program, a very efficient program that puts real tax relief right into the hands of real Mainers.  Good progress has been made in past sessions to make it open for more Mainers ( current rebate levels are about $81,000 for individuals and  $106,000 for couples. )  This targets the threatened middle class, helps both renters and homeowners, and is based on real need.  The income levels should be adjusted annually for inflation and actual Cost-Of-Living.  Eventually this program should be folded automatically into the income tax form, so both refund programs can kick in together.  For Communities – we should introduce the ingredient of “ Median Municipal Income “ into the state school funding formula .  This figure really represents a community’s actual ability to pay property tax – the assessed property tax value of a community does not.  This will relieve pressure on the cost of providing local education, the single biggest expense ( ahead of police and fire protection ) of any community. It does so by giving money to the communities  whose children and parents need it most – and takes pressure off the only tax Maine communities are allowed to levy on their own – the property tax.  Why is this their only allowed tax ?  Because the Maine Constitution forbids them any other taxing power.  What to do ?  Amend the Constitution to allow communities to levy their own taxes on meals and lodging, like most other states do.  This tax is mostly paid by visitors and out-of-staters.  Will this be a big fight ?  You bet.  Communities like Portland have been trying to do this for years, with no success.  But I think it is the one most promising opportunity to fund city services without expecting the state to raise state-wide taxes.

9. The Opportunity Maine program will allow students who graduate from any Maine college or University, and continues to live, work and pay taxes here, to be reimbursed for student loan payments through a state income tax credit or an employer tax credit. Projections show that in ten years, this strategy could cost the state as much as $55 million annually, but the return on that investment is conservatively estimated at $75 million in new state and local tax revenues and decreased social expenditures. If elected, will you commit yourself to protecting this long-term economic development strategy, without any reduction in the credit’s size or availability?

Opportunity Maine – Yes, I wholeheartedly support the program.  I was honored to be the sponsor of the legislative version of  Opportunity Maine ( the fallback version if we failed to get all the public referendum signature needed in time  ) which passed the Tax committee unanimously – and the Opportunity Maine petitions passed the legislature almost unanimously, as you know .  It was only the 6th time in 100 years a citizen petition passed the legislature exactly as it was presented—a historic milestone for an historic idea.   Now we must protect the Opportunity Maine law against fiddling by foes, as the program progresses, and the administrative rulemaking proceeds.   So far, so good. I will be proud to bring some material from our historic fight to the interview to share with LYV. 

10. Portland schools are seeing less funding from the state due, in part, to increasing value of residential and commercial property. Although property valuation is a measure of taxable resources, it is not necessarily a good indicator of the ability of taxpayers to meet the funding needs of our schools. What are your thoughts on how to balance local and state contributions to school costs?

School Funding – please see above on my proposal to add “Median Income “ to the state school funding formula.  This will definitely help communities defined by current law as “property rich “ ( eg :  coastal communities and those with lakefront ) but which are in fact “ income poor “ ( which is most of us. )  Portland ‘s median income, for example is below the County average because of the huge number of low-income, ESL, and special –need families and students who have found a home here in a welcoming community.    We should also expand the new ( 2006 ) “ Essential  Programs and Services “ (EPS ) model of Education funding, which brought over $2 million new education dollars to Portland in each of the two past cycles.  Note, however, EPS  is NOT a distribution formula .  We still need distribution formula reforms like Median Income to reflect the real needs of Portland’s real people.

11. What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of the state's new school district consolidation law, particularly as it affects Portland?

11. Minor Consent – Yes, I do support current law.  I served on the Portland School Committee ; Portland has one of the largest homeless student populations of any New England city.  Such children often have literally no one else to rely upon but their own best judgement, and the few adults they trust in the system.  Services and interventions at this vulnerable point in their lives are essential.  Indeed, they may not live to see adulthood without them.  Informed consent has seemed to work for most  in such needs.   ( For policymakers, the struggle should be proper funding to provide the needed services – an equally grim struggle, sometimes.

12. Given Mainers’ struggle to balance work with family care responsibilities would you support: (yes or no)

a)  Paid sick days to full and part-time workers
b)  Paid family and medical leave
c) Legislation that allows workers to request flexible work schedules without employer retaliation

12. Family Care/Leave – ( a)  Yes—and I have so voted in the legislature (b) Yes—and so voted this session of the legislature (c) Yes – we tried to pass such anti-retaliation protections this past session ; more work needed here.

13. Do you support current Maine law (22 M.R.S.A. § 1502), which allows minors to consent on their own behalf for health care including contraceptive counseling, mental health care and substance abuse treatment?

13. Strength/Weakness School Consolidation Law – For Portland, the new  law did little to actually improve our status.  No school system wishes to join us in consolidation; we are so big as a system the law exempts us from it anyway.  Sadly, Portland had never been able to offer bulk-purchasing leverage to other communities either, as I sadly recall from my own time on the School Board.  Because of our huge size, great diversity, ESL population, and huge numbers of low-income students, we stand alone in the state on most indexes of need.  The Consolidation law did nothing to change that.  It did bring us the requirement to spend annually about $30,000 on a public referendum to validate the school budget – which turned out to be one of the smallest turnout elections in city history.  ( I threw a public session on the budget at the Portland Public Library – about 15 citizens showed up ; there were 5 of us on the presenting panel ! )  For all such communities as ours, we should consider an exemption from the referendum requirement for any community that has in place a public budget validation process requiring public hearings and public votes of the validating body, whether it be town meeting or town council.

14. Currently seventeen states fund abortion care for poor women on the same or similar terms as other pregnancy-related and general health services in their state-run Medicaid program. Maine’s Medicaid program only covers abortion care when the life of the pregnant woman is at risk or she is the victim of rape or incest. Would you support funding abortion care for women covered by Medicaid in Maine?

MEDICAID/Health Services – Yes, I support access to health services, including pregnancy-related health services, for poor women covered by Medicaid in Maine.  I was co-sponsor with President Beth Edmonds in 2007 for LD 1309, “ An Act to Provide Equity in Funding for Women’s Health Services “, which unfortunately did not pass.  Poor people should have access to the same health service choices as do rich people who can afford to pay for them.

15. There is a significant move in Europe, Alaska, and Southeast Asia toward the independent certification of fisheries as sustainably-harvested.  In effect, consumer demand for sustainable fisheries is moving faster than regulatory bodies to save fisheries from overfishing. New England is behind the rest of the world in this regard; Maine has no independently certified fishery. Would you support a similar move toward independent certification in Maine?

15. Fisheries --  I serve as House Chair of the Groundfishing Subcommittee of the Marine Resources Committee, and in 2007 wrote the assistance act that gave Maine federally permitted  groundfishermen supports and rebates for fuel purchases, ice and salt purchases, and land-base support services.  I am not sure what your definition of “ independently certified fishery “  is, but here is the work I have been doing, and what I suggest Maine should do :  (a)  In the long run, revisit the Magnusson Act ( the federal law which sets species limits and Days At Sea permits )  ( b)  Admit that Days At Sea (DSA ) is a concept that has not worked.  Maine is at a permanent disadvantage under DSA allocations – Maine is far away from Georges Bank, for example, and Maine boats burn up too much of their DSA quota just steaming out to the fishing grounds. (c)  Admit that species quotas have not let stocks rebound as hoped  -- and that foreign vessels ignore them to boot.  (d) Admit that Gloucester interests would love it if Maine lets its fishing industry die out, and will even do things to promote it .  Maine must offer wise supports now so that when the fish return, we have fishermen left in Maine.

16. What do you see as the biggest challenge for Maine fisheries over the next five years? Biggest opportunity?

16.   Fishing Opportunity :  The biggest challenge over the next five years for Maine fishermen is to survive.  The state can give good support ( as above ) to help them do so, especially in the small surviving groundfish fleets and landside services in Portland and Port Clyde.  I have filed a bill to re-fund the Maine assistance act ( as above ) which expired with the fiscal year on June 30, 2008.  DSA has not worked for Maine or for most of New England outside Gloucester.  But   Maine has an opportunity now to advocate for  “ Area Management “ – the theory that areas of the ocean differ, that species within them act differently, and that “ Areas “ managed by smaller panels of fishermen, scientists, and experts can micro-manage these smaller areas more wisely than the broad federal brush of the Magnusson Act.  Area Management is the brainchild of Ted Ames of Stonington, a working fisherman and MacArthur Genius Award  recipient, and I believe his opening line says it all :  “ No Fish, no Fishermen.”  Area Managemnt of the resource is a good, thoughtful, opportunity for Mainers.     I also like the idea of the Portl Clyde fishermen who sell shares of their catch to citizens or groups willing to invest in the long-term survival of the fleet.  It could work well in Portland !  Our valiant Fish Exchange could do it !

17. Do you favor creating a path of citizenship that allows undocumented immigrants to come forward and begin the process of permanent residency and then legal citizenship?  (yes or no)

17. Citizenship / Immigration—Yes, I support a graduated plan to allow earned citizenship .  Immigration has revitalized and reenergized our immigrant nation many times in 200 years ; it has been our great heritage and the hope of the world. I hope we can figure out some method of encouraging the undocumented to come out of the shadows and into the light of that hope.