1. What are your three top priorities?
1. Ensuring universal access to affordable health care

2. Creating high-paying jobs and ensuring that all jobs pay a livable wage.

3. Expanding our public education guarantee to include universal preschool, affordable quality childcare, and increased access to higher education.

2. The past few years, Maine Housing Authority has utilized the HOME Fund (Housing Opportunities for Maine)

As a Portland Housing Authority Commissioner and long-time affordable housing advocate, I would support protection of the HOME fund. I have testified before the legislature against HOME fund raiding and published an op ed favoring additional HOME funding through a bond issue. Over the long term, budget holes can be plugged through progressive tax reform (which decreases volatility in tax revenues) and focused public investment in early childhood and post-secondary education, research and development, infrastructure, quality of place, and other economic development strategies that lead to higher-paying jobs and higher tax revenues. If budget numbers fail to add up, further social program cuts are unacceptable. We have gone too far already. There are savings to be realized through better policy design, particularly in the Department of Health and Human Services, but this can only be accomplished through extended legislative evaluation and regulatory revision, not on the budget chopping block. Targeted tax breaks for businesses deserve added scrutiny to ensure appropriate return on taxpayer investment and compliance with labor, environmental, and consumer protection standards. These subsidies often accomplish little and favor more financially sophisticated companies. Next in line, depending on the amounts involved and the economic forecasts at the time, withdrawals from the rainy day fund may be appropriate. If, after all of this, there is still a budget gap, then it is proper to temporarily raise taxes, rather than further cut spending. The taxes raised should fall on the most fortunate and on out-of-staters. Appropriate temporary tax increase areas include: increased income tax for the wealthiest Mainers (ideally through phasing out or eliminating credits and deductions, rather than a higher top rate); increased meals and lodging taxes; increased fees to the extent they support new programs and are paid by the people who would benefit from them; capping the value of homes that are eligible for the homestead exemption, in a way that ensures that only the wealthiest homeowners are paying additional property taxes; and a progressive real estate transfer tax. It would also be appropriate to expand the sales tax base (an essential element of progressive tax reform), and delay corresponding cuts in property and income taxes (another essential element) for a year or so.

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.

I would support universal single payer legislation. It recognizes that health care is a basic human right and produces the best public health results at the lowest cost. If we cannot pass single payer legislation, I will fight to contain Maine's out-of-control health care costs, invest in public health, and provide quality insurance to as many Maine people as possible, while preserving the strong consumer protections in Maine's health insurance laws. I am an expert on health insurance and Medicaid law and on the Dirigo and MaineCare programs, and that will allow me to continue to be a leader on this issue.

4. It seems that every month there is another recall or concern about children's toys or consumer products.

Maine first needs to determine what the highest-priority toxic threats are. Many states and nations have stronger toxics regulations than Maine does, so Maine need not undertake an expensive independent evaluation. I would submit and fight for legislation that requires replacement of any identified substances in consumer products with safer alternatives. Any such legislation should be pursued in conjunction with other states, to maximize leverage with the companies that produce these products.

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.

I support Maine's participation in RGGI as a step in the right direction. Cap and trade programs are not ideal, because of the problems of measurement and enforcement. To the extent possible, Maine should focus on facilitating and investing in green energy development, energy efficiency upgrades to homes and businesses, and public transportation development, and I would support bond issues to do all of these things, likely modeled on programs in New York state. To the extent federal law permits, Maine should supplement the cap and trade system with mandated carbon emission reductions.

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:

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        YES

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

Raising car rental fees to subsidize transit?     YES

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

I am willing to be flexible on funding strategy to jumpstart investment in public transportation, because it is so politically difficult to get such funding. Use of MTA funds is an imperfect solution, because there will always be pressure to siphon public transportation dollars back to highway projects, which have much more political support. A dedicated revenue source is ideal to ensure stability in funding and to depoliticize the process somewhat, but ideally the funds from that source should go solely to public transportation. Car rental fees are a good choice because they are largely paid by out-of-staters and by people who are contributing to carbon emissions by declining to use public transportation. Bond issues are a good source for public transportation money, but a trasnportation bond should either include both public transportation and road infrastructure moneys to ensure voter approval, or be in a form that does not require voter approval (moral obligation and revenue bonds, for example).

7. With the state facing a $200 million revenue shortfall in the current biennium (a projection that may change when April receipts are tallied),

It may be appropriate to suspend or eliminate various targeted tax breaks to businesses. There is little accountability in most of these breaks, and if they are not producing a substantial return on taxpayer investment, there is no reason to continue them. After examining business tax breaks and perhaps withdrawing some funds from the rainy day fund, I would be willing to raise some taxes. Taxes raised should fall on the most fortunate and on out-of-staters. Appropriate temporary tax increase areas include: increased income tax for the wealthiest Mainers (ideally through phasing out or eliminating credits and deductions, rather than a higher top rate); increased meals and lodging taxes; increased fees to the extent they support new programs and are paid by the people who would benefit from them; capping the value of homes that are eligible for the homestead exemption, in a way that ensures that only the wealthiest homeowners are paying additional property taxes; and a progressive real estate transfer tax. It would also be appropriate to expand the sales tax base (an essential element of progressive tax reform), and delay corresponding cuts in property and income taxes (another essential element) for a year or so.

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?

I would support comprehensive progressive tax reform. Revenue from broadening the sales tax base could be used to lower property taxes in a targeted way, through both the homestead and circuitbreaker programs.  The circuitbreaker expansion would include an expansion of the renters’ rebate, to address the impact property taxes have on rents. Middle- and low-income homeowners and renters should be the chief beneficiaries of property tax cuts and rent rebates. It is also essential to allow a local option tax, so communities can develop new revenue sources where appropriate. Over the longer term, Maine needs to alter its development policies to stop subsidizing sprawl. Sprawl makes services more expensive to deliver in cities, suburbs, and exurbs alike. Economic development policies that raise incomes and increase Maine's population density can also lower property taxes, by allowing the State to engage in more revenue sharing with municipalities, reducing the need for some services, and allowing economies of scale in service delivery.

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.

As president of Opportunity Maine and as the drafter of and leading expert on the law, I am committed to fully protecting it. It provides a tremendous opportunity not only to add more graduates to our workforce, but to tie together the various workforce development programs that exist in Maine.

10. Portland schools are seeing less funding from the state due, in part, to increasing value of residential and commercial property.

State educational aid should be based on a community's costs and ability to pay. Unfortunately, the school funding formula is unfair to Portland in several ways. It does not recognize that Portland's incomes do not match its property values. It also does not reflect the costs created by the challenges of our special education and immigrant populations, and by the high child poverty rates in the city. If a school funding formula is designed properly, property tax mil rates should vary little from town to town, but we are far from that place right now.  I would introduce legislation to modify the school funding formula to address these problems, after working with legislators from other regions to build in provisions that address their communities’ concerns.

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

The basic idea of consolidating some administrative functions is sound, though it is unlikely to produce as much savings as advertised. Unfortunately, the consolidation law also achieves a significant portion of its billed savings by increasing the segregation of children with disabilities from other children in the school population. Requiring a referendum on the school budget is both unwise and wasteful, and will be especially harmful to Portland. Citizens who are unhappy with education spending have an easy remedy - electing new school board members. Every referendum costs money, and the costs will be especially high in communities that make local decisions through town meeting. In Portland, there is a substantial danger that voters will automatically vote against any education budget submitted, given the recent controversies, even though the belt-tightening in the current budget is likely already going to lower educational quality.

12. Given Mainers’ struggle to balance work with family care responsibilities would you support:
 
Paid sick days to full and part-time workers.    YES

Paid family and medical leave.    YES

Legislation that allows workers to request flexible work schedules without employer retaliation.    YES

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?

Yes. There are many cases where a minor will forego needed treatment instead of getting parental consent, particularly in situations involving abuse, yet these are often the situations where treatment is most needed.

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.

Yes. Abortion should be treated like any other health procedure in the MaineCare program.

15. There is a significant move in Europe, Alaska, and Southeast Asia toward the independent certification of fisheries as sustainably-harvested.

I would support independent certification. We must do everything possible to prevent overfishing. Moreover, Maine's fishing industty's practices are more sustainable than most, and independent certification will reward those practices with higher prices for Maine's catch.

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

Invasive species present the biggest challenge to Maine's inland fisheries, in terms of preserving both our native species and our appeal as a sportfishing destination. We have already lost many fisheries to invasive fish. The biggest opportunity for these fisheries is to promote Maine as a sportfishing dsetination, creating economic opportunities in rural areas that desperately need them. Overfishing and bycatch provide the biggest challenges to marine fisheries. The biggest opportunity in those fisheries is to strengthen the Maine lobster's brand as a quality and sustainably harvested product (much as Alaska did with its salmon), and to promote more value-added lobster products. Maine's lobster fishery is sustainable, comparatively helpful, and an essential source of livelilhood for thousands of Mainers.

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