Fiscal Responsibility

As printed originally by the Lincoln County News on October 11, posted with permission of the author.

To the editor:

The biggest political challenges of recent years have been global in magnitude: the worldwide pandemic, international inflation, the war in Ukraine. And yet despite those universal constraints, Maine is arguably in a better economic and sociological position than we have been in decades. So I find it absurd that the opposition party has been so critical of the manner in which Gov. Janet Mills has managed the unexpected revenues that came from pandemic relief payments.

The Mills’ administration has leveraged relief money to position Maine to withstand possible new economic threats. Our credit rating has improved several fold since the end of the LePage era; the widely popular affordable housing bonds that Gov. Paul LePage refused to issue were released in Gov. Mills first days in office, and the administration restored thousands of Mainers to the protections of Medicaid and Medicare just in time to be covered during the healthcare crisis. The state is paying its full share of K-12 funding for local, parent-controlled, and student-centric education. And 850,000 Maine taxpayers received cash rebates to use to offset the personal effects of worldwide inflation. At the same time, the administration managed to fully fund the rainy day fund for the first time in more than a generation. Oh, and, by the way, women’s health care choices are fully protected as well.

But Republicans criticize Mill’s careful stewardship of limited resources, the professional, frugal and effective management of the state’s business, while some of their own abused federal assistance.

For my part, I prefer professional, bipartisan fiscal management to the reckless politics of the right wing. I am grateful for the leadership of Mills, especially during turbulent times.

Rich Livingston
Bremen