Governor Paul LePage came back to Aroostook County last weekend to join the Maine Potato Blossom Festival and hold a town hall meeting in Fort Fairfield.
At a 3 p.m. town hall meeting Saturday with less than 30 people, LePage pressed on with his message about what’s wrong with Maine’s economy and government and how to fix them.
“We are one of the better states as far as our fiscal position,” LePage said to begin his remarks, noting that the state government’s ratings from credit agencies are in good shape. (Maine is also one of the safest states in the country, he said later, referring to debate over gun violence.)
“My message truly is not about Democrat or Republican. It’s about prosperity that Maine once had and hasn’t been seen in 50 years,” LePage said.
LePage said the state’s economic future has serious challenges, with an aging population and tax structures that may adversely impact businesses as well as longtime residents.
LePage argued that Maine has a low likelihood of attracting new investment from large manufacturing companies due to high electricity prices, and that employers across the state are having trouble finding workers they need.
There are some 50,000 open jobs across the state, paying “anywhere from $8 an hour to $75,000,” LePage said. “We need young people to move to Maine. Nineteen percent of the Maine population is elderly. In 10 years it’s going to be 28 percent.”
With a smaller, aging, rural population, LePage said that the state government and communities across the state need to figure out how to solve issues such as education funding. The shared local-state financing system with a heavy reliance on property taxes is something many rural communities continue to grapple with, as tax levies and spending increase even as enrollment student falls.
“We don’t put enough money into the classroom because we have so many superintendents, assistant superintendents and administrative staff,” LePage said. “We spend 5 percent of the school budget on administration while the rest of the country spends closer to 2 to 2.5 percent.
Maine refuses to regionalize … We still have schools that graduate 10, 12, 14 seniors.”
LePage has said he would like to see Maine’s 127 school districts share administrative services, right-size their classroom spaces and adopt a statewide teachers contract.
“I think that payroll, IT, nutrition and stuff can be done at a regional office, and you don’t have to have every school district have their own superintendents and systems.”
LePage told the audience, including a number of local Republican lawmakers and activists, that he is still hoping to find a receptive legislature in his last years as governor for areas of compromise, after years of bitter disputes with legislators.
LePage noted that he and the legislature did agree to create a program that essentially lets Mainers attend college debt free, with no-interest loans from the state and an employer repayment program, although he said that the legislature did not approve any funding for it.
He’s also planning to seek common ground on investing in new start-up companies and technology as a way to spur business development.
“In January, I’m putting out a request for a $50 million bond to help commercialization of small entrepreneurs,” LePage aid. Rather than offering a grant for research, as the Maine Technology Institute does, the state would be an investor with a stake in the companies, and could be bought out over a number of years, LePage said.
LePage also hinted at some possible business news for Aroostook County. He said he has been in “major meetings with the Loring Development Authority” and a company that could set up at the Loring Commerce Centre in Limestone.
