To the editor:
My name is Gerald Morey and I work as a Secretary for RSU 29. I’ve heard that the Maine state government could be heading for a shutdown due to hard lines drawn on our state budget.
In November 2016, the citizens of Maine used their constitutional right to approve Question Two, the surcharge of 3 percent on personal incomes over $200,000, to bring the state in line with a previous vote by the people to fund their public schools at 55 percent.
I feel that the elected representatives of Aroostook County owe an explanation to the people they represent. Why would some hold a party line not only to deny the will of the people, within the parameters of Maine’s constitution, but also threaten to cause the suffering of approximately 12,000 state employees and their families to do it?
As a voter in Aroostook County, please explain to me how asking a person making $250,000 a year to contribute $1,500 more to education will kill our economy.
I’ve lived in Aroostook County my entire life, except for the time I spent in the Army, and every politician has promised more jobs through less tax for businesses and wealthy people.
Having a Pine Tree Zone didn’t produce miracles in Houlton. If tax breaks were the answer, Houlton should have two jobs for every person by now.
If, as an elected official, you are going to tow a party line to reverse the will of the people, tell us exactly what the actual real benefits to the voters are — not some mystical jobs that every politician since politics began promised, but what really will happen.
The voters need to know it isn’t because political donations are flooding in. The citizens deserve more than political speak. I look at Kansas and what is going on there and am very scared for Maine.
What huge benefit is Aroostook County going to get that it is worth sacrificing the education and well-being of our children?
Gerald Morey Jr.
Hodgdon
