Tag Archives: maine democrats

Mar 1 2016

Governor Will Not Support Tax Conformity Tied to More Spending

03/01/2016 02:14 PM EST
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, March 1, 2016 Contact: Adrienne Bennett, Press Secretary, 207-287-2531

AUGUSTA – Governor Paul R. LePage announced today he will not support a tax conformity bill that is tied to taking $23 million for additional education spending from the Budget Stabilization Fund.

“I will not support good policy tied to the back of bad policy,” said Governor LePage. “After speaking today with leadership from both sides of the aisle, it is clear that socialist legislators will continue to hold up tax conformity to get more spending. It’s totally unrelated to tax conformity.”

The Governor said he hopes to work with the 128th Legislature to support tax conformity next year and make it retroactive to this year.
Feb 18 2016

Democrats Refuse to Provide Sheriff Candidates, Governor Selects Mason

02/18/2016 04:16 PM EST

 

For Immediate Release: Thursday, February 18, 2016 Contact: Adrienne Bennett, Press Secretary, 207-287-2531

AUGUSTA – In light of the blatant refusal from Kennebec County Democratic Party Committee members to provide more than one candidate for Sheriff, Governor Paul R. LePage has selected another candidate for the post. Governor LePage today announced Major Kenneth Mason to serve as the new Sheriff.

Last week, the Democratic Committee decided to withhold other names from the nomination process. The Committee submitted interim Sheriff Ryan Reardon’s name in October 2015.

Last month, Attorney General Janel Mills wrote a letter to Kennebec County Democratic Committee Chair Rita Moran requesting the committee’s intentions regarding the pending nomination process. Mills wrote, “While the intent of the statute is not entirely clear, the use of the words “choose” and “recommendations” seem to imply that if the Committee submits recommendations, the names of more than on qualified individual should be submitted.”

“Repeatedly, I have asked for at least two names as required by the law, but Democrats continue to play silly games and I have had enough,” said Governor Paul LePage. “I am selecting Major Kenneth Mason for this appointment. He has more than 30 years of experience in law enforcement and I have the utmost confidence he will continue to be an exemplary public servant.”

Born and raised in the Augusta area, Major Mason currently serves as the Chief Deputy for the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office where he was appointed in 2005.

Prior to joining the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, Major Mason served as a patrol officer with the Augusta Police Department beginning in 1987. While employed with Augusta Police Department, he was a field training officer instructing and training new hires on patrol functions. Major Mason became a certified D.A.R.E. instructor after completing a two week training course at Colby College in Waterville, and taught D.A.R.E. in all of the elementary schools in Augusta. In 2003, he became a certified Motor Cycle Police Officer and conducted patrol duties on two wheels.

Major Mason is also a United States Marine having served 5 years active duty after he graduated Hall-Dale High School.

Feb 12 2016

Governor Calls on Democrats to Stop Holding Tax Conformity for Ransom

AUGUSTA – Governor Paul R. LePage once again called on Democrats today to stop hurting the livelihoods of teachers, low-income earners, students, small and large businesses by refusing to enact tax conformity unless it is tied to an additional windfall in education spending, which would be over and above the significant increase already in the current budget.

The Democrats want to raid the Budget Stabilization Fund for $23 million in additional education spending before they approve tax conformity, even though education spending has already increased by $80 million over the last budget.

“The Democrats are holding tax conformity for ransom by tying it to education funding, which is totally unrelated,” said Governor LePage. “They are raiding $23 million from the rainy day fund to deny teachers, low-income earners, students and small and large Maine businesses the tax refunds they deserve. There’s no reason to pay ransom for tax conformity. The Democrats are either for it or against it. If they think tax conformity is good for the Maine people-which it is-they should vote for it. If Democrats disagree with President Obama and think Maine taxpayers do not deserve the same tax refund the federal government is giving them, they should just vote against it.”

In school year 2016-17, state spending is $114 million higher than it was in the LePage administration’s first budget for the 2010-11 school year.

School spending from the state is now $150 million higher than the 2005-06 school year-an 18% increase. In the same period, student population has declined by over 25,000 students-a 13% decrease.

In this biennium, Governor LePage added $40 million over last year. The Legislature added another $40 million. School spending is up $80 million over the last biennium alone. Now the Democrats want to seize $23 million more, which would be a $100 million increase over last biennium.
Dec 30 2015

Nottingham Returns

It’s perplexing, at best, to find that a villain so reviled and mocked throughout history has gained such an ardent admirer here in the State of Maine. The sheriff of Nottingham, fact or fiction, remains a source of some debate for those who wish to bother. Still the fact remains that the sheriff of Nottingham, fable or no, has long invoked metaphorical images of the pompous, indifferent politician who’s every detached existence is made possible through taxes culled from the hard labors and bent backs of a people long siphoned and beaten beyond any hope of returned independence or prosperity. Yes, that is all one sentence and I’m sure I offended the syntax gods somewhere in there, but let’s move on.

Last election cycle, Emily Cain and her running mate Blaine Richardson, were defeated by Bruce Poliquin. Poliquin had just barely finished arranging the furniture in his office in Washington D.C. when he was informed that Emily Cain had announced her candidacy for the office he had just finished dusting. (You do realize the office needed a lot of dusting, as Mike Michaud preferred to stay hidden in the closet and rarely used the desk for anything. Incidentally, Emily Cain has not announced whether she will allow Blaine Richardson to tag along as her running mate this time around…we all wait with bated breath, but I digress…) There was much consternation and head scratching as to why Ms. Cain needed to announce immediately if not sooner her intention to run for office. It’s really not that confusing.

Emily Cain was afforded a great opportunity after her defeat. She could have entered the private sector and got a job, establish some “street cred” if you will. She must have quickly realized that she was in the party of fat cats, trust fund brats, and all around tax sponges. The Democrat Party greatly discourages their politicians against entering the private workforce and risking having candidates with dangerous amounts of commonsense accrued. So she’s followed a time honored Democrat tradition, suckle up to the teat of public tax funds.

Yes, the Sheriff of Nottingham has been reincarnated in a much more likable, effusive, and feminine persona, but still demands your taxes to fund her very existence. Since graduating college, Emily Cain has not held one private sector job. Everything she has done, everything she has accomplished has been funded by tax dollars. When provided an opportunity to move into the world of the self-made, entrepreneurs, businesses, and the workforce, she chose to stay in her sheltered gilded world wrapped in walls built up to shield her from the very people whose hard earned dollars were taxed away to build them.

While it’s more than ironic that she wishes to represent a people whose lives she cannot comprehend or identify with, it’s the hypocritical attacks on Representative Poliquin that reek with the cloud of stupefaction that blankets the Democrat Party. Her claims that the self-made millionaire has somehow cheated the public would be laughable if they were bits in a cheap sitcom, but instead are a sad commentary on how completely detached from reality she is. Perhaps it is the term “self-made” that she cannot grasp.

Along with her Party, Emily Cain has spent so much time living off the accomplishments of others that she cannot comprehend that anyone can create their own wealth by using their own talents, own initiative, and own hard-work to carve their own slice of the American dream. Remember this is the Party that has told American innovators and business owners “they didn’t build that.” It’s the stuff of socialism that says everything belongs to the collective and only the elite can live off it.

Everything Emily Cain has is funded by taxes. All her salaries have come from the wallets of taxpayers. Her clothes, her food, her fancies, her empire, her very existence are all a product of tax dollars. It can’t help but invoke images of the fabled Sheriff dining in opulence by the fire while his minions scour the shire of Nottingham pounding on battered hovel doors demanding new taxes to fund the sheriff’s lifestyle whims. Perhaps Emily Cain should take an honest look at who she is instead of trying to smear her opponents with the very lifestyle she has embraced.