Tag Archives: Turnpike commission

May 22 2012

The endorsements keep rolling in!

Peter Johnson (R.-Greenville), the stellar representative from the Moosehead lake region as issued his endorsement of Bruce Poliquin.  He states his reasons as follows:

“I have been most impressed with Bruce as our State Treasurer.  He came to the job with a great understanding of the fiscal problems that our State faces.  He has been tireless at addressing the problems of excessive cost in bonding, the unfunded pension liability and several issues with the wasteful spending of the Maine Turnpike Authority and the Maine Housing Authority.   His dedication to protecting the taxpayers of Maine and eliminating wasteful and unsustainable programs have saved our state millions of dollars and I am certain he will do the same in Washington.”

Feb 20 2012

Down The River

 

The excuse machine for the Maine Democrat Party is on full spin cycle. They tumble through the revolving objection drum, searching daily for a new reason to obstruct a balanced budget.  First, the Governor presented his proposal to address the DHHS budget shortfall to the Appropriations Committee.  The Democrats and their moderate Republican allies on the committee chose instead to produce a bill that did not address the looming fiscal crises but rather preferred to push the problem to a later date.  After overwhelming outrage from the people, the House correctly amended the bill to deal with the issue more directly.

Amazingly, this bill had bi-partisan support, at least, for a time.  Several Democrats have now realized that throwing messy obstructionist tantrums is far more effective in garnering headlines than to simply do the work of the people.  So now, we have the juvenile revolving reason to pout.

To start, these Democrats said they could not support the bill because it did not have the approval of the Appropriations Committee. Then the committee gave the bill its approval.  Now, the Democrats can’t support it because it doesn’t have enough …spending?  And we all know that the reason Maine is grossly over budget is because we haven’t spent enough, right?  Really?

This should come as no surprise to the people of Maine.  As the high levels of corruption in government bureaucracies are now coming to light, we can see clearly why Cynthia Dill and others want to spend more.  They just need a few more perks for being public servants.

The smelly onion of the Turnpike Commission keeps unraveling with pungent and rank clarity.  The investigative works of Peter Mills and his staff have shone a light on the many get rich schemes hidden beneath the veils of this tax-funded organization.  Indictments have come down with more on the way.  But it pales in comparison to what has been unearthed within the corridors of Maine State Housing.

In the past five years, under the leadership of Dale McCormick, Maine State Housing Authority (MSHA) has increased travel expenses by 157%.  Training expenses have increased by 287%.  Gift cards, catering, massage therapy, and martial arts training, to name a few, all spent with lavish exuberance on the taxpayer dime.

Some of the training facilities itemized under “education/training” were such heralded institutions as Ground Round, Pushard’s Okinawan Karate, Abracadabra Productions, and Dan’s BBQ.  Expenses marked “office supplies” included Funtown/Splashtown USA, Are You Ready To Party, Inc., Healing Hands Therapeutic massage, and Sandcastle Entertainment, which rents bounce houses and slides.  These abuses continue to be uncovered by watchdog groups, such as Maine Heritage Policy Center.

Perhaps, as Democrats continue to obstruct the arduous task of balancing Maine’s budget with cries to spend more money and, instead, demand to spend us down the river, we the people should ask why?  Was it because you didn’t have enough for your expenditures in the first place?  Or do you just want to play?

Jan 12 2012

The godfather: Dead Man’s Bones

 

 

I recently listened to an album…did I say album, ahhh…ha ha ha, I meant CD of one of my favorite artists.  In one of the songs, the lyricist repeatedly poses the question to the listener, “What is your legacy?” For most honest people, this would trigger thoughts of reflection and self-evaluation.  But for the John Martin Democrats the response seems to be “it’s LePage’s fault”, “You can’t prove it” or, my favorite, “There wouldn’t be a shortfall if you let us add up the numbers”.   To the consternation of Democrats of the John Martin ilk, Mainers are not as impressed with the labyrinth of deceitful accounting practices that have accumulated over forty years as the Party, whose symbol is an Ass, seems to be.  As the Governor does the unthinkable and opens the books for the people to see, the specter of prosperity lost calls from the ghostly hallows with tales of the stolen and lost treasure of the people.  The graves and bones of Maine’s hopes and dreams of a bright future filled with wealth now slowly begin to piece together their story of betrayal and waste of precious things entrusted to those not worthy of trust.

First, it was the Turnpike Commission.  The revelation of fraud, waste and corruption made us all angry, but for different reasons.  For the people, who work hard for every dime, it was anger that money was being mishandled without any oversight and accountability.  Democrats were angry that such a big fuss was being made over “relatively” so little.  They called the State Treasurer an “activist” on a “witch hunt”.  I mean, what’s hundreds of thousands of dollars between thieves, right?  And more skeletons are still being discovered in that little dungeon.

Affordable Housing.  There’s nothing confusing about that title, correct?  Pretty self-explanatory, right?  Not to a Democrat.  No, Affordable means over $300,000 per unit.  Yeah, you all know where this is going.  In the ongoing investigation, there are “troubling” things coming to light on where and to whom that  $300,000 was dispersed.  What? Corruption in government?  Say it isn’t so?

Oh, you’ll just get the biggest giggle out of this.  Democrats want to force us to use Green Energy.   Aren’t you excited?  Yes, since we all have so much extra money hanging around, the left wants us, not them, us taxpayers to fund a clean energy initiative to increase our usage of new experimental energy sources by 20%, whether it works or not and whether you want to or not.  Isn’t this awesome?  It’s called legislation.  Just when you thought oil and fuel prices were way too low, here come your friendly favorite liberals with another energy tax.

By the way, the Governor thinks this is a bad idea because it’s bad for the economy and just pads the pockets of the special interests.  That’s why it’s called green energy.  It fills crooked politician’s pockets with taxpayer greenbacks and makes Maine’s economy green sick.  Just for chuckles, giggles and snorts, those gorgeous giant white windmills that we are blowing the tops off our mountains to put up, in England the wind keeps blowing the propellers off them.  Doesn’t that just make you…green?  The government picking your source of energy….and how did gasohol work out again?

This is the legacy of the Maine Democrat Party.  It has built a behemoth of bureaucracies that are dragging our State and its futures to its grave.  We have to face these ugly truths as they are revealed and all work together to turn the tide.  There is more to come.  Let’s Set Maine Free!