FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUGUST 6, 2010
CONTACT: TED O’MEARA OR MONICA CASTELLANOS
207.699.4401
ted@cutler2010.com
PORTLAND, Maine – Ed Karass, a former state controller who served under the last six Maine governors, has endorsed Independent candidate for Governor Eliot Cutler.
“I have looked carefully at all the candidates for governor this year. In my estimation, Eliot Cutler is the only one who has the competence, experience and toughness to deal with Maine’s looming budget crisis,” Karass said, noting that Maine’s new governor will face a budget shortfall of more than $1 billion over the next two fiscal years.
Karass said that Cutler’s service as associate director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as well his extensive experience in business, will serve him well as governor. At OMB, Cutler made decisions about how to spend, re-allocate and cut out hundreds of millions of dollars in federal spending. He went on to establish three major law offices and to help start up and turnaround several successful businesses.
“I am honored to have Ed’s support,” Cutler said. “There is no one in Maine with a better understanding of Maine’s finances and how we need to change the ways we use the tax dollars of hard working Maine people. Maine is headed for a fiscal train wreck unless we change our spending habits and make some tough decisions about what we can, and can’t, afford.”
The Office of State Controller reviews, approves and consolidates all accounting transactions for all agencies within the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government. It also establishes and monitors State accounting policies and procedures and reviews, compiles and reports all statewide accounting information.
Karass said that neither of Cutler’s two main opponents, nor the other two Independents in the race, have the ability to responsibly address the financial challenges facing Maine.
“Maine can’t afford more of the same policies and programs that got us into this mess, and we can’t afford to turn these immense problems over to someone who has neither the experience nor the demeanor to build a new consensus around tax and spending priorities,” said Karass, who is now the CEO of Karass Financial & Accounting in Gardiner. “Eliot Cutler stands out as a leader who can make the tough decisions and develop a new way forward for Maine.”
In a commentary published in Saturday’s Bangor Daily News, Karass said that a close examination of Paul LePage’s performance as Waterville mayor “reveals more mediocrity than miracle.”
“While Maine taxpayers have been pumping money into his city, Waterville’s spending for municipal services has increased by 22 percent, and school performance is suffering. The publicly acclaimed Waterville property tax rate turns out to have fallen less than it did in comparable Maine cities that have wrestled with similar economic and financial challenges while the City of Waterville’s economy has underperformed most of those cities, and its bond rating is worse,” Karass said in his commentary.