Issues
Economy & Jobs
Despite what other candidates tell you, governors don’t create jobs. What governors and governments can do is create the conditions in which people and businesses will invest, prosper and create new jobs. We haven’t done that in Maine; in fact, we have done just the opposite. We have created barriers that discourage Maine businesses from expanding and other businesses from locating here.
My plan is simple: cut the costs of living and doing business in Maine. We can transform our economy and create jobs by lowering the cost of electricity, lowering the cost of healthcare, and lowering the cost of government services. Once we have done that, we can begin to re-build Maine by investing in education and in our competitive advantages — our people, our quality places, our natural resources and our strategic location.
Please click here to learn more about Eliot’s plan to grow Maine’s economy and jobs.
Education
As we rebuild Maine, the most important investment we can make is in educating and training our young people. Unfortunately, Maine’s public education system is failing our kids.
We will create a climate of excitement, reform and innovation in our schools, colleges and universities, and we will foster better education at lower costs. We will authorize charter schools. We will measure PreK-12 student performance and use those measures to reward excellence and creativity from teachers. And we will maximize the value of our college and university assets by merging our two systems of higher education into one, making sure that we organize higher education around the needs of students, taxpayers and 21st century employers.
I will not rest until every Maine child has an equal opportunity to succeed and every Maine employer can draw from a pool of skilled and educated talent.
Please click here to learn more about Eliot’s plan to reform and innovate in Maine’s schools.
Energy
Maine has an abundance of clean, renewable energy resources, including our forests and farmlands, onshore and offshore wind, tidal and solar power. But I am tired of seeing so much of the electricity generated in Maine exported out of state to create jobs and incomes somewhere else. I want to put some of that electricity to work right here in Maine.
Lowering the cost of electricity is one of the most important things we can do to create new jobs and attract new investment to Maine. That is why I want to create a public power authority – not a big new bureaucracy, but a small commission – that will use low-cost, tax-exempt financing and public-private partnerships to build needed energy facilities, develop our renewable energy resources, invest in energy efficiency and sell lower-priced electricity directly to Maine businesses.
Environment
People live here, move here and visit here because Maine is special. Maintaining that “quality of place” is one of the most important investments we can make in our future. That means respecting and protecting our natural environment and our wild and scenic places. That means preserving farmland, forests, harbors and downtowns.
I helped Ed Muskie write the laws that protect our environment – the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act – and I have helped to develop environmentally responsible airports, highways and other job-creating projects. I know how to achieve balance, because I’ve done it.
Farms, Fisheries, & Forests
Farming, fishing and forestry were the cornerstones of our state’s economy in our beginnings, and they remain among our most important industries today. These resources define Maine’s real competitive advantages, and investment in the sustainable development of our natural resources can drive Maine incomes higher and shape a better future for all Mainers.
Our efforts to use Maine‘s natural resources in innovative and sustainable ways benefit from something else that has incredible value: Maine’s legendary reputation for quality. That’s our brand, and we must continue to safeguard it, invest in it, and promote it.
Healthcare
Consider that 60% of all healthcare dollars in Maine are spent treating preventable illnesses. What if we took a different approach, focusing as much on maintaining good health as on treating illness? What if we rewarded healthy behaviors and paid for healthy outcomes, instead of just paying for expensive procedures after one gets sick? Then we could provide essential health care services for all Maine citizens at a cost we could afford and sustain over time.
Maine’s not-for-profit hospitals and clinics, our physicians and care givers offer us a unique opportunity to provide healthcare at a price that Maine businesses and taxpayers can afford, while still preserving individual choice and the important doctor-patient relationship. We will replace our statewide dependence on excessively expensive health insurance with a new and better approach that is based on three principles:
- Everyone in Maine should have access to essential health care services.
- The program must be financially sound and sustainable. We will make incentives work for us rather than against us.
- We will get costs under control by rewarding consumers’ healthy behavior and paying providers for quality performance and outcomes.
Tourism
Tourism is our single largest industry, and we cannot simply take it for granted that people will come here because they always have. We are competing for visitors with other states and the rest of the world. Our goal will be simple and straightforward: we will boost Maine’s tourism reputation to the top tier of the 50 states, both at home and abroad.
We will promote Maine aggressively, search out new markets and find ways to help our tourism, recreation and sporting businesses invest in the kinds of infrastructure and amenities that will keep people coming back to Maine.