Posts Tagged ‘Blog’

BLOG: The Supplemental Budget is a Travesty

Monday, December 21st, 2009

However much we might sympathize with the tough jam in which Governor Baldacci finds himself, there is no excuse — none — for the failure of leadership that the new supplemental budget represents.

Governors are elected to face the music and to lead the state, in good times or in bad. This is a bad time, to be sure, and the state government needs major surgery . . . maybe even an amputation or two.

But instead of facing the music and proposing the kinds of fundamental changes we need to make Maine work again, the Governor’s supplemental budget avoids the tough calls, relies on the most transparent gimmickry and fails the test of leadership.

Here are just a few of the issues that I have raised that the new budget fails to address:

  • We need to authorize charter schools, measure teacher performance and pay for innovation, quality and efficiency in pre-K-12 education.
  • We should merge our community college and university systems, so that we can better prepare our kids for jobs in Maine and in the knowledge economy at costs we can afford.
  • We ought to reduce the number of non-profit organizations under contract to DHHS from 7,000 (!) to a more rational and manageable number that will deliver needed services at less cost.
  • Let’s put an end to mandatory vehicle inspections, a leftover program from days when cars were not nearly as safe and reliable as they are today.
  • It’s time to come to grips with the runaway costs of health care in Maine by creating a new framework that provides access to essential health care services for every Maine citizen at a cost that we can afford. (Does Governor Baldacci really believe that the new federal legislation will cure this problem for us?)

Instead of proposing the kinds of major surgery that the state government needs, the Governor’s new budget prescribes the political equivalent of sugar pills:

  • More across-the-board cuts (one of the worst cop-outs of all), including three more government shutdown days. (At this rate, we might as well opt for a part-time government.)
  • Tooth Fairy gimmicks like a “new” program to collect overdue taxes and hoped-for but uncommitted additional revenues from Uncle Sam, whose printing press is about to be turned off.
  • Robbing Peter to pay Paul by making transfers to the General Fund from special funds like the state employees health insurance fund (thereby adding even more to the $3 billion in unfunded liabilities), the workers’ compensation fund and other cash balances in special-purpose funds. (This makes it look like the Governor learned budgeting from the University of Maine System.)
  • Passing the Buck by delaying payments to towns and cities.
  • And in a Shell Game that constitutes perhaps the worst example of budget shenanigans, the Governor proposes to make up the last big chunk of what is now estimated to be a $438 million shortfall by “borrowing” $93.5 million from Other Special Revenue Funds on June 30 and then paying it back 24 hours later on July 1. (This would be as if you or I paid our overdue credit card balances with another credit card.)

This budget puts our bond ratings at risk, perpetuates all of the structural deficiencies that caused the problems in the first place and is the strongest possible argument that could be made for a BRAC-type process of government reorganization, a proposal that I made in my announcement speech.

We’ll see what the legislature does with the travesty of a budget that the Governor has turned over to them, but nothing so far suggests that the political parties that got us into this mess are going to get us out of it.

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BLOG: Moving On From The Debate Over Consolidation

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

Many people across Maine have asked me how I intend to vote on the contentious issue of school consolidation — Question 3 on next Tuesday’s ballot.

I answered that question in an television interview with Augusta schools superintendent Connie Brown several weeks ago, and again just this past Friday in response to a question from blogger Derek Viger of The Maine View.  Regardless of what happens on Tuesday, we need to sit down and figure out the answers to much bigger questions about K-12 education in Maine.  There are much bigger issues at stake here than whether or not we consolidate schools. The important questions are whether our schools are producing excellence. Are our kids getting a quality education? And, are we doing so at costs we can afford to pay?

Please read the rest of this blog to see what I have said on this critical challenge.

There’s are much bigger issues at stake here than whether or not we consolidate schools in Maine. The important questions are whether our schools are producing excellence. Are our kids getting a quality education? And, are we doing so at costs we can afford to pay?

Those are the central questions facing our education system. And the answers are going to be different in different parts of the state. Because of that, consolidation isn’t the right answer everywhere.

With that said, I’m going to vote to sustain the enacted school consolidation law because I think it’s a set of tools that we just can’t throw out. I think we need to take what’s there and fix it.

The issues to me with Maine’s K-12 education come down to equities, excellence, efficiency and cost-effective performance.

Every kid in Maine should have an opportunity for an excellent education. I believe every kid in Maine should be able to stay in school and to be excited about it. I don’t believe we can write off kids in one part of the state or another part of the state. That’s just not the right approach. As governor, I simply won’t permit it. Our kids are too important.  They need and deserve more from us.

Now, we need to figure out how to correct inequities and achieve excellence in a more cost-effective way, because in the next few fiscal years in Maine, we are going to have a budget crunch the likes of which we’ve never seen before. There’s going to be a lot of pressure to cut spending on state aid to K-12 education because it’s such a big part of our state budget. When that happens, some towns in Maine are going to be just fine because they can raise the money to make up the difference. But there are a lot of towns in Maine where they are not going to have that opportunity. So the gap is going to grow and not narrow.

We need to figure out how to narrow that gap – even in tough budget times — because all Maine kids are our kids, and every single one of them is entitled to a great education.

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BLOG: My Vision for Health Care in Maine

Monday, October 26th, 2009

The median U.S. household income has decreased 3.6 percent this year, yet health insurance premiums are projected to increase 9 percent nationally.  In Maine, Anthem wants a hike of 18 percent.  This outrageous news comes on the heels of a decade (from 2000 to 2009) when health insurance premiums in Maine rose 4.6 times faster than our household incomes!

Something is terribly, terribly wrong. Yet, notwithstanding the tireless efforts of Senator Snowe to achieve meaningful reform at the federal level, the health care debate in Congress appears to have sailed right past the most important point. We need to stop arguing about who pays and start thinking about what we are paying for!

A recent story in the Bangor Daily News reported on a new, low-cost health care plan that has been organized by a group of Rhode Island physicians.

“I’d do this tomorrow . . . ,” said Maine’s own Dr. Michael Clark of Damariscotta.  “To be able to deliver care to my lobstermen and carpenters and all the small businessmen . . . The big excitement is not to get a few more bucks per person. It’s to deliver care that aligns with my values and my conscience, and that is the care that our patients want.”

That is exactly the kind of care that we ought to be able to provide to everyone in Maine. And when I am governor, we will do that.

Whether we like it or not, and whether we realize it or not, we are all paying for each other’s health care today – and we are paying far, far too much for it. We are all paying high prices for unnecessary visits to hospital emergency rooms; we are paying billions of dollars in advertising, overhead and profits to health insurance companies; we are paying billions more to make up for the shortfalls in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements; and we are paying for expensive treatments and remedies for conditions that could have been prevented.This is an unnecessary handicap on Maine’s working families, who pay too much and sacrifice too much in wages for health care, and it is a burden that is breaking the back of Maine employers, for whom high health care costs are one of the most important factors making it difficult to do business in Maine.

The Dirigo health insurance program was an important attempt at reform. It signaled Maine’s intent to make essential health care services accessible to all. It was well-intentioned, but it just didn’t work as intended. It covers too few of those who need coverage, and it does so at too high of a cost. We need to replace it with something better and more cost-effective.

We also need to lower Maine’s high Medicaid expense, which is way, way above the national average, primarily because of unusually broad eligibility and a scope of services that is far beyond what is available in other states. Instead of programs that aren’t working and insurance coverage that is beyond our means, we can fashion a broader program that provides access to essential health care services for all Maine citizens at a price that Maine businesses and taxpayers can afford.

We can make health care in Maine work . . . for all of us. To do so, we need a focused strategy based on three important principles.

  • First, all Mainers should have access to essential health care services. We need to protect people from the ruinous economic consequences of unanticipated illness, the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in our state and in the country, so adequate coverage must include coverage for catastrophic illness. We must not forget that the reasons why Medicaid coverage in Maine is so broad and why we conceived and enacted the Dirigo program were good and sound reasons; we are compassionate, generous and decent people in Maine, and we should not desert those principles.
  • Second, however, our program must be fiscally sound. We need to draw bounds around what we can afford to provide. We no longer can afford to indulge our very best instincts – our compassion, generosity and decency – without regard to what it costs to do so.
  • And third, we have to stop paying for procedures and start paying for good health. We can develop a program that learns and borrows from the highly successful efforts undertaken by Cianbro, Hussey and some of Maine’s other large employers; one that builds on Maine’s strong systems of non-profit hospitals, committed physicians and caregivers, and one that incentivizes and pays for healthy behaviors and healthy outcomes. Many of the diseases we pay to treat are preventable. We need to create incentives for people to stop smoking, to lose weight and to take better care of themselves. That is the only way that we are going to bring costs under control, and it is the only way as a society and as a community that we will be able to afford broad access to essential care.

Maine can work.  Providing high quality, affordable health care for every citizen is one of the biggest levers we have to lower the costs of living and doing business in Maine . . . and it is one of the most important ways in which we can make sure that Maine works for all of us.

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BLOG: Maine’s Competitive Advantages

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Campaigning in Maine is a great way to spend the day – meeting smart, resilient and innovative people, seeing absolutely gorgeous fall scenery, and listening to great ideas from frustrated, but hopeful, Mainers all across our state about to make the most of Maine’s competitive advantages.

  • I drove up to Danforth late last month to see the Fairwinds 55 MW wind energy project on Stetson Ridge, spending a couple of hours there with Angus King III, David Wilby and Mike Cianchette from Fairwinds. Mike is one of the luckiest guys in Maine, sitting atop the Ridge, and sometimes atop the towers, looking out over God’s country. The machines are strikingly beautiful and quieter than I had expected. And the drives up and down Routes 169 and 6 on a clear fall day make campaigning a joy.
  • Later that same day I stopped in Bangor to meet with Sandy Ervin (former Bangor superintendent), Dan Lee (Brewer superintendent) and Murray Schulman (Bangor system special education) to hear their ideas about how to improve performance and quality in PK-12 education in Maine. Last week I spent three hours in Portland with Bob Hasson (SAD-51 superintendent), Derek Pierce (Casco Bay High School principal) and David Silvernail (USM professor and researcher) listening to their thoughts.
  • I had interesting conversations last week with George Smith of the Maine Sportsman’s Alliance and with Vaughn Stinson and Carolyn Manson, who are working hard at the Maine Tourism Association. All three are doing great things for Maine and their members.Tourism is Maine’s largest industry, and it deserves a lot more attention – creative and focused attention – than it has been getting.
  • I did a half-hour taping at the Capitol Area Technical Center with Augusta Superintendent of Schools Connie Brown for her cable television show. Connie asks good questions, and it was more good discussion about how we can keep our kids in Maine. But the best part of doing the show was watching her crew – all students at the Tech Center – work like pros in the studio. Impressive! The crew changes for every show, and these young men and women are learning great skills. And I spent a great day in Biddeford listening to ideas from developers Greg Bennett and Diane Doyle and City Manager John Bubier about how to reinvigorate this great river city, which has a special Maine character and sense of place about it. The Saco-Biddeford area is going to be a gem of a growth area as we rebuild Maine’s economy.

These are Maine’s competitive advantages. When we have a vision, and when we focus our investments tightly and in a disciplined way on these assets – our natural resources, our places and our people – we can make Maine work again for all of us!

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BLOG: Government VFM

Monday, September 14th, 2009

I am a trustee, a director, of a group of mutual funds that invests billions of dollars in bonds issued by state and local governments.  I just spent a long and difficult day in a meeting in which we reviewed those investments and the finances of the states and cities that have issued those bonds.  Times are tough all over America.  Everyone is looking for VFM — value for the money.

The Maine Sunday Telegram fired a shot across the bow of Maine’s gubernatorial candidates yesterday, and voters should pay close attention to how those of us who want to be governor respond.  The editors want to know how we propose “to change the size and scope of state government to adequately meet [Maine's] needs.”   That’s a hard question, but it’s the right question.

The next 10 years will comprise the single most critical decade in Maine’s history, one filled with both risk and promise.  We must respond to two great challenges.

First, we need to create thousands of new jobs and restore growth and incomes by literally rebuilding the foundations of our economy.  We need to get Mainers working again.

At the same time, we have to resolve an enormous structural budget deficit by reducing state spending by hundreds of millions of dollars.  We will need to make far-reaching changes in the way we govern ourselves and deliver public services in Maine so that Maine works right again.

We’re not alone.  Most states are facing the same kinds of challenges, some with deficits that are even proportionally bigger than ours.  But no other state has the same tradition of solving difficult problems with grit and ingenuity that we have.  No other state has Maine’s unique civic culture that leads us to compromise and solution far more often than to loggerheads and division.  No other state has Dirigo (I lead) as its motto.

Dirigo needs to mean something in Maine again.  Once it does, we can put Mainers back to work, make Maine work right again and show America how to fix government.

The editors are right.  This campaign will be a leadership test, as it should be.

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BLOG: Red Herrings (on Healthcare)

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

I thought that the President’s speech last night was, as usual, sound, articulate and well-reasoned.  Nonetheless, I remain dumbfounded by the extent to which the President and congressional leaders in both parties have permitted the debate over healthcare reform to be dominated by two red herrings.

Red Herring #1: Does it really matter when healthcare reform is enacted?  Isn’t it more important that the Congress and the White House get it right . . . or at least closer to right than to wrong?

Red Herring #2: There is broad agreement among the people who are most informed about America’s healthcare system that the trillion-dollar question isn’t who pays, but rather what we pay for.  Most of us, covered or not, are now ensnared in a system that is virtually hard-wired to cost us more and more every year — for our own insurance, for taxes that pay for other people’s care, and for whatever care isn’t covered by any insurance.  The pay-for-procedure system in America today is one where just about every incentive runs in the wrong direction and where only the guys in the middle — the health insurance companies — are coming out ahead.

Are we getting better quality care in exchange for paying higher prices?  Nope.

Are more people covered by insurance?  Nope.

Are we getting healthier as a population?  Nope.

Will the legislation being debated in Congress fix these core problems?  Nope.

Regardless of what the folks in Congress do, we in Maine need to think about what we will do here at home to bring down costs, broaden coverage, and improve access and quality.  For a variety of reasons, we may be uniquely well-positioned to make some real fixes that move us in these directions . . . regardless of what the folks in Washington do . . . or when they do it.

More thoughts on this later.

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BLOG: Enough is Enough!

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

If this is what bi-partisanship is all about – bitter partisanship coming at us in stereo from loudspeakers on both the right and the left sides of our national living room – then I say enough is enough.

The last two years have been exceedingly difficult for most Americans and most Mainers. Many of us are without work. Many of us can’t afford to pay our debts, heat our homes, or pay for healthcare.The Congress can’t seem to find the only handle that matters on the healthcare front , the one thing that most needs to be fixed — the fact that the current system is perfectly geared only to force consumer costs higher.  Meanwhile, here in Maine the legislature is struggling to figure out where to find enough money to pave our roads — but without any evident leadership from the Governor.

These aren’t partisan issues. These are issues about making America work right again. We need some non-partisanship for a change.

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BLOG: Shhhh on One (Marriage Equality)

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

This has been a gorgeous week.  One RMD — Real Maine Day — after another. Now, Labor Day is just about upon us.  The kids are back in school, and the summer folks are mostly gone.  The sounds of autumn in Maine are reassuring — dry twigs cracking underfoot, leaves blown down a dirt road by a stiff northwest wind, loons on a lake now so quiet that their calls easily pierce the night air.

Unfortunately, this fall season also is going to bring to Maine a cacophony that isn’t native to our state — though it is also, sad to say, a racket that is increasingly familiar.  These are the sounds of harshly negative political campaigns, brought to you by political organizations often located far away from Maine.

Several months ago, sitting in an office in Beijing, I watched on an Internet feed the entire House of Representatives floor debate on the Marriage Equality legislation.  I have never been prouder of our legislature — or of being a native Mainer.  The debate was civil, restrained, heartfelt and respectful on both sides.  Legislator after legislator stood to say why he or she was going to vote for or against the bill.  I was so impressed by what I had watched that I sent the link to friends all over China, telling them that this was what representative democracy was all about.

That debate was Maine at its best — a civic culture that distinguishes Maine from every other state in the Union.  This fall, millions of dollars are going to be spent on television ads screaming at us in a tone that couldn’t be more different from the legislature’s debate, or less native to Maine.

I support marriage equality, and I will vote NO on Question 1.  I will contribute to the campaign to sustain the Maine law.  But I also have real respect for those who disagree with me, and I know that they feel just as honestly and strongly about their position as I do about mine.

My hope is that voices on both sides of the debate over Question 1 this fall will be restrained and respectful — and that those voices won’t grow so loud that they wipe out the memories of democracy at work in Augusta, tarnish our civic culture in Maine and drown out the autumn sounds of the twigs, the leaves and the loons.

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