Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

Maine’s Democrats created problems, can’t solve them

The people of Maine have been told that state government has cut spending “to the bone.”

Gov. John Baldacci and Senate President Libby Mitchell insist that they are spending less. They even promoted their tax reform plan as a revenue stabilizer to insulate state government from the severe cuts when the economy dips. Fortunately, Maine people exercised their better judgment in June and rejected another poorly designed scheme to take more money out of working people’s pockets.

The facts do not support the assertions that state spending has been reduced.  Recently released expenditures for the fiscal year ending on June 30 actually showed that total state government expenditures increased by $193 million as compared to 2009. Only in Augusta can a 2.6 percent spending increase be spun as a spending cut.

In the last eight years of Baldacci and the Democrats’ control of state government, total expenditures have increased by $2.3 billion, or 43 percent. Do you think the average working family in Maine saw their take-home pay increase by 43 percent since 2002?

Albert Einstein is credited with recognizing, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Our experience in Maine exemplifies this principle. The “bigger-government-is-better” mindset of the Democrats have relegated the people of Maine to an economy that forces our children to leave the state in order to realize economic opportunity. Those who remain face a future of ever-increasing dependency on government programs.

We can do better and deserve nothing less than effective leadership in Augusta that will implement the essential reforms that will bring Maine back into the competitive marketplace.

 

Rep. Ken Fletcher

R-Winslow