Gubernatorial candidate meets County constituents

By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
    PRESQUE ISLE – As the father of two young children, Matt Jacobson wants his kids to have all the opportunities in the world to succeed, and believes that success should begin in Maine. That’s why the Republican is running for governor.
    “From a philosophical perspective, I think that we have an obligation to leave our state better than we found it, and that we are running a very real risk to become the first generation in American history that leaves it worse … that our kids will have less opportunity,” he said. “I don’t think it has to be that way. I think Maine can be a place where our kids can stay and pursue their dreams, and I think it’s a place where our parents can stay. We shouldn’t have to get on an airplane to see our parents or our grandkids. Hard work and personal responsibility ought to pay off and we can make that happen.
    “I think that we need a philosophical change in government,” said Jacobson. “I think we have a government now whose mission is to maintain people in poverty, and I think that our government’s mission ought to be to create an environment of opportunity so people can take care of themselves.”
    Jacobson, who was born at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Columbus, Ohio, was in Aroostook County last week meeting his constituents.
    “We started in Houlton and met with a bunch of businesses there and we’ve been to businesses in Presque Isle and met with officials at the Maine Potato Board,” he said. “We also met with folks at the Loring Commerce Centre.
    “People in Aroostook County know that hard work results in success. They get it from the agricultural side and they just want an opportunity to succeed,” said Jacobson. “The one big message that I’m hearing in Aroostook County is that the regulators are ‘out of control.’ I want to make Maine the easiest place in the world to do business.”
    The 49-year-old president and chief executive officer of Maine & Company, an organization dedicated exclusively to business attraction and job creation in Maine, decided to run for governor last fall.
    “People had talked to me about it around the state because of my job at Maine & Company recruiting businesses,” he said. “We had a deal where we came in second and we lost a company. I couldn’t sleep and I woke my wife up and said, ‘I don’t think our kids are going to have the same opportunity that we had’ and she said, ‘Why don’t you run for governor and fix it?’ She rolled over and went back to sleep and I didn’t.
    “She can’t say I don’t listen to her anymore,” he laughed.
    Jacobson’s specific proposals for job creation as Maine’s next governor are grounded in the three priorities: reduce taxes on those who create jobs and opportunity, create a regulatory environment that is reasonable and predictable, and remake the state education system so that it creates a world-class workforce.
    “We need to reduce things like personal income tax, corporate income tax and capital gains taxes,” he said. “We need to eliminate the estate tax that drives so many of our successful older people away, and we ought to eliminate the tax on military retirement and active duty pay. There are veterans who are well trained and we ought to try to get them here because they add so much to our workforce and to job creation.
    “A regulatory environment would help because this unpredictability that we introduce to businesses about ‘Can I get approved or not?’ really drives jobs and businesses away,” said Jacobson. “We’ve got to find a way to make it predictable and reasonable. The regulators’ mission ought to be to help people come into compliance and help them do it in a way that helps them grow their businesses rather than to come in and try to shut them down.”
    When a student graduates in Maine, Jacobson said they should “have the skills required to get a job in Maine.”
    “Our higher education programs should be geared toward placement rates – getting kids ready to take jobs here,” said Jacobson. “Tourism in Maine is such a big business; 25 percent of our general fund, but there’s no place in a Maine school where you can get a four-year degree in culinary arts or hotel management or anything to do with tourism, yet at the University of Southern Maine you can get a degree in sports marketing. I think that’s crazy and we need to find a way to hook up our education system to our existing and emerging jobs.”
    Prior to joining Maine & Company, Jacobson was most recently the assistant vice president of sales and marketing at Canadian National Railways in Chicago. He was also the president and chief operating officer of the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad in Auburn, and had worked for the CSX railroad company in various executive capacities and was stationed in Jacksonville, Fla., Pittsburg and Boston.
    Jacobson said the next Maine governor should have certain qualifications.
    “Is it somebody that’s demonstrated leadership and service to country and comes from a family that does that? Is it somebody that’s run a unionized, industrialized, regulated business in Maine successfully? Is it somebody that understands about international business and has real hands-on experience opening jobs and opportunities in Asia and Europe, and is it somebody that’s actually spent the last four years running the only successful job recruitment organization in Maine?” he asked. “If you look at those qualifications, I’m the only candidate in the race that has that body of experience which I think is tailor-made for the problems that we’re going to face going forward.”
    A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Jacobson holds an MBA from Chapman University. He was a pilot in the U.S. Air Force serving in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. In addition to being an aircraft commander, he was an instructor and evaluator pilot.
    Jacobson, his wife, Kate, and their children, Hank and Maggie, reside in Cumberland.