Good morning from Augusta, where for the time being the race to be Maine’s next governor is focused on policy and hasn’t fully shifted to sniping and attacks between the candidates that will become common later this year.
On Wednesday, three of the candidates gathered at a forum on the state’s opioid addiction crisis and, and all four are being interviewed this week by the Maine Education Association about their visions for Maine’s public education system. Earlier this week, the Maine Municipal Association published hour-long interviews focusing on their thoughts about how state policy affects municipalities.
Topics posed by members of the MMA’s Executive Committee, which consists of municipal managers, ranged from transportation and communications infrastructure to jail funding to the state’s tax code. There were a few surprising and interesting exchanges as each candidate sought to articulate how his or her policies would trickle down to locals.
Independent Terry Hayes said she favors repealing the citizen-initiated 2004 law requiring state government to fund at least 55 percent of the total cost of education. Though there is disagreement about what constitutes 55 percent, there is mostly agreement that the state has never achieved it. Hayes, who is Maine’s state treasurer, said as long as that’s the case, the law is causing more harm than it’s worth, partially by making Maine look more like it has unpaid financial liabilities when it tries to sell public obligation bonds.
