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Bill Linnell
Candidate Questionnaire
a. Exercise leadership in addressing the coming energy crisis, decentralizing our energy supply, keeping it truly green, and making Maine energy independent.
b. Foster Green Collar Jobs, using the growing sustainable energy economy to save our environment and grow our economy in sustainable ways.
c. Support a single-payer health care system
2. The past few years, Maine Housing Authority has utilized the HOME Fund (Housing Opportunities for Maine) to help finance fundamental programs as loans for first-time homebuyers, housing for people who are homeless, affordable rental housing, home repair, and housing for people with special needs. The Fund also helps finance programs that makes homes safer for children and makes homes accessible for people with disabilities. Over the last two years, the legislature has considered taking money from the HOME Fund in order to balance the budget. If elected, would you support the protection of the HOME fund? If so, what other ways would you suggest balancing the budget?
This is one of the last places I would ever cut. We need this program to make home ownership possible for many. I would further like to see low-interest loans available to help people insulate their homes better as oil prices rise.
I would work to restore the health and credibility of the Department of Human Services by getting a handle on the unintended generational incentives that keep people in the system. I would also review sweetheart deals that shift financial burdens onto the poor, working middle class and mentally ill, when corporations should be doing their fair share.
3. A major concern among young people is the rising cost of health care. 17,000 more Mainers are now uninsured since HMOs first arrived in Maine. State-funded health care programs like MaineCare is facing consistent cuts, while publicly financed heath insurance like Dirigo, has a current freeze on new applicants. Many First World countries have supported comprehensive health care systems that cover every person with health care. Within the United States, states like Massachusetts and Maine have taken steps towards universal, comprehensive health care coverage. Would you support state legislation for universal single payer health care in Maine?
Yes, there is enough fraud, waste and abuse in the current system to pay for healthcare for everyone. We lag shamefully behind other industrialized nations in this. For Example, we rank 21st in the world for infant mortality. The system isn’t working, and only structural changes will make a difference.
4. It seems that every month there is another recall or concern about children's toys or consumer products. The fact is that Maine families are exposed to hazardous toxic chemicals found in the consumer products that we use everyday. Toxic chemicals in the environment are among the causes of critical health problems that can be prevented. What would you do to help Maine ensure that hazardous chemicals in everyday consumer products are replaced with safer substitutes?
We probably need to revisit NAFTA, as China is a big offender.. In the meantime, we should have a zero tolerance attitude towards unsafe children’s toys. That goes for cigarette advertising, too.
5. The State of Maine is currently a participant in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an innovative project geared toward cutting global warming emissions by establishing a cap-and-trade system for power plant emissions. Do you support Maine's participation in RGGI? Would you support the establishment of an economy-wide cap-and-trade program in Maine that would cut greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors (i.e. transportation, commercial and residential heating, etc.)?
Yes, and I would take it much further by retaining the Rocky Mountain Institute to audit the State’s energy plan and make recommendations.
6. The Maine Department of Transportation estimates that it faces a shortfall of more than $2 billion to simply maintain the existing transportation infrastructure. What, if any, funding solution do you support: (yes or no)
a) LD 2019, An Act to Implement the Recommendations of the Governor's Task Force on Funding Passenger Rail, which would secure funding for transit by dedicating a portion of revenues from general fund sources like meals and lodging, sales tax, and car rental fees?
b) Using Maine Turnpike Authority funds, which are currently dedicated to highway maintenance and expansion, for all transportation projects, including transit?
c) Raising car rental fees to subsidize transit?
6a. Please detail other funding options you might propose or for which you might advocate:
a. yes, I would support LD 2019, as rail is the most efficient way to move goods or people.
b. not sure- I suspect that these funds are already maxed out.
c. doubtful- car rental fees are high enough. Those that rent cars are usually not in a position to ride a bike.
7. With the state facing a $200 million revenue shortfall in the current biennium (a projection that may change when April receipts are tallied). Do you support increasing the sales tax in order to avoid balancing the budget entirely through program cuts? If you do not support a tax increase of any kind – and given that “enhanced government efficiencies” will provide only very modest savings if any at all -- which programs do you propose to cut and by how much?
I would overhaul the DHS system to remove generational incentives to staying on the system. Even if we don’t make cuts this year, I want to put us on the right track for the future by examining and rectifying incentives that keep people on the system when they would be better off back at work.
8. As municipalities continue to provide what are increasingly expensive public goods (like education, police and fire protection), what is your plan for controlling growth in property taxes while maintaining these fundamental government services?
We need to encourage more industry, to take the burden off property taxes. I would promote Green Collar Jobs, which are the key to sustainable growth in the near and distant future.
9. The Opportunity Maine program will allow students who graduate from any Maine college or University, and continues to live, work and pay taxes here, to be reimbursed for student loan payments through a state income tax credit or an employer tax credit.
Projections show that in ten years, this strategy could cost the state as much as $55 million annually, but the return on that investment is conservatively estimated at $75 million in new state and local tax revenues and decreased social expenditures. If elected, will you commit yourself to protecting this long-term economic development strategy, without any reduction in the credit’s size or availability?
Sounds like a plan. Opportunity Maine is working
10. Portland schools are seeing less funding from the state due, in part, to increasing value of residential and commercial property. Although property valuation is a measure of taxable resources, it is not necessarily a good indicator of the ability of taxpayers to meet the funding needs of our schools. What are your thoughts on how to balance local and state contributions to school costs?
I ‘d like to see Portland get a larger piece of federal and statefunding, as we welcome so many diverse cultures into our schools. I’d also like to see us take advantages of energy efficiency, to lower the costs of heating our schools. New construction should meet insulation standard of R-30 in walls, and R-75 in ceilings.
11. What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of the state's new school district consolidation law, particularly as it affects Portland?
Portland is minimally affected, as we have the largest school district in the state. But can always look at ways to combine purchasing and services to achieve economies of scale.
12. Given Mainers’ struggle to balance work with family care responsibilities would you support: (yes or no)
a) Paid sick days to full and part-time workers
b) Paid family and medical leave
c) Legislation that allows workers to request flexible work schedules without employer retaliation
a. paid sick days to full and part-time workers: this would be tough on small businesses.
b. same as above- this would cripple small businesses, and favor the big box stores.
c. flexible work schedules: as a small businessman, I have always worked to keep employees happy, but customers want consistency, and you have to be able to count on people to show up at work. To legislate flexible schedules would be a mistake.
13. Do you support current Maine law (22 M.R.S.A. § 1502), which allows minors to consent on their own behalf for health care including contraceptive counseling, mental health care and substance abuse treatment?
Yes. Young people will delay or avoid proper care if they face shaming or punishment for help.
14. Currently seventeen states fund abortion care for poor women on the same or similar terms as other pregnancy-related and general health services in their state-run Medicaid program. Maine’s Medicaid program only covers abortion care when the life of the pregnant woman is at risk or she is the victim of rape or incest. Would you support funding abortion care for women covered by Medicaid in Maine?
Yes. And I want to eliminate the need for most abortions by getting real on stepping up contraception and education. Modern medicine gives us the ability to prevent nearly all unwanted conception. It is further the most economical way to deal with the issue. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
15. There is a significant move in Europe, Alaska, and Southeast Asia toward the independent certification of fisheries as sustainably-harvested. In effect, consumer demand for sustainable fisheries is moving faster than regulatory bodies to save fisheries from overfishing. New England is behind the rest of the world in this regard; Maine has no independently certified fishery. Would you support a similar move toward independent certification in Maine?
Sounds like a good idea. As a commercial fisherman, I see that we have been catching fish at unsustainable levels.
16. What do you see as the biggest challenge for Maine fisheries over the next five years? Biggest opportunity?
Challenge: To resist the temptation to fill in the harbor with real estate development while we wait for the fishing industry to rebound. Opportunity: to continue to set an example for all fisheries through our continued sustainable harvesting of Maine lobster.
17. Do you favor creating a path of citizenship that allows undocumented immigrants to come forward and begin the process of permanent residency and then legal citizenship? (yes or no)
Yes. Undocumented immigrants are not terrorists. They pick our apples, our potatoes, make our beds, and help take care of our young and our elderly. The 911 terrorists that flew out of Portland were not undocumented immigrants, and we should not confuse the two.
