1. What are your three top priorities?

   1. Government Oversight, Accountability and Efficiency (faster, cheaper, more effective)
   2. Reduce Healthcare costs
   3. Eliminate Income and Sales Taxes

2. The past few years, Maine Housing Authority has utilized the HOME Fund (Housing Opportunities for Maine) to help finance fundamental programs such 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?

    Of course I would try to protect the HOME Fund and any other housing program. My specific objective would not be to eliminate any needed program but rather I would look to find systemic efficiencies in order to minimize waste. I would however make the benefits of programs like this only available to people who are in the U.S. legally.
    Other ways to cut the budget:

       1. Reduce the number of administration/management personnel throughout government
       2. Consolidate governments' footprint. Property used by governments is property that is no longer contributing to the tax base of the communities they are in. Shrinking that footprint will increase the taxable base.

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?

    I have a strong background in healthcare finance. I was Controller at Wentworth-Douglas Hospital in Dover for two plus years and Director of Accounting at Maine Medical Center for 6 years. So I have a solid basis for my positions on healthcare.

    I do not support universal health insurance. I do support examining the actual cost of providing healthcare. No matter how you "insure" healthcare, the actual underlying costs don't change. An appendectomy that costs $1500 is going to cost $1500 no matter how you insure it. My approach to the healthcare issue would be to try to find a way to reduce that $1500 to say $1200 - a true reduction in costs.

    Playing around with varying methods of insuring that $1500 appendectomy just doesn't change the base $1500. Whether you are insured through Medicare, Medicaid, Anthem or universal, someone still has to pay the $1500. It will either come from the patient or be shifted to some other payor. This is known as "cost shifting" in the healthcare reimbursement industry. The fact is - someone has to pay that $1500 - it isn't going to go away just by wishing it so.

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?

    I suspect that we have only found the tip of the iceberg when it comes to identifying toxic chemicals used in everyday products, especially those items manufactured in China. I don't know how Maine could address the International aspect of this issue directly, so I would rely heavily on our very effective senior Congressional delegation (which is why it is important to maintain that seniority!).

    At both the State and Federal levels, we need to put ownership on the manufacturer for any damages caused. And we need to increase the oversight by the agencies that provide oversight of consumer products. It is my belief or understanding that numerous such Federal agencies have been cut to the bone as far as inspectors and investigators. I think maybe we have cut too deep and thus a lot of items have slipped through the guard.

    In Maine, specifically, we can hold Maine manufacturers accountable for hazardous chemicals showing up in product they produce or import. But I would make sure that agencies that do inspect such companies are "bottom heavy". More soup and fewer chefs.

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.)?

    Well, as an interim program, I would have to support a cap and trade program. But I don't think it's the only solution nor the ultimate solution. I would prefer a program which ranked the worst polluters and then assisted or forced the worst of the worst to get better. I don't feel comfortable giving the worst offenders a way to continue doing business as usual.
    Major improvements could be made in transportation that could reduce pollution. In fact changes will be necessary simply because the costs of all types of fuels is going to continue it's upward spiral. The commercial sector will also need to find improvements, but for the many Maine small businesses, they can't do it alone. We definitely need to get creative. For homeowners, right now, as desirable it may be, it just isn't affordable at any price to convert. We have a lot of work ahead of us to transition from the non-renewable energy sources to the growing list of alternatives - non-polluting alternatives.

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:

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?

*  NO - Using Maine Turnpike Authority funds, which are currently dedicated to highway maintenance and expansion, for all transportation projects, including transit?

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?

*  NO


6a. Please detail other funding options you might propose or for which you might advocate:

    * I do support the concept of LD2019 but I strongly believe that by the time this rail concept comes to fruition, the costs/availability of fuel will have become a major impasse.
      
      Parallel to the passenger rail approach, however, is my concept for the use of electricity to power a maglev transit system right up the interstates. I have studied MagLev, but I don't have all the data. It is a very efficient use of power. And electricity is the ultimate fuel because the costs of production and delivery, and of environmental impacts from other fuels have a steep negative curve over the next decade. It makes no sense today to build support for a system which in a few years will be obsolete.
      
      My idea is to develop a flatbed MagLev shuttle along a new or converted third lane of the interstates. Vehicles and their contents would drive onto the MagLev flatbed at Kittery, Augusta or some other entry point (after paying a toll) and then be propelled along at up to 300mph to their destination(s). This system
          o would generate no pollution,
          o would use the only fuel that can be generated by any other fuel source,
          o would permit people upon reaching their destination to have their own vehicle available for local transport,
          o would operate relatively unattended,
          o would function in almost any weather,
          o could deliver a car from Kittery to Fort Kent in two hours, and
          o has no moving parts to maintain.
      
      Within the next 5 - 10 years, the cost and availability of fuels will make tractor trailers, boxcars, buses and snowplows very expensive unless we begin now to implement a "future" solution. Passenger MagLev would be a lot more fun than Passenger Rail that never leaves the station.
    *
      I would extend the "authority" of the Maine Turnpike Authority to include all Interstate highways in Maine. The maintenance of these roads should be self funded through tolls.
    * I would support bonding for infrastructure repairs or improvements that will have a 20+ year benefit or which reduce other costs.
    * Stop spending money on roadside grass cutting and beautification while the economy is down.
    * Lease unused land in median strips for agricultural or other commercial purposes.

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?

    * Hell No! I support eliminating income taxes and sales taxes and reducing some excise taxes and various other nuisance taxes. If New Hampshire can do it, I suspect we can sneak a peak at their strategies - and plagiarize a bit.
    * In conjunction with eliminating those two major taxes, I would implement a "death" tax IF the Federal government eliminates that same tax. I know this might not be a popular suggestion, but as they - you can't take it with you.
    * As noted previously, shrinking government's physical footprint is where I would start to reduce a major component of our cost of government. Housing essentially all government agencies/services in a single building in each community where it "needs" to be located would produce savings in energy efficiency, operating efficiency, accessibility, travel, duplication of expenses and the like. At the same time, putting the retired government buildings back on the tax roles would increase local tax bases.

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?

    * Please note the previous comments on shrinking government footprints.
    * As with consolidating the footprint of government facilities, I believe it is time to do the same with other exempt properties. I would like to give municipalities the ability to exercise some control over where "non-profit" organizations can locate. I would go one step further and propose that non-profits could be "physically" consolidated.

      I have a big concern with the 15% chunk that non-profits have taken out of the Portland taxable property base. The burden for those lost taxes has been shifted to the commercial and residential tax base. Think, for example, of the multimillion dollar properties that NP's like Maine Med (Western Prom homes) have removed from the tax base. Ouch!

      As an alternative for non-profits, they could choose to pay a service fee to the city to cover basic services or move to an NP "zone".
    * The cost of education will continue to grow beyond it's means unless some level of competition is put in play. I would support some types of voucher programs. I would also support getting schools back to the basic three R's. I know I got a better education than kids do now and with fewer resources, no teacher aides, one administrator and more students - at a much lower cost. I think we have expanded the roles of schools well beyond the core necessities.

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?

    I will commit to reviewing the results of this program to see if it in fact produces the anticipated results. As long as there is a real benefit to Maine, the program will justify it's own existence, or not. However, I must express a large portion of skepticism - especially since past projections by Maine government have not been reliable.

    If there aren't any jobs for these graduates to keep them in Maine, the number of those who stay in Maine will be marginal at best. An alternative would have been to give employers an incentive to hire Maine graduates (from any college), especially recent graduates.

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 have an entirely contrarian viewpoint on how the State should get it's funding. I believe that all taxes should be collected by local governments. Then the State would "assess" the municipalities for a proportionate share of the State budget based on their overall property valuations. Thus, the State would be "begging" us for funding instead of the other way around. Under that scenario, the local municipality would keep everything except what the State needs to run just itself. Municipalities would "contract" with the State for services the town didn't want to provide on it's own. In theory, if the State never gets the money, it can't spend it. As of now, this concept needs further development.

11. What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of the state's new school district consolidation law, particularly as it affects Portland?

    In compliance with the consolidation plan, Portland submitted in 2007 a statement of savings it would or had implement(ed) that would result in rollbacks in spending. The Portland Schools then proceeded in 2008 to propose a 5% school budget increase. Five percent! Obviously, the consolidation plan has done little to change the attitudes of school administrators and school board members here in Portland. So I can't support the full consolidation law. It has many flaws.

    However, complete removal of that law would also remove it's most essential component - the mandate for voter approval at the polls. My preference would be for the State to act as an enabler for systems that wish to consolidate and can produce savings by doing so. I do not believe State government should be substituting it's judgment for that of the local electorate.

12. Given Mainers’ struggle to balance work with family care responsibilities would you support:

    * Paid sick days to full and part-time workers
      Benefits should be left up to individual businesses and a competitive employment environment. The lack of jobs and competitive employment in Maine will not be cured by mandating benefits.
    * Paid family and medical leave
      Ditto
    * Legislation that allows workers to request flexible work schedules without employer retaliation
      Regardless of the reason, I stand strongly against any form of retaliation by employers, government agencies or any other entity. I will definitely push back against any attempt to bully an employee or a client. They don't call me "watchdog" for nothing.

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?

    No. The "age of consent" should remain just that - the age at which an individual can make judgments about things that will affect their future and give informed consent about the same. Until such time, all such consent should be strictly in the hands of the individual's parent(s). At no time should we, as a free nation, tolerate the government substituting it's judgment for our own on personal issues.

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?

    NO! I would support funding "adoption" care for that same person though. As the parent of a couple that can't have children of their own, adoption is far more rational than abortion except in cases of medical necessity. There is a huge shortage of American born adoptable children.

15. There is a significant move in Europe, Alaska, and Southeast Asia toward the independent certification of fisheries as sustainable-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?

    As much as more regulation will be required in the absence of other solutions, I'd rather see that the costs associated with such regulation be directed toward positive steps such as funding aquaculture efforts to replace or supplement existing fisheries. The difference is - regulation is only a temporary solution to a longer term problem of food shortages whereas aquaculture adds businesses and jobs to the economy while also adding to available food and reducing future impacts on the fishery.

16. What do you see as the biggest challenge for Maine fisheries over the next five years? Biggest opportunity?

    Challenge- it's not sustainable as is and that's before factoring in this implications of pollution and global warming.
    Opportunity - large scale aquaculture.
    
    17. Unfortunately, the response to question 17 are limited to a Yes/No. As such, I would have to say yes based on the following thinking developed with help from a retired deportation officer who lives in my campaign district. It is my understanding that most illegals would have no issue with leaving the country especially if they were given a chance to return legally. I would encourage that. I am also led to believe that simply enforcing the existing employment regulations upon businesses that hire illegals would be somewhat curative to the extent that, without jobs, illegals will leave on their own. These folks came to work - without work, they will go elsewhere - is that what we want? I'd take someone with a strong work ethic any day and thus would like to see these folks get a chance to prove their value. Anyone with a criminal background would need an extra level of scrutiny. Anyone who came here just to "cruise" on welfare - they need to leave now.

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 No