Gov. Mills proposes sweeping investments in education, health care during annual address
PORTLAND (WGME) – Governor Janet Mills used the State of State Address Thursday night to announce sweeping, once-in-a-lifetime investments in education, child care and health care, while also promising to provide $500 checks to Maine taxpayers.
In a speech that lasted just over 50 minutes, there were strong words and major policy announcements from Mills in her first in-person State of the State Address since the pandemic began.
“Yes we are tired, we are weary, but we are strong,” Mills said.
In her first in-person speech in the house chamber in two years, Mills thanked Mainers and praised Maine's progress during the pandemic, saying the state is poised to grow.
“The state of the state is strong and it's getting stronger,” Mills said.
Thanks largely to federal relief money, Maine is sitting on a historic more than $800 million surplus. But with inflation around a 40-year high nationally, Mills announced she wants to take a Republican plan to give back half of that money, more than $400 million, in direct payments to Maine taxpayers.
“These give it back by direct checks to the people will amount to about $500 per person and will be distributed to an estimated 800,000 taxpayers in Maine,” Mills said.
That leaves another $400 million in surplus, and the governor has big plans. She proposed major policy initiatives to help working families, including child care support, universal free lunches in schools and two years of free community college for Maine students.
“And as your governor, I want you to know the future is yours and we will help you embrace it because that is progress,” Mills said.
She also promised up to $25,000 in student debt relief for those who are already graduating.
“So long as they have a job and they make Maine their home,” Mills said.
Mills also made a major pledge on high-speed internet access.
“I pledge to you tonight that every person in Maine who wants high-speed internet will have it by 2024, in just two years,” Mills said.
She also pushed back on critics of her handling of the pandemic, including her vaccine requirement for healthcare workers.
“Yes our health care system has been stressed, just as the health care systems of our neighboring states including New Hampshire have been stressed. But it is because of the virus, not because of the vaccine,” Mills said.
While Democrats say the governor did a great job delivering her message to the Maine people, Republicans say her speech and leadership are disappointments.
There were plenty of applause from the Democrats on a number of issues, like the governor’s handling of the pandemic and her announcement of free community college, with very little reaction from the GOP.
“Long on poetry and big on spending. Really spend, spend, spend,” Senator Stacey Guerin (R-Glenburn) said.
“I think she used the right tone about what our state has been through,” Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau said.
Mills announced she will give half of the budget surplus to the Maine people. Fecteau says this is what happens when you govern the right way.
“I think Maine people need relief. We’ve seen the costs go up in our groceries stores, oil delivery, to make sure Maine families have the relief,” Fecteau said.
And even though the GOP says that’s what they’ve been wanting all along, they’re still not happy with that announcement.
“Not enough, we could do more, and Mainers need it now with the high energy costs, the costs at the grocery stores and parents looking for alternatives for their kids,” Guerin said.
The Maine GOP is also unhappy with the governor’s announcement regarding free community college for two years.
“What about the mother up in Greenville who decides to go straight into a good paying job in the logging industry? Should he have to pay taxes to pay for somebody else’s community college?” Guerin said.
“It means that young people can see Maine as a place of opportunity rather than a place that they can’t stay, can’t come back to, because the job opportunities don’t match the income that they need in order to pay off student loan debt,” Fecteau said.
Both parties have differing opinions on how Mills handled the pandemic.
“It wasn’t that someone was anti-vax, it is just basic freedom to how you are going to maintain your body autonomy,” Guerin said.
“Maine has led the nation in vaccination rates,” Fecteau said. “We’re leading the nation and New England in recovery from the impacts that COVID had on our businesses.”
A lot of what the governor wants to do will need legislative approval, and with Democrats controlling both the house and senate, she likely has the votes.
Former governor and current candidate for governor Paul LePage released his own statement in response to Mills' address.
The republican wrote in part, "Instead of working to fully eliminate Maine's income tax like I have proposed, Janet Mills is promising more and more spending, propped up with funny money from deficit spending out of Washington, D.C."