Mainers have been bombarded by political charges and claims over airwaves, in newspapers and, in some cases, in person.

Not easily understood is just what social and financial impacts the Republican and Democrat presidential candidates’ views and positions would have in Maine and on Mainers.

The Sun Journal has identified the differences between the two candidates on issues of likely importance here at home. We reviewed a variety of published reports, talked to experts and checked with the candidates’ respective campaigns on more than a dozen issues and compiled the information for you to consider before going to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 2.

– Reporters Bonnie Washuk, Kathryn Skelton, Doug Fletcher and Carol Coultas contributed to this report
Education

Bush:

• Would give $250 million annually to states to design and administer two additional assessment tests from third through 11th grades. Would require 12th-graders to take national assessment test.

• Has made more flexible testing requirements for severely disabled students and those not fluent in English; same with teacher qualification requirements.

• Has proposed a $500 million fund that would reward teachers who teach in low-income schools.

• Has proposed adding $856 million to the $12 billion Pell Grant program.

Kerry:

• Would spend $30 billion over 10 years to improve teacher pay and raise teacher standards, including bonuses of up to $5,000 for those who teach math and science or work in high-needs schools.

• Put a tax credit on the first $4,000 each year that families spend on tuition.

• Add $50 billion to public colleges and universities to offset state budget cuts.

• Increase federal funding for Pell Grants (no actual amount specified).

Impact on Maine:

Maine became the first state to demand that the federal government either fully pay for No Child Left Behind or waive its requirements. Federal officials refused. A resolve passed last April by the Legislature prohibits Maine from using state money on the law, which has been called costly and oppressive by many educators.

In the last measure, 516 of 711 public schools in Maine met the requirements of No Child Left Behind. The state got $88.4 million in federal money to fund NCLB in 2004, although some of that money had been coming in before under a different name.

Currently, Maine requires annual testing in grades four, eight and 11. Starting in March, to meet NCLB, grades three, five, six and seven will also be tested.

Maine teachers’ average salaries rank 35th in the country, according to the American Federation of Teachers, at $38,518.

Maine does not offer bonuses to teachers, but does make certification easier to obtain in math and science.

Health care

Bush:

• Would allow small businesses to pool purchasing power for employee health coverage.

• Would refund money to lower income people for their health insurance costs based on salary and number of dependents.

• Would propose tax-free medical savings accounts for people under 65 who have high deductible health care insurance.

Kerry:

• Would extend to private citizens aged 55-64 a 25 percent tax credit to purchase the same health care plan offered to federal employees, including members of Congress.

• Unemployed would get 75 percent tax credit for health insurance costs.

• Federal government would pay for about 20 million children who qualify for Medicaid; states would, in return, expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program to include all children in families up to 300 percent of poverty.

Impact on Maine:

Of the 1.27 million people living in Maine, 138,460 (11 percent) have no health insurance coverage, according to the U.S. Census, 650,480 (51 percent) have health care coverage through their employers, and 60,790 (5 percent) have individual plans. Roughly 237,300 people are enrolled in Medicare.

In 2003, 115,601 Maine children were enrolled in MaineCare (the state’s Medicaid program), which accepts children within 200 percent of the federal poverty level, according to the Maine Children’s Alliance. Those 115,601 children comprise 38 percent of all Maine kids from birth to age 17. Roughly 11,000 more Maine children were eligible but not enrolled. An additional 10,000 children whose family incomes exceed the 200 percent poverty level are uninsured.

Dirigo Choice, a state government-subsidized health care program scheduled to start in 2005, is available to Maine companies who have 50 or fewer employees. Of the 43,261 private businesses in Maine that file unemployment insurance, 41,691 have fewer than 50 workers, according to the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development. Those businesses employ 238,364 workers.

Medicare prescription drug benefit

Bush:

• Signed the Medicare Modernization Act, which includes prescription drug benefit for about 40 million Medicare recipients. Cost of the act over a 10-year period is roughly $400 billion.

• The law requires Medicare recipients to join HMOs in order to access prescription drug benefits. It creates drug discount cards overseen by the government and operated by pharmacy benefit managers.

Kerry:

• Opposes making Medicare recipients join HMOs to get access to prescription drug benefits.

• Would allow federal government to negotiate with pharmaceutical industry over the price of drugs for Medicare recipients.

Impact on Maine:

It is not known how many Mainers are using the new federal prescription drug cards or how much they are saving. What is known: 227,000 Mainers are eligible for the cards, according to Roseanne Pawelec of Boston’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. However, Maine health officials and those who represent Maine seniors say few Mainers have enrolled because the cards are confusing and the savings erratic.

The exception, experts say, is low-income seniors who qualify for $600-a-year credit for prescription drugs. In Maine, about 5,800 low-income seniors have enrolled, according to the Maine Department of Human Services.

Drug re-importation

Bush:

• Opposes re-importation of prescription drugs from Canada until the federal government can guarantee safety.

• Bush Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson has not granted waiver to Maine to re-import prescription drugs.

Kerry:

• Supports re-importation of prescription drugs from Canada and would offer incentives to states for negotiating cheaper prescription drug prices.

• Assumption is he would appoint a secretary of Health and Human Services who would grant Maine a waiver to proceed with Maine’s plan to re-import medicines from Canada.

Impact on Maine:

Hundreds of seniors have traveled to Canada for prescription drugs. The Maine Council of Senior Citizens organizes bus trips, and in the last year has taken nine bus loads of Maine seniors to Canada. Typically 20 seniors are on each bus trip and each has saved, on average, $1,000 to $1,200 a year by filling prescriptions in Canada, according to the council.

Gov. John Baldacci asked the Bush administration on Sept. 30 for a waiver to allow the state to make the trip for Maine seniors. Baldacci proposes to go to Canada to buy less expensive drugs, store them in a huge warehouse on Indian Island, then distribute the re-imported drugs to pharmacies throughout Maine. As of Oct. 21, Baldacci had not heard from the Bush administration.

Environment

Bush:

• Withdrew from Kyoto global warming treaty and reversed 2000 campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide, a gas linked to climate change.

• Supports modest fuel economy standards for SUVs and light trucks.

• Would change clean-air laws to use a market-based approach to reduce pollution from power plants, including a national cap on mercury emissions.

• Has increased spending to develop clean-coal technology by $2 billion over 10 years.

• His Clear Skies Initiative aims to reduce power-plant emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury by 70 percent.

Kerry:

• Would participate in international efforts to address global warming.

• Supports tougher fuel economy standards for autos, SUVs and trucks.

• Would use $20 billion from oil and gas royalties for development of cleaner energy, including primarily clean coal technology.

Impact on Maine:

Mercury levels in Maine fish, loons and eagles are among the highest in North America. The Maine Bureau of Health has issued statewide advisories recommending that pregnant women, women of childbearing age, and young children limit their fish consumption since 1994. Maine is one among 40 states that maintain such advisories.

In a recent Environmental Quality Institute study commissioned by Greenpeace and the Mercury Policy Project, 4 out of 9 Maine women of child-bearing age – or 44 percent – tested above the EPA limit for mercury.

Asthma afflicts 14 million people in the United States and 100,000 in Maine. While the causes of asthma are not entirely clear, a number of factors can trigger asthma and asthma attacks. Air pollution is one of them.

(Source: Maine Department of Environmental Protection)

Tax cuts

Bush:

• Got $1.35 trillion in tax cuts for all income levels in 2001, a $96 billion stimulus in 2002 and a $330 billion package in 2003, half of what he had sought.

• Congress this year approved $146 billion in tax cuts over 10 years, extending cuts set to expire, including the $1,000 per child tax credit, breaks for married couples, the 10 percent income tax bracket (new lower bracket proposed) and $136 billion in corporate tax cuts over the next 10 years.

• Wants to make the above cuts permanent.

• Wants $3,000 re-employment accounts to help the unemployed with job-search expenses.

Kerry:

• Would restore taxes on people who make more than $200,000 to pre-Bush administration levels.

• Would increase the child care tax credit to $1,000 per child.

• Would allow the first $4 million of individual inheritance and first $10 million of family farm inheritance to be exempt from estate taxes.

• Would give $50 billion over two years to states struggling with budget deficits.

Impact on Maine:

Mainers pay nearly $3 billion a year in federal taxes, according to the Maine Revenue Service.

In 2002, about 115,000 federal tax returns filed in Maine included a child tax credit for at least one child. Of those, roughly 20,000 had incomes above $75,000.

Roughly 7,000 returns filed by Mainers showed adjusted gross income of greater than $200,000; exactly 27,543 tax filers took advantage of the child care tax credit.

Of all the returns filed that year, 490,185 had taxable income; 69,413 got refunds greater than the amount of taxes they paid, through the earned income credit.

About 40 taxable estates each year in Maine file with value greater than $3.5 million.

About 15,000 corporate tax returns were filed in Maine in 2002. Roughly 10,000 returns were filed by other businesses, including partnerships and S-corporations.

Business and labor

Bush:

• Would provide $500 million to help educate and train workers in schools and community colleges; proposes spending $250 million to help community colleges train 100,000 additional workers.

• Would create $3,000 re-employment accounts to help the unemployed with job-search expenses.

• Supports liberalized trade and is pursuing bilateral trade deals, as well as one for the Western Hemisphere.

• Proposes offering paid time off as an alternative to overtime pay; giving employees the option of shifting work hours during a pay period.

• Would allow small businesses to band together to provide health-care coverage through association health plans.

• Would provide $4 billion in tax incentives to spur the use of energy-efficient technologies.

• Signed a nearly 80 percent expansion of farm subsidies in 2002. Budget plan for 2005 would reduce spending on rural development programs and conservation funds.

Kerry:

• Federal government would assist companies and insurers in paying 75 percent of workers’ catastrophic medical costs over $50,000 if employers agree to hold down premiums.

• Would reduce corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 33.25 percent and provide small businesses tax incentives to hire new workers and provide health care to employees.

• Would repeal tax credits to companies that house income overseas; would tax at 10 percent any income brought back into the United States.

• Would raise minimum wage to $7 over next three years.

• Pledges a review of all trade agreements within his first 120 days in office and stricter enforcement of all compliance standards.

• Sets a goal to have 20 percent of U.S. energy come from renewable sources by 2020.

• Supports an unspecified increase in farm conservation programs.

Impact on Maine:

Maine has 42,594 small businesses with 100 or fewer employees, representing 98.5 percent of all businesses. They employ 300,049 people, about 63.7 percent of working Mainers. Another 86,000 Mainers are self-employed.

Of the roughly 140,000 uninsured Mainers, 73 percent work in small businesses or are self-employed.

Homeland security

Bush:

• Would work to put cargo inspectors in foreign ports.

• Would aim to have 6 percent of all cargo inspected, the amount considered to be “high risk.”

• Would make better use of electronic screening technology.

• Has tripled the number of border agents stationed at the Canadian border.

• Is beefing up identification procedures at border crossings.

• Has used the National Guard to supplement regular full-time active military personnel overseas.

Kerry:

• Would increase the number of inspections of cargo containers entering American ports.

• Would improve detection equipment used in shipping systems and require private companies to obtain adequate information about items being shipped.

• Would work with other nations to further increase inspections of sea cargo, adopt tighter controls on air cargo.

• Would work with Canada, Mexico and Caribbean nations to strengthen border controls while speeding up commerce.

• Would beef up the nation’s full-time active armed forces by 40,000 troops and double the size of special forces troops.

• Would work to bring home the nation’s part-time forces, such as the National Guard, making homeland security one of the Guard’s primary missions.

Impacts on Maine:

Much of the international container cargo moving through the Port of Auburn arrives via the ports of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Montreal. Both Canadian ports participate in the pre-screening of cargo destined for the United States under the Container Security Initiative.

Maine shares a 611-mile long unguarded border with the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick, Canada.

Maine has 2,100 people serving in the Army National Guard. Of that, 700 are on active duty serving in Iraq. None are serving now in Afghanistan or at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, although units have served in both locales in the past, according to Major Peter Rogers, the Maine Guard’s public information officer. Another 1,100 are serving in the Maine Air National Guard, Rogers said.

Patriot Act

Bush:

• Calls for its renewal, but with a provision that would require the U.S. inspector general to investigate and report to Congress twice a year all claims of civil rights violations due to Patriot Act.

Kerry:

• Says should be amended to prohibit law enforcement from conducting secret search and seizure of evidence without court notification.

• Would require safeguards on use of roving wiretaps and seizure of library and business records.

Impact on Maine

Waterville, Portland, Bangor, Orono, Mount Vernon and the state of Maine have each passed pro-civil liberties resolutions expressing concern over the Patriot Act, according to Maine Civil Liberties staff attorney Zachary Heiden. MCLU, however, has not been involved in any lawsuits challenging the act.

It’s believed the section of the law that requires libraries to hand over patron information has never been used here, but it’s hard to say. Anne Davis, past president of the Maine Library Association, said librarians can’t tell people if it has happened, under threat of jail. So she opens trustee meetings at the Gardiner Public Library with: “This month the FBI has not visited the library.”

Gun control

Bush and Kerry share similar views on gun control with one significant exception:

Bush:

• Is in favor of giving gun makers immunity from product safety lawsuits, a measure that failed in the Senate.

Kerry:

• Opposes lawsuit immunity for gun manufacturers.

Impact on Maine:

Maine is home to three companies that make firearms: Bushmaster Firearms Inc. of Windham, Saco Defense/General Dynamics Armament Systems of Saco, and Smith & Wesson of Houlton.

Saco Defense makes fully automatic machine-guns and grenade launchers solely for military use by U.S. and allied forces. Its weapons aren’t available to the public on the open market, and the company wouldn’t be affected by a change in product safety laws.

Smith & Wesson employs 82 people at the Aroostook County facility and, while the company could be affected by changes in product safety law, it also enjoys a landmark settlement agreement with the U.S. Treasury Department. The settlement requires S&W to engrave a second “hidden” serial number on each gun it makes, to include external locking devices on all firearms and to develop internal gun locks and “smart gun” user authorization technology.

Bushmaster reached a $550,000 settlement in September with six families who were victims of the so-called Washington Beltway snipers. With last month’s demise of rules outlawing the sale of assault-style weapons, Bushmaster is again offering for sale to the public semi-automatic rifles that feature large-capacity ammunition magazines, telescoping stocks, pistol gripes and muzzle flash suppressers.

Abortion

Always a hot-button issue in any election, abortion provides the candidates an easy forum to present their differences. At stake in this presidency is the expected appointment of new justices to the Supreme Court and the potential to change or uphold the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

Bush:

• Supports abortion rights only in cases of rape, incest or where a woman’s life is endangered.

• Signed into law a bill to ban so-called partial-birth abortion.

Kerry:

• Supports abortion rights and would only nominate a Supreme Court justices who share that view.

• Opposed partial-birth abortion ban because it did not contain an exception for life and health of the woman.

Impact on Maine: In 2003, there were 209,410 women of child-bearing age in Maine (15-44). According to the Bureau of Health, there were 2,232 abortions performed on Maine women in 2002, the last year statistics are available. Of those abortions, 158 were recorded in Androscoggin County; 59 in Franklin and 85 in Oxford County.

Between 1982 and 2002, four late-term abortions have been performed in the state.

Medical malpractice

Bush:

• Supports $250,000 cap for damages or loss due to pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, physical disfigurement or other non-economic losses.

Kerry:

• Opposes caps on medical malpractice suits.

• Supports screening panel for malpractice suits and sanctions against plaintiffs and their lawyers who bring frivolous claims.

Impact on Maine:

Before a malpractice case can go to trial in Maine it must first be screened by a three-person peer review panel consisting of one doctor with the same specialty as the defendant, a volunteer lawyer and a judicial person.

The panel must consider two questions: Was there deviation from standard medical procedure and, if so, did that deviation result in real harm to a patient?

The number of medical malpractice cases that ended with a trial verdict in Maine are: five in 2001; two in 2002; two in 2003; and three to date in 2004, according to the Maine Trial Lawyers Association.

Gay rights

Bush:

• Supports constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

• Has continued former President Clinton’s policy allowing gays to serve in military if they are not open about their homosexuality.

Kerry:

• Does not favor gay marriage but opposes constitutional amendment against it.

• Supports civil unions and outlawing job discrimination against gays; would extend hate-crime protections to gays and would allow gays to serve openly in the military.

Impact on Maine:

It’s already against the law in Maine to threaten – or commit – violence or property damage based on sexual orientation under the Maine Civil Rights Act. About one-third of the cases prosecuted under the MCRA by the Attorney General’s Office are because of sexual orientation bias and conduct.

In the 2000 Census, 37,881 Mainers described themselves as living in unmarried partnerships. The state created a registry this summer that entitles domestic partners, homosexual or not, to benefits similar to married couples, such as inheriting property and acting as next-of-kin in an emergency. As of mid-October, 304 couples had signed up.

In February 1998, Maine voters rejected a law that would have constitutionally banned discrimination in employment, housing, credit and education based on sexual orientation. Several towns and cities have passed local ordinances in its place.

Same-sex marriage has been illegal by state statute since 1997. Last spring the Legislature rejected an effort to define marriage as between a man and a women in the state Constitution.