1) I was disappointed but not all that surprised by the outcome. This is a civil rights issue, voters of our great county don’t have a favorable track record of supporting the premise that “all men are created equal.” It may be the time to take the issue of same-sex marriage to the state courts.

A prediction: In 10, 15 or 20 years there will be a large number of Mainers who will lie to their children and grandchildren about their vote. A daughter or son born on Tuesday will ask their parents how they voted on Nov. 3, 2009, and I bet there will be many Mainers too embarrassed to tell the truth to their children. Too embarrassed to admit they supported intolerance, arrogance and hatred. Too embarrassed to admit they had a chance to make history and failed to support all of man kind.

Clearly we must do more to teach our children tolerance and acceptance. By teaching all children that all people are created equal and should be treated equally, we can stop the cycle of hatred and intolerance.

2) Roads and bridges need to be maintained and plowed. While most of us hate to pay it, excise tax is one of the few taxes where we actually know where the money goes. Passage of this referendum would have benefited those who are able to buy newer cars while giving no benefit to a majority of Mainers.

3) School consolidation was forced upon us by Gov. Baldacci and Susan Gendron. The legislation was flawed; too much emphasis was placed on reducing overhead and administrative costs for the benefit of taxpayers. Not enough of the legislation actually concerns itself with actually educating and proving resources for our children. While flawed, there is room to make improvements to the law. Repealing it would have cost Mainers millions of dollars and taken us backwards.

4) TABOR’s restrictions would have hampered the state’s ability to function and would have actually made our fiscal mess worse. However, its failure does not give Gov. Baldacci (or his successor) and the Legislature the green light to continue with the status quo. We must reduce state spending, and we need to start with the size of the state workforce. Compared to states with similar populations, we have far too many state employees. Before more cuts are made to education or social service programs, we need to scale back the amount of people working on the taxpayers’ dime. While some of my union friends and those in my party will disagree, cutting services and aid to education must come after a reduction in workforce.

5) Passage of the referendum makes Maine just the third state to license nonprofit organization to provide medical marijuana to certain patients. Of note, Maine is the only state to have passed this by a vote of the people. This is sorely needed by thousands of Mainers; passage was the right thing to ease the pain of many Mainers.

6)This was a no-brainer. The $71 million dollar investment in Maine’s transportation infrastructure will result in $110 million in federal matching funds.

7)Rejecting it showed no love for town and city clerks. More time should be given city and town clerks to go certify petition sheets. In theory, several petitions could be delivered the same day, every signature on each petition certified separately in mere days. This is ridiculous hardship to place on city and town staff.

Will Fessenden is a past chair of the Androscoggin County Democratic
Committee, considers himself a “community/grassroots organizer” and
serves on several nonprofit boards and committees. He works in Auburn
and lives in Sabattus with his wife Jennifer and their two boys.
E-mail: [email protected].