After three terms representing District 13 in the Maine Senate, Fryeburg attorney David R. Hastings III said he knows what Western Maine wants and how to get it done.

Living so close to the New Hampshire border, he said he’s spoken with constituents upset about paying more for health insurance than many in the Granite State. Hastings said he’d like Mainers to be able to buy health insurance across state lines.

“If Maine people can receive cheaper health care across the border, why not try that?” he asked Wednesday.

Another issue affecting Western Mainers was the tax reform bill that voters repealed in June. The plan was to ease the income tax burden by raising sales taxes on certain industries. For some business owners near the border of sales tax-free New Hampshire, that sounded like a death sentence. Hastings opposed it.

Hastings said his experience in the Senate means he knows the ropes in Augusta. “I think it takes a term or two before you understand the system,” he said.

He said the experience has changed his view on term limits. The high turnover means the same issues come up every two years and little time is spent on the bigger issues like pension reform.

“It’s not a very exciting subject,” Hastings admits, although the state does owe nearly $4.5 billion to the retirement system, according to a recent report by the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting.

Hastings said the pension system is flawed in many ways. People who leave state jobs for the private sector will receive far less than those who spend their whole lives working for the state. He said that policy punishes people for moving to new careers, and as a result, many state workers don’t like their jobs but are staying for a pension the state can’t afford to pay.

Hastings is concerned with groundwater extraction, but makes it clear he’s firmly against taxing Maine’s groundwater. “I’m interested in sustainability, but I’m also interested in the jobs that industry is able to bring to Maine.”

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