In light of the recent spate of negative opinions regarding Gov. Paul LePage and his team’s proposed changes to the state budget and the Maine Public Employees Retirement System, I have finally felt the need to declare my support for LePage and his team and their efforts to bring Maine back to some form of fiscal sanity.

The state has made too many promises in the past, and unless spending cuts are made and revenue increased, Maine will only go further into debt.

The state has $4.3 billion in unfunded liability to MainePERS. There are about 70,000 retired and active public employees who are affected by the proposed changes. They pay 7.65 percent of their income into the retirement fund and would pay 9.65 percent under the governor’s plan. The rest of the money for their retirement comes from the rest of the working population of the state, about 400,000 workers, who are paying into Social Security and supporting their own retirement plans through careful planning.

State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin has clearly outlined the possible solutions: Maine can borrow $4.3 billion to pay the unfunded liability; do nothing and hope it gets better on its own; play with the numbers to make it look like it’s not a problem; extend the constitutional deadline for funding MainePERS; or support the governor’s proposals by doing the right thing — put the state back into a position of fiscal soundness.

Solutions are better than insolvency.

Caron Beeckel, Turner