Rep. John Patrick’s guest column of July 15 was very critical of the current state administration, but omitted the fact that he served for eight years in the Maine House of Representatives when the tax-and-spend legislators held the majority. Even now, during his term as state senator, he did not submit any legislation to address any of the issues that are described in his column.

Recently, I read a best selling book written by Bill Bradley, “We Can All Do Better.” Bradley was a democratic U.S. senator for 17 years. I studied his wisdom-filled chapters, which looked for changes to our dysfunctional government. He learned to understand the fallacy introduced into government by uncompromising party politics.

Gov. Paul LePage has honored his pledge to pay the bills that were ignored by the previous administration (hospital payments, education allocation to municipalities, revenue sharing). In addition to his pledge to pay the delinquent bills, he pledged to reduce wasteful spending and reduce taxes for working Maine citizens. Reading his column, it was clear that Patrick believes strongly in the distribution of wealth concept that is often discussed in party circles.

The column attempted to confuse the governor’s pledges to establish efficiency and reduce fraud within the government agencies and to expect personal responsibility among Maine citizens.

The piece also made a false claim that investment in renewable energy would result in the creation of 11,700 jobs. I will assume that Patrick was referring to former Gov. John Baldacci’s plan for wind energy facilities on many of Maine’s pristine mountaintops.

Wind energy provides very few permanent jobs. It is interesting that after almost five years of debate regarding wind power in the River Valley region, I have never heard Patrick take a stand, one way or the other.

The governor is focused on removing barriers that prevent small, medium and large private-sector businesses from hiring more employees. Additional state-issued bonds will create additional bills to pay.

I recall the governor’s concern that bond funds have historically gone to nonprofit government organizations, which do not pay taxes.

Big government spending is a significant root cause of lost jobs and lost economic freedom.

Gov. LePage is the first Maine governor to take a stand on critical issues based on the U.S. Constitution, which defined the separation of citizen rights between the federal government and the states.

As Bill Bradley said, “We can all do better.” Maine legislators must work with the governor to develop viable ideas and submit legislation to solve real problems.

Len Greaney, Rumford Center