Gov. Paul LePage really, really likes his veto pen, a tool he has used to veto more legislation than any other governor in Maine recorded history.

Traditionally speaking, the veto pen is seen as a source of executive power but Maine’s current governor appears to be using that pen for political punishment.

Among the list of vetoes the Legislature is scheduled to take up on Thursday are several that we urge lawmakers to override.

LD 1719, An Act to Improve Education about and Awareness of Maine’s Health Laws and Resources,” is the first of them.

The bill’s title is unfortunately vague and doesn’t say exactly what the bill is intended to do, and that is to keep $5 million in tobacco settlement funds in the Fund for a Healthy Maine where it belongs.

On April 18, the bill, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Megan Rochelo and Republican Sen. Thomas Saviello, passed 110-34 in the House and 25-6 in the Senate. It is a one-time expenditure on educational programs, including $150,000 to teach awareness of marijuana use and its impact on Maine’s youth, $750,000 for Head Start to improve family education, and $590,000 to improve dental care for schoolchildren and uninsured adults.

By far, though, the most dollars would be used for outreach and education about the dangers of tobacco use. According to the Maine Public Health Association, the return on investment of tobacco education is 7:1, which is a pretty healthy rate of return with a proven history of success.

Everything contained in the bill is designed to improve the health of Maine people through prevention. If we don’t work harder to prevent disease, we will always be arguing about health care costs.

In his veto letter LePage notes that his administration believes outreach and education are better funded through grant requests and that the tobacco settlement funds ought to be used to support “our most vulnerable citizens,” pointing specifically to Maine’s nursing homes.

Thing is, Maine’s nursing homes supported this bill and the funding they need is elsewhere, contained in LD 1858 — the nearly-unanimously passed supplemental budget that LePage also vetoed.

“A vote to override this veto is a vote to close nursing facilities,” he threatened.

Except that it isn’t.

If the Legislature overrides both LD 1719 and LD 1858, the nursing homes get the funding they need and public health agencies can help teach thousands of Maine’s “vulnerable citizens” how to prevent disease while they’re young so they can be healthier as they age. You know, before they get to the nursing home.

The budget bill, now marked with LePage’s veto signature, also removes large portions of the MaineCare “wait list” that Republicans have been so keen to tackle, which is a curious step backward for an  administration that had been so proud of the achievement. 

Never mind that LePage’s rationale for vetoing the public health outreach bill is flawed, the bigger concern is that The Fund for Healthy Maine is not the governor’s personal mad money. The fund, created in 1999, is statutorily designed to disburse Maine’s share of tobacco settlement funds to help reduce smoking, augment substance abuse programs, improve oral health care, and expand health care and education for the young and old. All of which LD 1719 does.

Another bill that was handily passed by the Legislature, and then vetoed by the governor, contained recommendations by the Right to Know Advisory Committee to expand public access to mercury reduction plans and to economic development records maintained by the Department of Labor. It also added a much-needed expert in information technology to the advisory committee — a position the governor himself would appoint — to assist other members in understanding storage and retrieval of electronic records, and it eased the deadline for government to provide a receipt acknowledging a request for public records, which government officials have been clamoring for.

His reason for vetoing the bill?

It didn’t go far enough, but just nibbled “around the edges of the law without addressing real flaws in it,” and didn’t address what LePage views as burdensome requests for records that are designed to “cripple the operations of my office.”

Except that it does.

Augmenting the Right to Know Advisory Committee with an expert in information technology would provide better context for the amount of work involved for government to respond to FOAA requests, which will most certainly help government tackle “crippling” requests. And, giving government a grace period to provide receipt of a public request provides the breathing room that government says it needs.

We urge the Legislature to override LePage’s vetoes on LD 1719, LD 1809 and LD 1858.

Fund public health education.

Improve Maine’s public access laws.

And get the budget balanced.

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The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and the editorial board.