LEWISTON — With his proposed legislation to make public identifying information about welfare recipients seemingly dead, Mayor Robert Macdonald said Friday he’s glad he started a conversation.
“I don’t think it would have made it, not even past the committee,” Macdonald said Friday. “But you know what? I thought, let’s throw it out there.”
In his weekly column in the Twin City Times, Macdonald called for the Maine Legislature to consider a bill that would require a website listing names of people on welfare, their addresses, the length of time they’d spent on welfare and the types of benefits they received.
That information is shielded from the public under current law.
State Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, said Friday he had not submitted the bill before Friday’s cloture — the deadline for legislators to submit bill titles for the second half of the lawmaking session, scheduled to begin in January.
Brakey said Friday he is not familiar enough with Macdonald’s idea to submit it as a bill.
“For me, if it comes forward as a proposal, I’d have to study it much more in depth than I’ve had an opportunity so far,” Brakey said Friday. “I’m a big champion of welfare reform, but I’m really also a champion of privacy rights. I really want to understand what could be the unintended consequences there.”
He said the thought the bill, if it does come forward, would be difficult to get through the Legislative Council.
“I am sponsoring a lot of legislation right now,” Brakey said. “This one, probably, will be difficult to get through in the first place. But it’s something where I have not had the opportunity to study the ins and outs of the issues, it would be hard for me to make the case for the why the bill should be taken up right now.”
Macdonald said Friday he would not push the idea further in the Legislature.
“Even the Governor (Paul LePage) shied away from this,” Macdonald said. “But we have a discussion going now with all the goody two-shoes who know all about poverty because they saw a poor person once.”
But Macdonald said the conversation is far from over. He’s been invited to talk on the Massachusetts-based Howie Carr syndicated radio talk show Monday and on Fox Radio Saturday morning.
“But I don’t know if I’m willing to do that,” Macdonald said. “They want me from 6-8 a.m. and I don’t usually get up until 7. I don’t know if I’m willing to get up for that.”
News of the mayor’s proposal spread across the country, trending for a time on both Facebook and Twitter. Macdonald said he realizes privacy is a hot issue.
“But let’s have the discussion about this,” Macdonald said. “That kind of information makes people shy, and I know why — and if you come over to my house right now you’ll see. People are calling now all the time, and I understand they’ve been getting quite a few calls at the office (in Lewiston City Hall).”
“But we have a discussion going now with all the goody two-shoes who know all about poverty because they saw a poor person once.”
— Lewiston Mayor Robert Macdonald
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