AUGUSTA – Declaring the state to be “strong, secure and healthy,” Gov. John Baldacci listed his election-year priorities Wednesday night while taking credit for keeping spending and taxes in check and helping to create or rescue thousands of jobs.
In his State of the State speech, the governor also vigorously defended the Dirigo program, whose aim is to provide universal health care access, saying the cost of leaving people uninsured is too great in human and financial terms.
He also announced steps to expand and revamp Dirigo, a program that’s turning into a major issue in this year’s gubernatorial campaign.
“When it comes to affordable health care for Maine families and businesses, I will leave no stone unturned,” Baldacci said in his speech, which was carried on statewide television.
The Democratic governor said state finances are on the rebound, with taxes and spending under control. Spending, said Baldacci, has grown during the past four years at just over 3 percent, the lowest increase in three decades.
He also said Maine’s education system is healthy, citing reading and science scores that are among the nation’s best and figures showing more students are going to college.
While thanking state employees for going two years without pay raises to balance the state budget, Baldacci said better pay for other workers will occupy part of his agenda for 2006.
He said his budget seeks funding to raise teachers salaries from the current average of $27,000 a year to $30,000 starting next year, and he will support a minimum wage hike.
“Our minimum wage should not lag behind other states in our region,” Baldacci said. “I ask for your support to increase Maine’s minimum wage over the next two years so that people can keep pace with the cost of living.”
The governor said he will seek $750,000 to expand nursing education, and expansion of the child care tax credit. He proposed measures to expand use of renewable energy, stabilize electric costs and adopt statewide efficiency standards for appliances.
Other proposals will include expanding his Pine Tree Zone program to encourage economic growth in targeted regions, and a military retirement tax exemption, which he said could encourage former personnel stationed at Brunswick Naval Air Station to stay in Maine.
The base is targeted for closing, but Baldacci and the state congressional delegation helped to persuade the federal base-closing commission to spare the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery and double the number of jobs at the defense accounting center in Limestone, which had been targeted for closing.
Hundreds of paper workers’ jobs in Penobscot County were saved after Baldacci’s administration intervened.
“We kept our mills and bases open because of the quality of our people – the quality of our workers,” Baldacci said. But he said more needs to be done to train workers and upgrade their skills.
Baldacci also called for elimination of the personal property tax on new business investments, which are seen as a deterrent to business growth. He also said his budget commits $500,000 to redevelopment of a shuttered paper mill in Brewer, and expanded availability and quality of broadband and wireless phone service throughout the state.
“We’ve got to be able to do business here and connect around the world,” Baldacci said.
Republicans took issue with some of the governor’s claims of holding down spending growth and taxes.
Senate Minority Leader Paul Davis, R-Sangerville, said Mainers have paid $750 million in new taxes since Baldacci took office in 2003. Tax rates have not been lowered and “we still have a spending problem,” Davis said in a televised response after the speech.
But Democrats, who hold a narrow legislative majority, applauded the governor’s address, noting that the state’s Rainy Day Fund has been replenished.
“There have been improvements in the state’s fiscal condition and the state’s economy,” said House Speaker John Richardson, D-Brunswick. He said health and environmental gains have also been made under Baldacci.
The governor said state borrowing has been cut by more than 50 percent, and the Rainy Day emergency reserve has grown from zero to $100 million in three years.
“The state of our state is indeed strong, secure and healthy,” Baldacci said.
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