AUGUSTA — Dale McCormick, director of the Maine State Housing Authority, called an emergency meeting late last week with stakeholders of Elm Terrace, a 35-unit affordable housing project in Portland. McCormick had bad news for those assembled at the University of Southern Maine’s Glickman Library. Elm Terrace, she said, was too expensive. In late September, […]
Maine Legislature
Posted inLocal & State, Op-Eds, The Franklin Journal
Political Pulse: Michaud, Snowe hit D.C. fundraising circuit
Nuggets from the notebook while pining for the New York strip steak at Charlie Palmer Steak in Washington D.C. . . . U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, have had a busy year building their re-election war chests. According to data released by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan organization devoted […]
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Talks stall on Maine clean elections fix
AUGUSTA — State lawmakers Tuesday failed to complete a deal designed to ensure that Maine’s clean elections law remains viable for legislative candidates. Negotiations stalled on the Legislature’s Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee after lawmakers failed to agree on how much taxpayer funding should support publicly financed candidates. The impasse followed calls to quickly amend […]
Posted inLocal & State, Op-Eds, The Franklin Journal
Political Pulse: National equity firm gets cozy with Snowe
Nuggets from the notebook while taking a quick look at one of U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe’s big supporters . . . The Blackstone Group, a multi-billion–dollar international equity firm, recently made Maine headlines when its charitable foundation announced that it was investing $3 million in entrepreneurial development at the recently decommissioned Brunswick Naval Air Station. […]
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Governor’s crackdown on unemployment claims goes beyond fraud
AUGUSTA — Earlier this month, Gov. Paul LePage announced that his administration was undertaking a new effort to tackle improper unemployment payments and fraud, a problem that cost state employers about $6.5 million last year. The governor’s initiative came on the heels of President Barack Obama’s mandate that all states adopt mitigation overpayment strategies by […]
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Energy watchers hope LePage’s natural gas push doesn’t forsake renewables
AUGUSTA — This past summer, Gov. Paul LePage addressed lawmakers to evaluate the hits and misses of the legislative session. A significant failure, in the governor’s opinion, was the Legislature’s inability to lower the state’s energy costs. At the time, LePage blamed lawmakers for balking at his proposal to scrap a state mandate to increase […]
Posted inLocal & State, Op-Eds, The Franklin Journal
Political Pulse: Progressives question motives of Americans Elect
Nuggets from the notebook while wondering why Americans Elect’s effort to get a third-party presidential candidate on the 2012 ballot seems so appealing to progressive voters . . . Americans Elect is a nonprofit organization currently trying to obtain ballot access for a yet-to-be determined bipartisan presidential ticket next year. The group is well-funded, backed […]
Posted inLocal & State
State seeks to defuse fears of gas-station fraud
AUGUSTA — New questions have surfaced over the state’s ability to effectively regulate gas stations that may be short-changing customers at the pump. Inspectors in the Maine Department of Agriculture reported last month that one large gas station in southern Maine had six pumps that were improperly calibrated. While state officials say that two of […]
Posted inbPlus, Local & State, Op-Eds
Political Pulse: ‘Gov. LePage, Gov. Perry on line 1’
Nuggets from the notebook while wondering what Gov. Paul LePage and Texas Gov. Rick Perry have been talking about . . . It’s fairly common for governors to develop relationships with their peers in other states. Chief executives often attend national conferences to discuss policy matters and meet with business leaders. They may call each […]
Posted inLocal & State
Governor: Merge conservation and agriculture departments
AUGUSTA — Former Gov. John Baldacci twice tried — and twice failed — to merge the state’s natural resource agencies. Gov. Paul LePage announced Thursday that he too would give consolidation a go, but with a new twist: He has proposed merging the Agriculture and Conservation departments into a single division. While environmental groups immediately […]