Pine Tree Watchdog (https://pinetreewatchdog.org/)
AUGUSTA – Over the past 50 years, Maine legislatures and governors have added millions of dollars in tax breaks for businesses without ever doing the detailed analysis to find out which are effective and which are wasteful.
But now that may be changing.
In recent weeks, a growing list of legislators have called for a review of programs that leading economists have critiqued for not delivering on promises to create jobs.
“We put a lot of stock in these programs, but we never go back to see if they work,” Sen. Emily Cain, D-Orono, told the legislature’s taxation committee last week.
Cain has proposed a bill, LD1488, that would require the tax committee to recommend which tax expenditure programs should be kept, repealed or changed and then would require the full legislature to hold an up or down vote of them as part of the budget approval.
AUGUSTA – A state legislative committee voted today to put Maine back on track to develop a finished plan for adapting to its changing climate. “I think the committee understood how much we all stand to lose if we don’t plan for the future,” said Pete Didisheim, advocacy director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, one of the nonprofit groups involved in the creation of the initial report by the state Department of Environmental Protection in 2010.
Four years ago, when the University of Maine System was cutting programs to save money, officials were criticized for not, instead, making up the shortfall by taking money from System reserves. At the time, officials said they needed all of the $88 million in the reserve account as a contingency for the unexpected and other expenses. Now, the System says it is again under financial pressure – Gov. Paul LePage’s budget proposal for the two years starting July 1 calls for no funding increase for the university system.
State legislators and top appointed officials won’t be able to take jobs as lobbyists right after they leave the statehouse, under a bill passed unanimously by a key legislative committee on Friday. Continue Reading →
Nearly a dozen of the state’s top environmental groups turned out at a legislative hearing Thursday to urge the state to revive its plan to help Maine adapt to a changing climate. Continue Reading →
An honors student from the University of Maine stood before lawmakers Wednesday and, in a clear and confident voice, walked them through an ethics reform proposal that would require more extensive disclosure of the financial affairs of public officials and legislators. Continue Reading →
Robert Williams had seen enough. The chief of the state police and a 30-year veteran had seen enough mangled bodies in car wrecks. Enough distraught and hysterical mothers and fathers. Enough lives that could have been easily saved with the click of seatbelt. Continue Reading →
SANTA FE — On February 20, New Mexico’s House Energy and Natural Resources Committee gathered for one of its regular meetings in a drab room here at the capitol, a circular building known as the Roundhouse. Continue Reading →
AUGUSTA -- The state's Republican governor and a leading Democratic legislator have teamed up to try to improve the ethical standards for both elected and appointed state officials. A bill unveiled this week by Gov. Paul LePage and Sen. Emily Cain of Orono will require greater disclosure of the financial and political interests of legislators and high-ranking executive branch officials. The bill, L.D. 1001, proposes four changes to current law: Continue Reading →
AUGUSTA — Urging his fellow lawmakers to set “an ethical course for all legislators,” Bethel Rep. Jarrod Crockett Wednesday introduced a bill to require a one-year waiting period between leaving the legislature and working as a lobbyist. Crockett said his bill is a response to a 2012 national watchdog group report that gave Maine an “F” for its lack of rules and laws to deter corruption in government. Continue Reading →
While the state is considering cutting aid to schools and communities, it is also spending more than $100 million a year on tax breaks for businesses that an audit has criticized as risky investments. Continue Reading →
If you’re paid to regulate widgets for the state of Maine, then you shouldn’t be able to take a new job working for widget makers. That’s what Ann Luther, board member of the League of Women Voters of Maine, told legislators on the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee Wednesday in a hearing on a bill that would stop the so-called “revolving door.” The bill would make it unlawful for executive branch officials to leave their state job and go directly to work for an industry they regulated. Continue Reading →
Legislation to make it unlawful for state officials to leave their jobs and immediately go to work for industries they regulated – the so-called “revolving door” – is one of several ethics bills expected to be debated in the legislature this session. Continue Reading →