Luke Jensen

Why does Lewiston seem to have so many issues, and why does it seem like a lot of those issues are getting worse? The reasons for our problems are complex, but they are manageable with the right approach.

A simple explanation is that Lewiston has been the victim of harmful state policies while it also holds itself back by not providing political direction for itself to ensure long term success.

The state has a tendency to push its most needy and vulnerable individuals into service center communities (like Lewiston), then fails to provide a sufficient amount in revenue sharing to those communities which are forced to take on extra financial burdens as a result of higher levels of poverty, more crime, and schools with a more needy student population.

Due to state law that exempts nonprofits from municipal property taxes, Lewiston loses out on a lot of revenue in order to host services like the hospitals, which benefit the region as a whole. A quarter of Lewiston’s land is non-taxable and that number continues to go up, forcing the rest of the city to make up the difference.

For many years during the Great Recession, the state’s education funding formula benefited districts with a shrinking student population while Lewiston’s student population experienced a surge in growth, forcing the city to pay for expansions to multiple schools and hire additional staff members. The formula continues to disproportionately hurt Lewiston, particularly through inadequate funding for special education services.

Lewiston has taken longer to recover from the recession compared to other Maine service center communities and is in less of a position to take on disproportionate burdens. Property taxes have long been too high, yet the city never has enough money to fund what it needs to do.

Harmful state policies are the biggest reasons why Lewiston is experiencing its current challenges, but the city could be doing much more to help itself.

Elected leaders haven’t put forward a strategic vision for the city and have instead looked at issues narrowly instead of seeing the big picture and thinking in the long term. The chaotic city charter makes providing direction extremely difficult, but not impossible.

As an example, there’s been no direction provided on housing in the city. Lewiston has unintentionally mostly added only subsidized and low-income residences without balancing them out with market rate housing, resulting in a dangerously low median household income.

That statistic scares away potential investment and causes Lewiston to lose out on many large economic development opportunities, which limits expansion of the tax base and punishes existing property tax payers. This lack of direction has also caused a shortage of available housing opportunities for senior citizens and young professionals alike, exacerbating an existing housing crisis and forcing people who have spent most of their lives in Lewiston to move away.

As a former city councilor and school committee member, I’ve seen firsthand how difficult it can be to govern in Lewiston. With the current charter, political direction can realistically only come from the mayor, yet even the best mayors of recent times have been hamstrung by things out of their control. Lesser mayors, like our current one, have failed to think long-term and have disregarded community input and transparency, leading to low public confidence in our local government.

We all know that there are many wealthier communities in Maine that can and should do more to take on the burden of supporting the state’s most vulnerable and needy people. “Maine problems” shouldn’t become “Lewiston problems” just because the problems are within city lines.

Lewiston is already forced to do so much for so many, and the rest of the state knows that we are the city with the big heart. Still, we need growth, yet the status quo will keep us in budget cycles that continue to get worse as each year passes, with those same vulnerable and needy individuals being the ones who suffer the most due to lack of funding.

The reasons why Lewiston has its current problems are complex, but those problems can be managed if we change how we approach political issues in this city. This November is our chance to turn things around.

Luke Jensen is a former city councilor and school committee member in Lewiston. He remains an advocate for transparency in local government.