While Gov. Paul LePage’s budget address last week upset some, it didn’t generate nearly as much outrage as the plans being rolled out in other states. LePage’s budget outline didn’t include any sweeping or across-the-board cuts to state programs or of state employees. Rex Rhoades tells you the story behind tomorrow’s editorial in the return […]
Paul LePage
Posted inMaine, sj-web
LePage picks Bowen to be Maine education chief
AUGUSTA (AP) — An aide to Gov. Paul LePage who just a couple of months ago turned down an offer to become education commissioner on Wednesday became the governor’s nominee for the post. Former social science teacher Steve Bowen, more recently LePage’s senior policy adviser, is the Republican governor’s nominee to head one of the […]
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LePage: ‘I believe Cain’
AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage said today that he believed House minority leader Rep. Emily Cain, D-Orono, when she says she paid for an energy audit by the Maine Green Energy Alliance, the now defunct group that had received public subsidies to perform energy audits. Cain came under fire yesterday by the Maine GOP, who […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
LePage, Poliquin delay $31M bond proposal
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine Gov. Paul LePage’s conservative fiscal views are putting a chill on a $31 million bond package sponsored by a quasi-state government body. The Maine Health and Higher Educational Facilities Authority is the agency that educational and health care nonprofits must go through under federal law to sell tax-exempt bonds. Unlike […]
Posted inMaine
Group hopes Maine will help states get veto power over Congress
The executive director of a national organization that wants to give states the power to veto acts of Congress hopes Gov. Paul LePage and the Legislature will join the effort. Marianne Moran, the executive director of the Repeal Amendment, said LePage had been receptive to a libertarian movement that has so far gained traction in […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Maine regulatory overhaul bill aired
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine lawmakers are full of questions as they get their first look at Gov. Paul LePage’s environmental regulatory reform bill, which gets the numerical distinction of being LD No. 1 among the hundreds of bills introduced this year. The Joint Select Committee on Regulatory Fairness and Reform is taking up only […]
Posted inOur View
Our View: LePage plan less dramatic than expected
Current state employees are probably breathing a sigh of relief following Gov. Paul LePage’s promise Thursday not to conduct across-the-board cuts in state workers or payroll. The governor, in fact, was complimentary of the state work force, although he announced that a hiring freeze adopted during his predecessor’s term will continue. Most current state employees […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
LePage calls budget proposal, “jobs bill”
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine Gov. Paul LePage says there’ll be plenty of pain to go around when he unveils his two-year state budget. The budget is so important that LePage will deliver it to a joint session of the Maine Legislature on Thursday. Earlier this week, LePage signed a supplemental spending bill to shore […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Gov. LePage to present 2-year budget
AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage on Thursday will present to the Legislature a state spending blueprint for the next two-year budget cycle, and it is expected to reflect the austerity of the times and the governor’s promises not to raise taxes. The Republican governor will present his budget for the period starting July 1 to […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
LePage touts proposed budget
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Gov. Paul LePage says his proposed supplemental budget covering the remainder of fiscal 2011 includes tax breaks and helps the state to pay long-overdue bills. In his weekend radio address, LePage says his supplemental budget adjusting Maine’s finances through June 30 pays Maine’s hospitals $250 million in unreimbursed MaineCare expenses going […]