Maine Governor Janet Mills takes second term oath and inaugural speech

Governor Janet T. Mills Second Inaugural Address Augusta Civic Center Wednesday, January 4, 2023.

Echo report on Maine Public:

Governor Janet Mills takes the oath of office administered by Senator Troy Jackson

Thank you. Mr. President, (Senator Troy Jackson) Madam Secretary of State, Madam Speaker, Madam Chief Justice, (I like the sound of this), members of the 131st Maine Legislature, members of the Cabinet, Rabbi Asch, Bishop Brown, distinguished guests — It is a profound honor and a privilege to take the oath prescribed by the Constitution and to assume again the mantle of Governor of the great State of Maine. I am deeply humbled by the trust the people of Maine have placed in me. President John F. Kennedy said, “If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place in which to live.” I agree. And so I want to thank our own poet laureate Julia Bouwsma and Bethel resident and Presidential Inaugural poet Richard Blanco – and Maine’s poet-musician Dave Mallett – for their very inspiring words. 

Thank you also to the Franklin County Fiddlers and the incredible Pihcintu Multinational Girls Choir, including my young friends Shy and Natasha who graced this same stage with their presence four years ago — Welcome back! 

You are more beautiful than ever! 

I also draw your attention to the empty chair in the military section to honor and recognize all Maine service members who have lost their lives in service to our country. I would not be standing here today if it were not for my family: my brothers Peter, Paul and David, my sister Dora, my five daughters and five grandchildren, and my husband Stan, gone eight years now, who arose every morning happily proclaiming, “the best is yet to come!” 

Traversing this state many times over many months, I have learned more about the character of our people and the worth of our communities, what we give, what we take, what we offer to each other. 

I toured clinics and hospitals, large and small, schools, warehouses, stores, diners and boathouses, log yards, libraries and factories, houses of worship of all faiths. And I can report: – From the Can Am at America’s First Mile to Maine’s first town, 375-year old Kittery, – From Friar’s Brewpub in Bucksport to Bangs Mussels in Portland, – From Robbins Lumber in Searsmont to Louisiana Pacific in Houlton, – From Geiger Brothers in Lewiston to New Balance, Sappi, and Maine Grains in Somerset County, – From the lakes and slopes of western Maine, 2 – To the University of New England, Athena Health, Jackson and Bigelow Labs, The Ferland Center in Orono and the Roux Institute in Portland – Great things are happening all over Maine! And I can report to you as well that, across this Maine – this one Maine – hope is very much alive. Over the last few years, there was something that caught our attention especially during the pandemic – these large luminous, neon-like signs, began popping up in cities across Maine. “Hopeful,” they read in colorful, cursive script. These signs became a symbol not only of survival but of health, renewal, new life. The sign’s creator, Charlie Hewitt, said, “To be hopeful is not a gift – it’s a challenge. 

To be hopeful requires action…commitment…opening your eyes, it requires making a decision…being part of something.” Maine people know and embrace this. Indeed, we experienced it these last four years. Tonight, like Charlie Hewitt’s art deco signs, a flashback to previous decades, the James Webb Telescope is taking us back through time and into the bowels of celestial history, like a magical mystery tour of the universe, drawing us both inward and outward through space and time, and unlocking mysteries of the past and foreshadowings of the future. I can’t help but wonder: if our forebears a century ago had had a Webb Telescope to view the world down through time, what might they think of where we are today? Would they have ever imagined that the log drives would come to an end? That the Narrow Gauge railway would turn into a quiet foot path? That our granite quarries would be rendered obsolete by the invention of concrete? Could they have foreseen cell phones and flat screen TVs and computers of any size with words that are written and then disappear on a virtual page as though they had never once become thought? We do know one thing our forebearers were thinking about. 

Exactly one hundred years ago, Dora Bradbury Pinkham of Fort Kent, Maine, became the first woman to serve in this Legislature. Arthur G. Staples of the Lewiston Evening Journal wrote at the time, “it may happen that, in after years, perhaps 2023, some woman Governor of Maine, and some legislature largely composed of women, may desire to know how the first woman legislator carried herself.” “So!” he went on, “In the year 2023, one hundred years hence, Dora Pinkham is thus presented to you….Maine is ready for her sisters.” Well, Arthur Stapes, here we are! I hope Dora Pinkham would be pleased to know that today half our congressional delegation are women; that a black woman from Portland is our Speaker of the House and that a woman whose own roots lie deep in Pinkham’s beloved County, has now taken the oath for the second time to serve as Governor of the state. 3 Today, a century after Dora Pinkham took the oath, our rivers no longer carry logs to sawmills. Our food comes in slick packages from around the globe. And we meet with distant friends and coworkers on a screen the size of a writing pad. But what about our descendants, those generations yet to come – what might the telescope of the future reveal to them about who we are now and where we are going? Will it be good? Will they be proud of us? Will the people of the future see how we fought disease, homelessness, crippling opioid use and a fear of those who are different from us? Will they appreciate that, for their sake and ours, we began to rid our farms and waters of the forever chemicals known as “PFAS”? 

Will they see how we promoted health and education; celebrated arts and literature; preserved our precious right to vote and conducted free and fair elections? How we adjusted to technology and innovation? How we adapted and evolved through tumultuous times, exploring new sources of energy, electricity, new modes of communication and travel? I hope so. But perhaps they will ask other probing questions as well, like: “What was daylight savings time all about?” “Who the heck was Elon Musk?!” And “what on earth was ‘Twitter?’” And “What were all those tall gray structures that held something called ‘an office?’” And maybe they will also ask: “What took them so long to shelter the unhoused? “Why did it take years to build a house when we can 3-D print a single home in just an hour?” “Why,” they may ask, “did they wrap everything in packaging, material they could have re-used, and why did they dump waste in the ocean and bury it in the earth?” “What were all those parking lots and those tarred roads crisscrossing the countryside?” they will ask. “And the gasses emitted from structures and vehicles that clogged the air, warmed the planet, and melted the ancient glaciers?” “Why did the scourge of a drug epidemic rob them of so many precious lives? “Why didn’t they have safe and loving places to care for all their children?” “Why did they pay so much every time they went to a doctor or a pharmacist?” 4 These questions, my friends, may be asked in the future – but the answers will be shaped by our actions in the coming months and years. Four years ago I stood before you and promised to work for a healthier, more vibrant, more welcoming state. Who could have known, one thousand four hundred sixty three days ago, that this state, this nation, and countries across the globe, would face a deadly pandemic reminiscent of the Spanish Flu one hundred years before, one that would threaten the safety of every community, business, family and person, one that would challenge us to reinvent how we learn, work, play, travel and communicate safely, a phenomenon that would test the very core of our character? It was during that time that I heard from thousands of you – emails, cards, letters, notes from people sharing their thoughts and their fears…. including ones from children, like 10-year old Savannah, who wrote, “Dear Governor Mills, I hope this COVID doesn’t affect our hearts being isolated from one another.” Well, Savannah, we learned that neither a worldwide pandemic, nor any other thing will ever isolate our hearts from one another. For we are a caring people. We in Maine are family. And we have found such strength within ourselves we didn’t know we had, even, as Dave Mallett puts it, “with our backs against the wall.” And we have come through that horrific time better than nearly every other state in the nation. With the good people of our Cabinet, with the brilliant leadership of Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew and CDC Director Nirav Shah and others, we answered the call. Now, experts nationally say that both our public health response and our economic recovery have been among the best in the country. Four years ago I committed my new administration to taking us into the future, to welcoming new people to our state and welcoming back those who have left. So, I am pleased to report, after the decades’ long exodus of young people from our state, Maine now boasts the 7th highest in-migration rate in the country. We are welcoming new people every day. And we continue to listen to the people of Maine. You said you wanted a government that paid teachers better, that funded public schools, schools where children learned on full stomachs, a government that made the dream of higher education attainable for more people. And so we fully funded the state’s share of public education for the first time in history. We funded universal free meals in the public schools. We’ve provided free community college to recent high 5 school grads and we enacted one of the most generous student loan forgiveness programs in the country. You said you wanted health insurance for more people, so we expanded MaineCare to more than 100,000 people, as the voters told us to do. We have reduced the uninsured rate by more than any state in the country. And we listened to small businesses drowning in health insurance costs and lowered their premiums for the first time in decades. You asked us to pay attention to what the United Nations scientists have called a “Code Red for Humanity” and the violent storms across the nation damaging homes, towns, fisheries, wildlife, everything our nation holds dear. So, with renewable energy, weatherization, efficiency, alternative heating sources, and a focus on resiliency, we have put Maine on a path towards carbon neutrality, with a plan to protect our precious farms, shorelands and towns from the ravages of climate change. You asked us to expand broadband, recognizing that it is the communications highway of the future and that high speed Internet is as necessary to everything we do as water is to life. So, we created the Maine Connectivity Authority. We’ve connected more than 48,000 households to the Internet, and I’ve pledged that by the end of 2024 every person in Maine who wants a good Internet connection will have one. You asked us to begin to repair the divisions between the State and Tribal Nations. And so we enacted the highest water quality standards in the nation for rivers with sustenance fishing; we expanded tribal court prosecutions of domestic violence; and we negotiated major new revenue sources for the tribes. You urged us to protect reproductive health care against the threat, now real, that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade. And we did so, passing laws that discouraged protestors from blocking health clinics, that required public and private insurance coverage of abortion services and that made those services available to women in rural as well as urban areas of the state. You asked us to preserve some of the very special places of our state. And so, without borrowing, we reinvigorated the Land for Maine’s Future program and acquired thousands of acres of working waterfront, farmland and wildlife habitat for generations to enjoy a hundred years hence. You asked us to fight against federal rulings that threatened our iconic lobster industry. And we did just that — working with our Members of Congress, securing a regulatory pause as well as funding for new research to protect both the Right Whale and the lobster industry. You asked us to manage our budgets prudently. So State government has lived within its means and built up the Rainy Day Fund to a record high to shelter us from the impacts of inflation and a possible recession. And we have continued to fix our highways and bridges – worn by time, use, and Maine’s changing seasons – without borrowing. But our job is far from finished. 6 Today a workforce shortage undermines our very ability to get things done – from teaching, policing, healthcare, farming, to selling and manufacturing goods. “Help Wanted” signs are everywhere. And so we are expanding workforce training in high schools and community colleges. We are making more child care available for working parents. And we are partnering with towns and businesses to find better housing for workers and shelter for the unhoused. And we are putting people to work. You are asking us to strengthen and diversify our economy, recognizing that we are too dependent on other states and nations and too vulnerable to the volatile winds of worldwide geopolitics. So we are investing in our fisheries, farms and forest products to produce more at home, seizing on our spirit of independence and self-reliance, while seeking new markets abroad. You are asking us to diversify our energy sources and loosen the stranglehold fossil fuel companies have on the wallets of Maine families and businesses. So we are pursuing renewable sources of energy that will protect both our environment and your family’s bottom-line, instead of big oil’s profits. You are asking us to address the crisis in housing. So we issued the senior affordable housing bonds first thing. Then we enacted the largest investment in housing in state history. We renewed the historic rehabilitation tax credit. And we have funded more than 1,500 new residential units and are adding hundreds more in the years ahead. We are working every day with cities and towns and developers to stand up emergency shelters and workforce housing in a way that fits the needs of every town. You are asking us to do our best to stop the ravages of opioid addiction and the waste of human life and aspirations from drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamine. And so we are, in earnest, providing treatment beds and recovery and prevention measures, and distributing Naloxone everywhere to save thousands of lives. And we will make sure that every school and community has an effective prevention program to stop the scourge of addiction before it begins. You are asking us to make sure that every child is safe, acknowledging that these drugs that are killing adults are endangering children too. We reactivated the Children’s Cabinet, long dormant. We put more child protection workers on the street. And we’re adding resources for foster families in order to keep our children safe. But that work is never over. We cannot and shall not rest until we eradicate the scourge of child abuse and neglect, drug overdose and domestic violence – acts, injuries and deaths that tear at the very fabric of a society. You are asking us to recognize that children’s emotional health too suffered during the pandemic and that hospital emergency rooms and jails are not the right places to treat someone in a mental health crisis. 7 So we have opened Maine’s first comprehensive crisis receiving center. We are investing in residential care and community-based treatment. We are training more professionals and expanding mental health crisis services statewide. Ladies and gentlemen, over the next four years it will be our challenge to address these issues head-on, to continue the march of progress we began four years ago, and to be prepared for challenges not yet known to us. In doing so, we envision Maine as a place where quality healthcare is unquestioned; where good education, from pre-K through graduate school, is available and affordable; where good-paying jobs are offered in every corner of the state; where children are safe and secure in their homes; and where anyone can go online from any place in Maine to shop, attend a class, conduct business, get medical help or simply send a message to a friend. These are our goals – hopeful but real. That hope is built of the hardiness of a people who endure long winters and muddy springs, hot summers and windy falls. People who endure and survive and thrive above it all. Hope is not an easy thing. It’s not mere wishful thinking. It’s not just trying to do what we did yesterday in the same old, same old ways. Hope is disruptive. It is a four-letter word, after all. It challenges and changes the way we do things. It calls on us to advance and adapt, while preserving who we are as a people and all the values we hold dear. More than ever before, because of everything we have been through and because of everything we are, hope resides right here in Maine. Hope is manifest in the actions you took this very day, actions inspired perhaps by one of humanity’s great spiritual guides who said 2,000 years ago, saying: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took me in, naked and you clothed me….”. For your actions today in housing, heating and helping those in need, the people of Maine are deeply grateful. You, the Maine Legislature, have provided hope. Hope is about finding new and innovative ways to solve our problems, using the ingenuity and courage we rediscovered within ourselves these last few years. And I see hope all across this state today: — There is hope in the work of University of Maine students devising new uses for wood, and ways to harness the power of the raw winds of the Atlantic, and methods to build homes with biobased materials from a giant printer; 8 — There is hope in the aspirations of innovators at the Roux Institute, using artificial intelligence and data analytics to solve complex problems; — Hope in cities like Waterville, Biddeford and Westbrook, evolving from their industrial past, reinventing their downtowns and attracting new families and businesses every day; — Hope in the faces of the women shopkeepers in Lewiston and Portland who are selling fabrics, foods and spices from other countries, these industrious mothers of soccer champions, daughters of another continent; — Hope in the vision of enterprising artists, poets, musicians, architects, writers and makers of crafts in every corner of this state; — Hope in the far reaches of the County, Downeast, and in the shadows of our western mountains where farmers, foresters, fishermen, hunters, storekeepers, and tourists co-exist; — There is hope too in the eyes of those who have forded raging rivers, thick forests, steep mountains and rough seas to seek refuge and work in our country and in our state. There is hope for the future, just as it was hope that saw us through troubled times in the past. The charge, the responsibility we take up today is to choose action over acquiescence and apathy, to make decisions grounded in experience with an eye to the future, and always to be a part of something larger than ourselves. 

So, on this solemn occasion, let us recommit to working together and acknowledging: - that healthcare is a human right and we will fight to preserve it; - that education is essential and we will provide it; - that climate change is real and we will combat it; - that a decent home is essential and we will build it. And when the people of the future look back on us through their own James Webb Telescope – they will see that we worked together, during difficult times and good, that we settled our differences with civility, commonsense and compassion, that we took care of one another, that we protected the air, water and land around us, and we built a state that survived and thrived long into the future. And perhaps they too will see those things I believe will never change: – the way the surf of the mighty Atlantic pounds the granite shores of our state; – the way Katahdin rises up in all its majesty in the western sky; – the way the Basilica in Lewiston inspires the people of the mighty Androscoggin; 9 – the way so many institutions of higher learning enrich and grace our towns and cities across the state; – the way Moxie tickles the throat as it goes down and the way the wild blueberry finds a place in every tasty meal. One hundred years from now, people not yet born will turn a telescope back in time and find in the Maine of the 2020s a place where government did everything it could to save the lives and livelihoods of its people; took nothing for granted but invested wisely to make Maine a clean, healthy and welcoming place where success is attainable. And they will remember one sign, one word, that guided our path, our actions and our dreams: “Hopeful.” It is the highest privilege of my life to serve as your Governor, during hard times and good, stormy seas and calmer waters, as we weather the best and the worst of times together, tackling extraordinary problems, through extraordinary times, alongside you, the extraordinary people of Maine.

It is an honor to lead a people where everything good is possible and where we believe always, deep in our hearts, ‘the best is yet to come!’ Thank you. ###

Maine Has an Important Chance to Improve State Economy with Maine Care Expansion

Maine Center for Economic Policy (MCEP) reports how the proposed Maine Care expansion currently in the legislature makes superb economic sense.

An Op-Ed in January 27, 2013 Portland Press Herald describes the progress the Maine Care expansion would provide for Maine workers, businesses and the overall economy.

My experience visiting family and friends in Maryland positively reflects what Garrett Martin, executive director of MCEP describes about the potential for a Medicaid Expansion.  In my opinion, I see Maryland's economy thriving because young people are attracted to the state's opportunities provided by progressive policies, including the Medicaid expansion, supported by Governor Martin O'Malley. 

That's is what I see in Maryland. 

Unfortunately, I don't see this promise in Maine, where attracting a healthy workforce is essential to grow businesses. Unless, of course, the legislature prevails against a probable veto by Governor Paul LePage and the state accepts the Medicaid expansion described in the Martin op-ed.

Here's the reprint of Martins' op-ed article:

Maine Voices: Affordable Care Act presents state with unprecedented economic opportunity

If the investor were a private company, political leaders would have rolled out a red carpet.

By Garrett Martin 

AUGUSTA — Imagine a banner headline in this newspaper: “$338 Million Investment Projected to Support 4,400 Jobs, Add $500 Million Annually to Maine’s Economy.”

That’s roughly equivalent to all of the jobs at L.L. Bean and the total that all arts, entertainment, and recreation businesses combined contribute to Maine’s gross domestic product each year. This is the unprecedented opportunity Maine has if we accept federal Affordable Care Act funds to expand health coverage to nearly 70,000 people.

Why, then, have the governor and Legislature failed so far to accept this deal?

If the investor were a private company, political leaders would have rolled out a red carpet and promised tax breaks and other incentives to seal the deal.

Does the federal government expect too much in return? No. It hasn’t asked Maine to waive zoning regulations, give it a juicy tax increment financing deal or provide other inducements.

Will, as opponents contend, the increased health coverage cost state taxpayers too much? No. In fact, the federal government will pay 100 percent of the cost for eligible individuals over the next three years. Only then will the federal government begin to reduce its contribution to 90 percent by 2020.

In addition to the jobs and economic boost, Maine will also realize about $23 million annually in additional state and local revenue. Based on analysis by the state’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal and Program Review, the Maine Center for Economic Policy projects this will more than offset any new cost to the state from 2014 to 2016. Just in case, the bill currently before legislators sunsets the program in three years, requiring renewed approval for it to continue.

Since Maine shipbuilders launched the earliest Navy vessels, federal funds have helped strengthen Maine’s economy and create opportunity for working families.

Federal highway funds have built thousands of miles of roads and bridges we use every day. Federal investments make possible clean water, electricity for rural residents and Internet access.

Federal dollars support education, retirement security and health care, particularly for Mainers who are older, low-income, disabled or veterans. In fact, federal funds currently pay for more than one-third of Maine’s state budget.

Maine voters consistently approve transportation and other infrastructure bond issues because they know that the federal government will match or exceed each dollar the state spends.

The Maine Center for Economic Policy’s analysis, based on bond issues in recent years, has shown that the federal match for each state transportation and wastewater treatment bond dollar has returned $1.76 and $4.57, respectively.

By comparison, accepting federal ACA funds presents an exceptionally lucrative chance to leverage federal dollars. Every dollar Maine spends to expand health care will bring back a whopping $62 in federal ACA funds. Stated differently, the state’s share of the cost of increasing health coverage is only 1.6 percent of the total cost during the first three years.

These new federal funds will flow throughout Maine, yielding significant economic impact in every county. They will pay hospitals, physicians, pharmacists, mental health counselors and other health care providers.

Health care businesses will spend these funds to purchase materials and equipment and to pay the salaries of doctors, nurses, health aides, administrative personnel and others.

This economic boon is especially important as Maine continues to lag behind the rest of the Northeast and most of the nation in our slow recovery from the Great Recession. Maine has regained, on net, only 9,900 of the 29,100 payroll jobs lost as a result of that economic downturn.

Accepting ACA funds will not change these trends overnight, but it will significantly enhance Maine’s recovery prospects. Refusing the funds will put Maine at an economic disadvantage with states that accept them.

Maine has a lot more to lose. Hospitals and those who do have insurance will continue to pick up the costs for the uninsured. Working people will still be unable to visit their family doctor and live in fear that an illness or accident will result in their financial ruin.

Accepting federal ACA funds is one of the most, if not the most, important steps our leaders can take to extend affordable health care to tens of thousands of hardworking Mainers, deliver thousands of much-needed jobs and give our struggling economy a much-needed lift.

It is a once-in-a-generation bargain Maine just cannot afford to pass up.

— Special to the Press Herald

In fact, it makes no sense, whatsoever, for Maine to pass up this amazing and healthy opportunity to attract a healthy workforce while bringing badly needed federal revenues into the state..

Maine Insights Publishes Letter from Pennsylvania Eugene DePasquale Auditor General

Pennsylvania auditor wants Maine taxpayers to avoid the troubles G. Alexander caused his state

BY ADMIN

January 10th, 2014 · Filed under: Capitol news, Health Care, Healthy Lifestyles · No Comments

- See more at: http://maineinsights.com/perma/pennsylvania-auditor-wants-maine-taxpayers-to-avoid-the-troubles-gary-alexander-caused-while-working-in-his-state/comment-page-1#comment-43916

This well written letter raises two questionsL (a) is it legal for Maine to issue a "no bid" contract when the cost is about $1 million to taxpayers and (2) were revenues factored into the foregone conclusion?

I wish someone asked me to be a fortune teller when Governor LePage and Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew contracted with Gary Alexander of Pennsylvania, to review a proposed Maine Medicaid expansion. 

Perhaps I could have razzle-dazzled the prognosticating profession with my prediction of a foregone conclusion. Or not.

In other words, it doesn't take a fortune teller with self proclaimed soothsaying ability to figure out that Governor LePage didn't hire a person to evaluate Maine's proposed Medicaid expansion (currenly a bill in the legislature) just to have the information returned contradict his initial intention. The Governor, a Tea Party conservative, wants to dunk the LD1578, by rallying public support against the initiative. Alexander obviously produced an outcome worthy of his big paycheck.

LD 1578 - the bill that would allow Maine to accept federal funding to provide health care via MaineCare to more low-income Maine residents, has also been scheduled for a hearing next week, Wednesday, January 15th. MMA will be testifying in favor of the bill. The Medical Association has also planned a press event in favor of the MaineCare proposal for Thursday, January 23rd from 10 am - 12 pm at the Welcome Center of the State House.

Meanwhile, the Governor awarded the $1 million review contract to Gary Alexander of Pennsylvania in  "no bid" award.....and here is a warning letter from Eugene DePasquale, the Auditor of Pennsylvania where Alexander has a paper trail..... 

From Eugene DePasquale reprinted from Maine Insights:

I recently came under fire from Maine Gov. Paul LePage’s staff for voicing my concerns about the hiring of Gary Alexander under a no-bid contract to review Maine’s welfare system. To set the record straight, I simply hope that Maine taxpayers can avoid the troublesome fate suffered by the people of Pennsylvania under Alexander’s “stewardship.”

When I traveled across Pennsylvania campaigning to be elected the state’s top fiscal watchdog in 2012, Alexander was in charge of our state’s Department of Public Welfare, but he was the furthest thing from my mind. However, within a month of my taking office as auditor general, Republican and Democratic legislators alike were sounding alarms as the work of then-Secretary Alexander’s agency to consolidate a contract for home care workers was imploding, with terrible consequences for the home care workers and their patients.

I initiated an audit to determine how, under Alexander’s leadership, the consolidation effort could have gone so wrong that thousands of Pennsylvania home care workers went months without pay and some of our most vulnerable residents were forced to seek more expensive care.

Specifically, our audit report examined a 2012 decision by Alexander’s agency to cancel 36 state-based contracts to provide payroll services to those workers who provide long-term care for people with disabilities. Instead, Alexander’s agency awarded a single contract to Boston-based Public Partnerships Ltd. The mismanagement of the transition under Alexander’s leadership led to financial and emotional hardship for as many as 20,000 Pennsylvanians with disabilities and roughly an equal number of the health care workers who earn from $8 to $15 an hour to care for them.

It is from that experience, I can tell you firsthand how policies put in place under Alexander’s leadership cost our state millions of dollars and failed Pennsylvania’s children, seniors and people with disabilities.

I was shocked to hear the news that Gov. LePage had hired Alexander’s firm.

That’s why I’m urging the people of Maine to look at the Department of Public Welfare’s record while Alexander was in charge. I invite you to examine for yourself our independent audit of the consolidation contract his office mismanaged. The audit is available on my department’s website: www.auditorgen.state.pa.us.

Alexander served as secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Public Welfare for just two years. He came to us from Rhode Island and was touted as an efficiency expert who would save our state millions in Medicaid dollars. Instead, we experienced just the opposite.

For example, under Alexander’s leadership, 89,000 children were removed from our health care programs, and his agency’s mismanagement of the contract to pay home care workers could cost taxpayers as much as $7 million per year.

In November 2013, my department released the full results of our independent audit of the mismanagement of the home care worker contract during Alexander’s tenure. What we found should serve as a warning to Maine taxpayers and policymakers. The so-called “efficiency solution” implemented during Alexander’s time in Pennsylvania led to mismanagement of the contract transition. His agency’s failed oversight of the contract and lack of accountability resulted in thousands of our most vulnerable recipients selecting more expensive care.

Alexander’s agency awarded the contract to Public Partnerships Ltd. after essentially excluding all of the former vendors from applying, leading some potential bidders to complain of the unfair procurement process.

The private out-of-state contractor selected by Alexander’s agency was mired in controversy from the start. Even when the state provided $18 million in upfront payments to this contractor, the firm was still unable to ensure workers caring for our most vulnerable residents would be paid on time. The contractor got paid, the health care workers it was supposed to be taking care of did not.

When Alexander left Pennsylvania just halfway through Republican Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration, Bev Mackereth, a well-respected Republican former state lawmaker, was appointed to take Alexander’s place in February 2013.

Following our audit of the botched contract consolidation during Alexander’s tenure, Mackereth said, “We recognize and apologize for the hardships that occurred as a result of this transition to some caregivers, participants and their families.”

The audit results are clear, but we looked into only one aspect of the Department of Public Welfare’s operation under Alexander’s management. Today, our new public welfare secretary and Gov. Corbett seem to be backtracking on some of the policies initiated when Alexander was in charge.

The initiatives implemented during Alexander’s tenure were wrong for Pennsylvania. I sincerely hope the people of Maine don’t get hurt by the same problems.
— Eugene DePasquale- See more at: http://maineinsights.com/perma/pennsylvania-auditor-wants-maine-taxpayers-to-avoid-the-troubles-gary-alexander-caused-while-working-in-his-state#sthash.EhMwXEKc.dpuf

Mr. DePasquale's expert advice notwithstanding, my questions stand:  (1) is it legal for Governor LePage to issue a no bid contract with a $1 million price tag and (2) were revenues, gained from federal grants, Maine Care match and healthy workforce, evaluated in the foregone conclusion of the report?  

Thank you Maine Insights for publishing Mr. DePasquale's letter.

As for Mr. DePasquale's advice - he certainly has nothing to gain by giving Maine people the benefit of his experience with Gary Alexander.  I'd like to hear more about what happened in Pennsylvania - public hearing time?  Just my opinion.

"Medicaid Spring" - Broken Promises and Maine's Budget Cuts

Maine's Governor LePage and his administration supports cuts to the state's Medicaid program (MaineCare) by proposing to remove 65,000 people, in a state with only 1.3 million population, from coverage. Maine Care provides the money to care for low income, mentally ill, disabled and elderly people. The 65,000 people proposed to be cut are those who are single and receiving Maine Care benefits.

In other words, the cuts will include the seriously and persistently mentally ill living in rehabilitation group homes, the homeless, the severely disabled and elderly living alone. The cuts will also remove the thousands of jobs associated with care for these vulnerable populations.

Maine Care provider groups report that Governor LePage's cuts will affect every family and every community in Maine, putting at risk the public health, public safety and the state's economy, by pulling out millions of federal dollars needed to care for the beneficiaries.  These cuts will be shifted to stretched thin charity care systems and more expensive hospital care, or, the needy people will simply go without.

Governor LePage says more Maine people receive Maine Care than the number who file income tax.

Well, sure, Maine is a poor state and the oldest state in the nation.  People are poor and old.

But here's a better fact: removing 65,000 people from Maine Care, because they're categorized as single, with little regard for their status as frail elderly, seriously disabled or mentally ill, also cuts into a margin of voters who could be enough to swing the result of any Maine election (presuming, or course, they all vote).

Not identifying who these people are, but simply writing their numbers on a flip chart for newspaper photos or television cameras, helps reinforce the idea that they're not really human beings, but just numbers that soak up Maine Care dollars.

Maine Care beneficiaries are, tragically, the brunt of one budget cut after another, a situation that stereotypes the program as somehow being wasteful.  Every time the state needs to balance the budget, the legislators and administration zero in on the largest target they can focus on - Maine Care.  The program is now cut to the absolute minimum, any more will seriously impact the quality of the programs covered.

Beneficiaries of Maine Care, on the other hand, live in a state of fear that the next letter from the Department of Health and Human Services will be the one that removes them from the program.

Moreover, average people don't understand that state's aren't alone in paying the the cost of people on Medicaid.  Federal dollars match by $3-1 the cost of the program.  In other words, if shipbuilder Bath Iron Works asked Maine for $1 tax dollar to attract $3 federal to fund building a destroyer, what do you think the response would be?  Medicaid is the same, only the $1 state dollar is spent for the poor rather than to build a defense project.

So, I say, it's time for a Medicaid Spring.  With income disparity in the US and around the world driving political unrest, and with Time Magazine's person of the year being "the protester", then it's time people who are the brunt of stereotyping to respond with their own "Spring".

Medicaid beneficiaries should take up social networking and, most important, register to vote, to remove from office, the powerful people who write numbers on flip charts to show the media how much they know, without demonstrating compassion for the people behind the numbers.    

Particularly at risk in removing 65,000 Maine Care beneficiaries are the mentally ill, who work emotionally hard with their caregivers, in supportive residential treatment programs, to achieve a level of mental wellness.  Pulling the rug out from this population by removing their group home support systems is another boot to the mentally ill, who never realized the promises made to create safe community care systems post institutionalization. But, the mentally ill are voters who need to consider this electorate power very seriously. They are among the margin of voters who can make a collective difference in the next Maine election.

In America, the metaphoric equivalent of an "Arab Spring" occurs every time we hold an election.  For those who advocate to continue cutting Maine Care, the number 65,000 written on  a flip chart can be enough to Spring you out of office.