Maine People Before Politics releases document detailing comments from citizens signing NoHospitalDebt.org petition

AUGUSTA – Maine People Before Politics is releasing a document detailing some comments Maine citizens have made as they signed the No Hospital Debt petition supporting the Governor’s plan to pay Maine’s hospital debt.

As Maine People Before Politics Board President Charlie Gaunce has said, “Our hospitals cannot treat the sick or create and sustain jobs while the state owes this large welfare debt. Governor LePage has put together a creative plan to pay our hospitals without any job-killing tax increases. His plan is solid. It is time for the Legislature to act. It is time to put people before politics.”

The document and sample comments  can be viewed here:

NoHospitalDebt.org Selected Petition Comments

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Maine People Before Politics airs statewide TV ad to support hospital payment plan

Also launches new website www.NoHospitalDebt.org

This morning, Maine People Before Politics began airing a statewide TV ad urging the State Legislature to take action to pay Maine’s hospitals in full, with no more IOUs.

The organization joins the editorial boards of two of Maine’s largest newspaper and other organizations in supporting Governor LePage’s common sense plan to have a transparent bidding process for a new state liquor contract and to use those funds to pay off the hospitals almost immediately.

The organization also launched a new website urging Maine people to sign a petition to have the plan passed.  The new website is:  www.NoHospitalDebt.org

Charlie Gaunce, President of the Board of Directors, issued the following statement:

“Governor LePage is right, it is an embarrassment for Maine to owe our hospitals nearly $500 million.  Successful businessmen and businesswomen understand that the bills have to be paid.  Our hospitals cannot treat the sick or create and sustain jobs while the state owes this large welfare debt.

Governor LePage has put together a creative and brilliant proposal that pays this welfare debt off in full, without any significant delays, by transparently putting the state’s liquor contract out to bid.  It pays our hospitals without any job-killing tax increases.  His plan is solid, which is why so many organizations and newspapers have endorsed it.  It is time for the Legislature to act and put his plan in place.  There is no need for delays.  It is time to put people before politics.”

The ad can be viewed here:  http://youtu.be/3UoPz_qtm_g

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To view Charlie Gaunce’s biography visit:  http://www.mainepeoplebeforepolitics.com/about/charles-gaunce/

• Calculate how tax cuts for Mainers who earn more than $250,000 per year caused the current $880 million structural gap. Maine Revenue Services says this cut amounts to only $5 million.

  Calculators must have special functionality to make $875+ million in spending disappear if it determines that the $880 million structural gap and the $5 million tax cut are not equal sums.
  

• Be capable of reading the minds of several thousand municipal elected officials and tens of thousands of local voters while calculating and predicting nearly infinite outcomes of municipal decision making in local budgets to confirm Maine’s Majority’s dubious claims of tax shifts.

  Calculators must not only be capable of reading the minds and predicting thousands of outcomes within a reasonable margin of error, but they must also continually track these decisions as they are being made and ensure that no municipality acts in a way that contradicts Maine’s Majority’s claims.
  

• Locate and appropriate nearly $200 million to pay down Maine’s share of hospital debt without impacting the state budget, and do so in a manner that enables liberal special interest groups to somehow ensure Mainers forget that the debt is a remnant of the Baldacci era.

  Calculators must be capable of doing complex calculations, appropriating funds that no Augusta lawmaker knows of and may be required to transport John Baldacci back to 2003 and assist him with making decisions to prevent the accrual of hospital debt. In lieu of time travel, calculators must be able to erase the memory of all Maine people who have been following media coverage of the hospital debt for years.
  

• Given that the new majority leadership in the Maine Legislature has refused virtually any spending cut during their time in the Legislature, the calculator must identify actual spending cuts that new Legislative majority leadership will agree with.

  Calculators must be capable of locating spending that is not in the state budget, but that is still spent from Maine government’s various funds. The calculator must also be capable of finding funds to pay-off union leadership, increase funding for dozens of special interest groups and give legislators a pay raise. The calculator is prohibited to identify any cuts in education, welfare programs and revenue sharing, as those have already been declared off limits by the new majority, despite the fact that this is where more than 80% of Maine’s money goes.

Interested parties should submit their detailed bids, with cover letter, to Maine People Before Politics at info@mainepeoplebeforepolitics.com

Bids will be accepted until EOB Monday, January 21^st 2013.

*Please note, NASA prototypes, props from the Back To The Future film series and any calculator used in the Obama administration do not qualify and will not be considered.

Governor LePage has just released his proposal for Maine’s upcoming two-year budget.

Maine’s two-year budget is usually the most important issue Maine’s Governor and the Legislature face in any legislative session.

The Governor’s Proposal:

• Preserves the tax cuts passed by the 125^th Maine Legislature and signed by the Governor.

• Protects Maine’s safety net for our most vulnerable citizens.

• Minimizes impact on state education funding by essentially funding education at the same level as the last budget. Technically, education funding increases, but because the budget also makes educator retirement a shared responsibility, the actual result is funding at the same level.

• Eliminates funding to lowest-value programs to save $30 million.
  Eliminates 200 positions in Maine state government.

• Modifies property tax programs such as Homestead and Circuit Breaker to focus on elderly Mainers living in their homes on fixed incomes.

• Increases funding by $2 million for individuals with mental health needs.

• Restructures Maine’s apprenticeship program to address Maine’s skills gap.

• Maintains higher education funding to protect access for students and ensure an educated workforce.

• Provides more than $2 million in incentives and startup funds to schools to encourage efficient delivery of services.

• Provides more than $13 million per year to improve accountability in Maine’s schools.

• Increases funding to Jobs for Maine’s Graduates to assist more than 5,000 students.

• Doubles the Homestead Exemption for elderly homeowners, resulting in property tax reductions for 85,000 elderly homeowners.

• Maintains Maine’s roads and infrastructure despite reduced federal funding.

• Reforms Maine’s welfare system to address more than $40 million in federal reductions.

• $4.2 million in additional funding for increase of children in foster care.

• Increases funding almost $7 million to moves 85 people with developmental disabilities and autism OFF waiting lists and INTO services.

• Eliminates cash-assistance to legal non-citizens who are not entitled to Social Security (SSI) Benefits.

• Increases care management for the 20 percent most expensive MaineCare members, saving $22 million.

• Increases funding for education accountability and evaluation programs; career & technical education; five-year high school/associate degree program; Aspirations program.

• Temporary elimination of municipal revenue sharing. 

Certainly the interest groups and politicians that believe in higher taxes to grow government to unsustainable and unaffordable levels will oppose many of these cost savings measures, so it is up to you to reach out to your elected officials and tell them you would rather have a state government that prioritizes spending and protects those in need than one that taxes-and-wastes with no regard to what it costs you.

Read the complete budget overview here.

Portland – After Governor Paul LePage won the 2010 gubernatorial election, journalist Colin Woodard unloaded a lengthy, and to be frank, innuendo laced report titled “LePage’s Secret Bankers” in which Woodard attacked LePage and repeatedly suggested that any contributor – whether to the Governor’s election campaign, or to any PAC that supported his election – had been promised a pay-off for their contribution.

Fast-forward to 2012. Angus King has won the 2012 U.S. Senate election in Maine and Woodard is covering the story.

Will Woodard cover the story in the same depth and tone he did LePage after the 2010 election?

The results are in, and the answer is: NO.

This piece is the result of Woodard’s work on Angus King.

A lengthy puff piece in which we learn that King had a nice lunch with Joe Biden, what book King is reading as he flies back and forth to D.C. and that he is purchasing furniture from IKEA because, despite the fact that King is a multi-millionaire, Woodard generously quotes him as saying to the IKEA salesman, “No, I’m just looking for stuff I can afford.”

Under the section titled Guns and Money in Woodard’s piece we learn that King is in favor of additional measures of gun control, but, in sharp contrast to the pieces Woodard did on LePage, Woodard does not tell readers that King was the benificiary of $1.75 Million in campaign spending by leading national gun control advocate Michael Bloomberg and his allies.

If, as Woodard said in his post-election 2010 piece on LePage, getting significant financial support from monied sources means a politician “now owes a considerable political debt” why does Woodard fail to ask King about the $1.75 Million in political donations from a gun control advocate & his allies that elected him? Read that story here.

In addition, why does Woodard fail to ask King about the posh fundraiser Bloomberg held for King at Bloomberg’s Manhattan home? Read that story here.

Worse, why does Woodard not even mention this mountain of financial support in the piece?

To answer the former, Woodard discloses in the article that he had a 2-hour interview with King, so we can rule out him not having time to ask King about the gun control lobby’s financial support of his campaign.

To answer the latter two, Woodard has demonstrated time and again that he has no problem finding campaign contribution information and political data, and the fundraiser was reported in the same paper Woodard is working for, so we know he could find all this if he looked.

Here is a thought: Maybe it has something to do with Woodard being hired to write for EnvisionMaine with Angus King overseeing his work as a member of their advisory council? Al Diamon wrote about that here. but Woodard, as MPBP has exposed in his other work at the Portland Press Herald, once again refuses to disclose to readers of the PPH that he has a cozy political relationship with a politician that he is covering.

We’ll close this report with these two pro-tips for journalists:

• Double-standards and coddling are a lot easier to get away with when they’re not this blatant.

• When you refuse to voluntarily disclose your political relationship with the politician you’re giving incredibly generous coverage to, the wounds to your professional reputation sting even more when they are finally exposed.

Opponents of the exemption are already taking a class warfare tact in demonizing anyone who owns an airplane as “costing” government money. It will be called a giveaway to the “rich” and those who believe tax policy should be enacted based on anger, envy and their vague definition of “fairness” will certainly have ample opportunity to be heard.

The Portland Press Herald has already kick-started the class warfare battle with the headline “LePage bill would give plane buyers a free ride”

While we will be treated to countless examples of this sort of emotion-based approach to tax policy, most Mainers will never hear the other side of the policy argument – that the creation of jobs and growth of the tax base will outweigh the so-called “cost” of the exemption.

The Portland Press Herald is reporting that the tax exemption will “cost” Maine state government $608,000 this year. Doesn’t sound like we’ve sold many airplanes across Maine if that’s all the sales tax we would expect to collect, does it?

Missing from the article is the economic growth and additional tax revenue the exemption has spurred.

The growth of just a couple of aviation companies that are now expanding demonstrates that much of that $608k will be offset by the growth of just two companies with the creation of 100+ new jobs.

C & L Aerospace in Bangor, a company that maintains and repairs aircraft, reports that they will be hiring 50-70 new employees as a result of the growth of their business.

Another, Portland based Maine Aviation Corp. is reported to be expanding from 60-100 employees.

Plus, both these projects come with additional capital investment & construction jobs to support the building of new facilities.

This is 100+ new jobs at just two employers.

Aircraft maintenance mechanics earn an average income of about $53,000 per year according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Roughly calculated, this would mean these 100 additional jobs from expansion at just two locations would equal $5.3 million in wages for Maine people.

$5.3 million in Maine-based wages that those workers would then pay state income tax (7.95%), sales tax on purchases (5%), excise tax, local property taxes and more, as well as the fact that those wages will pump a significant number of dollars into local economies, spurring even more growth.

Also, let’s not forget, those workers who would be hired would be paying into, rather than drawing, any benefits, such as unemployment, that they might be drawing now.

It’s hard to imagine a scenario where this type of economic expansion does not produce more revenue than the rather small amount of sales tax the state will not be collecting.

But don’t expect that to stop Maine’s political class-warfare warriors on the left.

Their attacks are seldom about what makes sense, what works, or what helps Maine’s economy and Mainers who want good jobs.

For them it’s all about creating an emotional argument, demanding fairness and turning Mainers against one another.

And because too many in Augusta and around the state have typically fallen for their dishonest tactics, we could well see an attempt in Augusta by the extreme left to stop this bill and kill good paying jobs so they can declare a victory for “fairness”, even if it means less money to state government in the end.

You can go here to contact your elected officials and tell them that you support good Maine jobs over the destructive class-warfare “fairness” of the extreme left that kills Maine jobs and then declares victory.

Would 2012 have ended any differently if the Maine media had done a better job covering these stories? Only the people of Maine can answer that question.

These are the MPBP Media Accountability Project’s Top 10 Least & Worst Covered Maine Political Stories Of 2012

#10 – Impact of Maine’s Debt Reduction Efforts

One of the landmark achievements of Governor LePage and the 125^th Maine Legislature was the elimination of 40%, or about $1.7 billion, in taxpayer debt to Maine’s public pension system.

This reform saved Maine taxpayers many millions of dollars in debt service payments each year and ensured Maine’s public pension system would remain solvent for state retirees into the future while protecting state funding to core services such as education.

Unfortunately, the Maine media paid little attention to the positive benefits of the reform on existing and future state budgets and the added security provided to state retirees from finally stabilizing our shaky pension system.

By and large, all that the average Maine person saw in the traditional Maine media about the pension reform was loud and angry protesters repeating canned talking points fed to them by liberal special interest groups.

#9 – OPEGA: Bad Behavior & Other Reports Receive Only Cursory Coverage

OPEGA, probably the single most trusted government oversight entity in Augusta, produced reports on several important investigations in 2012.

Detailed, fair, and non-partisan, these OPEGA reports offer insight into state government that can rarely be found anywhere else.

Unfortunately, and probably due to time and staff restraints more than any other single factor, the Maine media rarely dug deeper than reporting the simplest of conclusions from an OPEGA report.

A good example of how OPEGA reports should be covered is the Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting’s recent “Bad Behavior” series covering an OPEGA report on a decade of state government harassment and retaliation cases and settlements.

Maine’s traditional media would do well to emulate this type of in depth coverage of OPEGA’s work in the future.

Read MCPIR Bad Behavior Report

OPEGA Home Page

#8 – “Money In Maine Politics” Stories Mostly Hew To Liberal Narrative

Whether it was before or after the 2012 election, the liberal narrative that taxpayers should be forced to pay more for lawn signs, robo-calls and negative campaign attacks because it will somehow magically get “big” money out of politics was largely the same narrative delivered by Maine’s media.

Ignoring the reality that forcing taxpayers to fund all Maine political campaigns (even those they disagree with) would drive up the cost to hard-working Maine people, the real cost of Maine’s clean elections system was seldom if ever discussed in Maine’s media.

The perfect encapsulation of this is how the Portland Press Herald ran an “investigative report” on a donor to one PAC unconnected from the LePage campaign in 2010 on the premise that the donor had bought policy influence with the contribution, yet failed to publish any other such investigative reports on other big donors such as Maine’s largest political contributor and Press Herald owner, S. Donald Sussman, or the political spending of Maine’s unions.

In addition, watching Maine’s newspaper editorial pages blissfully rail against corporations expressing political opinions while they as corporations did exactly the same thing was a sight to behold.

Lesson learned from Maine’s newspaper editorial boards this year: Maine’s newspapers are fine with corporations expressing their political opinions and influencing public opinion, as long as only those corporations that are Maine newspapers are allowed to do so.

#7 – Maine Health Insurance Reform Produces Dramatic Results

The reforms to Maine’s health insurance industry spurred by LD 1333, which became PL 90, have resulted in significant reductions in the growth of health insurance premiums.

Affected health insurance premiums grew by only 1.7% in 2012, as opposed to their average growth of 12.8% from 1992-2012.

The Maine media, perhaps because of the complexity of the issue, and perhaps because the talking points attacking the reforms were ready-made, did very little in depth coverage of the reforms.

In lieu of detailed coverage, most Maine media outlets simply reiterated liberal opposition talking points and partisan reports that distorted the results of the reform.

#6 – Donald Sussman’s Influence At Maine Today Media

This is a topic rarely touched by other media outlets, and while anecdotal evidence has appeared that at least one person in the MTM newsroom harbors concerns about Sussman’s influence in his recently acquired media empire, most of Maine’s traditional media is unlikely to cover this potential story any deeper than they did in 2012, which was basically nothing.

An argument could be made that the editorial page and opinion columnists at MTM have already veered about as far left into the liberal wilderness as they possibly can, and there may be evidence that the newsroom presents substantially biased news on a regular basis, but the question that will remain until an intrepid journalist really decides to go after this story is, “Just how much influence does this billionaire hedge-fund manager, husband of Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, and largest political donor in Maine, S. Donald Sussman have over the day to day product MTM produces?”

#5 – Union Influence On Maine Elections & Public Policy

Let’s face it, Maine’s coalition of unions is the elephant in the room when it comes to elections and public policy. They spend huge sums of money supporting liberal Democrats, they help fund a vast coalition of groups that support their positions, they employ a virtual army of lobbyists in the Maine State House, and they generally get a pass on what many Mainers would see as an ‘outsized’ influence on Maine politics.

Aside from the occasional push-back when they go way over the line, as witnessed in this Bangor Daily News editorial, very little is reported about the actual workings and political influence of Maine’s unions.

Topics such as what role the MSEA and their allies had in selecting the new Speaker and Senate President following the 2012 election would be a good place to start.

A comprehensive analysis of how much money labor unions pumped into Maine elections and spent in lobbying over the past two years would also be appropriate.

And lest we not forget, a significant number of Maine state employees who have been paying dues for years would probably really like to know how much of their dues went to helping state workers vs. playing politics and lobbying social issues in the state house.

Maybe the Maine media can pull back the curtain and show the state employees whose milk and bread money continues to prop up their union’s political machines just how much bang for their buck they are getting.

#4 – The Impact Of Obamacare On Maine’s Economy

Regulations, taxes, small business penalties, Medicare changes, medical device manufacturers… These are just a few of the places that the implementation of Obamacare will impact Maine’s economy.

Yet, the Maine media has seldom covered them.

While it is true that the Supreme Court decision on Obamacare was covered in abundance by Maine’s media outlets, in hindsight the very real and now inescapable impacts of the sweeping government takeover of healthcare across Maine were not reported in a thorough way in 2012.

Here is to hoping that as more of the new taxes, penalties and regulations take effect, the Maine media gets out of the rut and reports on how they impact real people.

#3 – Congresswoman Chellie Pingree’s Financial Disclosure

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree’s first mandatory U.S. House of Representatives financial disclosure since marrying billionaire hedge-fund manager Donald Sussman would have presented an interesting and informative story to the Maine public had an enterprising journalist decided to give it a glance.

Instead, the disclosure was treated as an afterthought, and Pingree was allowed to escape one minor political dust-up over Chinese investments with what seemed to be a canned response from her spokesperson.

The financial disclosure, on file with the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives office offers the most complete picture yet of the investments of the financial empire that finances Pingree’s Congressional campaigns, the Maine Democratic party and a coalition of liberal special interest groups that have tremendous influence on politics and public policy in Maine.

#2 – Maine’s Tax Cuts Falsely Labeled As “Tax Cuts For The Rich”

The tax cuts enacted by the 125^th Maine Legislature and signed by Governor LePage got a lot of coverage, but not much of it accurate or positive.

Instead, the Maine press never really dug into the wealth of information available to them to report on the tax cuts accurately, instead accepting, or at least not letting reality get in the way of, the liberal narrative that they were simply gifts to the “rich.”

In fact, even when the PAC run by Senator Justin Alfond, who was an heir to part of the Alfond family fortune, attacked the tax cuts as “tax cuts for the rich” the Maine press gladly ran with the story, and conveniently failed to investigate why Alfond, who most people would consider “rich”, voted with Republicans for the tax cuts.

Alfond went on to become Maine Senate President in the 126^th Maine Legislature.

#1 – Maine Creates 6,800 Net New Jobs In 12 Months After Pro-Growth Reforms

As the pro-growth reforms of the 125^th Maine Legislature and Governor LePage took effect, an October 25^th report from Maine’s Consensus Economic Forecasting Commission and Maine Department of Labor showed that from June 2011 to June 2012, Maine had created 6,800 net new jobs.

Given that this report came in the stretch run of an election season where jobs and the policies of the Governor and the Republican-led 125^th Maine Legislature were the central point of debate, a rational person would have expected the Maine media to inform the public about it.

But they didn’t. Maine’s media – with one exception – ignored the report, choosing instead to deprive the Maine public of critical news they should have been told.

And there you have it. We hope you have enjoyed the MPBP Media Accountability Project’s 20 Least & Worst Covered Maine Political Stories Of 2012.

Read Part 1 of the 20 Least & Worst Covered Maine Political Stories of 2012

Would 2012 have ended any differently if the Maine media had done a better job covering these stories? Only the people of Maine can answer that question.

#20 – Portland Press Herald Botches Education & Campaign Finance Story

Number twenty on our list is how the Portland Press Herald botched an attempted attack on Governor LePage story on education and campaign finance. The story, which was at it’s core an attempt to weave a dark, conspiratorial tapestry around Maine’s virtual school policy soon devolved into an expose on the workings of Maine’s media.

Soon after publication, it was revealed that the wife of the investigative journalist who authored the report sat on the board of a charter school applicant competing with the applicants he attacked in the piece, as well as working for the political organization of failed 2010 gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler.

Adding to the appearance of severe conflicts of interest was the sloppy attempt by the investigative journalist to tie LePage to campaign contributions made to a PAC the LePage campaign had no control or knowledge of, and irresponsible claims of state “education policy” that did not yet even exist.

Read original piece

Read MPBP MAP Report

Read Commissioner Bowen’s Op-Ed Response

#19 – US Senate Candidate Cynthia Dill Uses Aurora Massacre To Raise Cash

In the wake of the Aurora theatre massacre in which 12 people were killed and 70 wounded, Maine’s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Cynthia Dill sent an email blast using the tragedy to raise money for her underperforming campaign.

While U.S. News & World Report picked up on the story, Maine’s media largely ignored it, in stark contrast to the way the Maine media generally covers less liberal politicians who are seen to say or do things that could be viewed as insensitive.

Read MPBP MAP Report

#18 – Welfare Reform Opponents Use Blatantly False Scare Tactics On Elderly, Media Plays Along

In attempting to obstruct structural reforms to Maine’s generous welfare programs, opponents of the Governor’s budget proposal crafted a false narrative that the proposal would eliminate PNMI funding and force Maine’s elderly residents onto the streets.

The truth was, as the Governor’s office and DHHS communicated repeatedly, that the existing PNMI funding structure needed to be reformed to comply with federal guidelines.

Despite being clearly informed and shown how the PNMI funding structure would be fixed, the press continued with the opposition narrative for many weeks, printing and covering the opposition talking points week after week without challenging their accuracy, thus convincing a large portion of their audience that the false narrative had merit.

#17 – Fmr Asst Democrat Leader Terry Hayes Speaks Out About Union Influence

The public would like to believe that when the former member of leadership of a political party speaks out against the unhealthy influence of any special interest group on their own political party, the media would cover it.

That was not the case when former House Assistant Minority Leader Terry Hayes of Buckfield spoke out about the influence of unions on the Maine Democratic party.

Despite the fact that numerous blunt and scathing quotes from Hayes were published by a guest columnist in Maine newspapers, to our knowledge not a single one of these outlets actually reported on the back story or dug into how much influence the unions actually bought with their massive financial support of Maine Democrats in the 2012 elections.

Read Sun Journal Op-Ed

Read Kennebec Journal Op-Ed

Read Maine Wire Column

#16 – “Renewable” Energy Talking Points Go Mostly Unchallenged In Maine Media

Number 16 on our list is actually a long-running problem. Throughout 2012 some Maine media outlets continued with the practice of printing the talking points of certain “renewable energy” interests unchallenged. MPBP exposed one of those such instances with this report, but the problem continues.

When covering certain government subsidized energy producers, the Maine media should ask for proof of such things as job creation claims, actual output, emerging technology, and the comparable subsidies received by various energy sectors. Not doing so is simply a failure of the Maine media.

Read MPBP MAP Report For Example

#15 – The Circulation Decline Of Maine’s Daily Newspapers

Hat tip to Al Diamon and his Media Mutt blog for this one.

Maine’s major daily newspapers faced dramatic declines in circulation once again in 2012, but you wouldn’t know it if you rely solely on Maine’s traditional media to inform you.

According to a Nov. 6 report by Diamon at Media Mutt the Portland Press Herald saw circulation decline about 11% to 46,371 in 2012, down from over 52k copies in 2011.

The Bangor Daily News also faced a significant, but smaller, decline. The Bangor Daily News reported circulation down about 7%, settling in with a circulation of 44,288 for weekday editions.

Also of note, the other Maine Today Media papers which joined the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram as part of the Sussman media empire in early 2012 also saw declines. The Kennebec Journal was down 9 percent and the Waterville Morning Sentinely reported circulation down 8 percent.

Without persistent media watch dogs like Diamon, the average Mainer might never have seen this story.

Read Al Diamon’s Media Mutt Piece

#14 – Obama Administration Sides With LePage On BPA

Looking back at 2011, what observer of Maine politics could forget the emotionally charged debate about BPA?

While Governor LePage and a handful of brave souls in the Maine Legislature insisted that they needed to see solid science to demonstrate the dangers of BPA before exposing the Maine public to what might potentially be an even worse replacement chemical after a ban of BPA, certain groups used their insistence on sound science to launch a noisy, emotion driven protest campaign which was covered from every angle by the Maine media.

Fast forward to March 2012, when the Obama administration announces that it will not ban BPA, citing the questionable nature of the studies used by these interest groups, and clearly demonstrating that it has found no evidence to back up the emotion driven claims of protest groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is also influential in Maine.

As might be expected, the Maine media’s response to the Obama administration saying essentially the same thing as the LePage administration was…drum roll please… silence.

Yes, in one of the most stunning about-face maneuvers in the history of the Maine media, President Obama got a free pass on BPA, while Governor LePage and a handful of state legislators got relentlessly attacked.

And to top it off, the Maine Democratic party and their allies attacked Republican incumbents who dared to side with President Obama on BPA, essentially telling voters they wanted to “poison” babies.

Of course, the Maine media didn’t bother to ask the Maine Democratic party if that meant President Obama wanted to “poison” babies as well.

#13 – Eliot Cutler’s Strange, Questionable Resignation From Americans Elect

Bizarre, strange, questionable and suspect are all words that could describe the fact that Eliot Cutler’s resignation from the board of Americans Elect was done in such a manner that an inquisitive press would have had scores of legitimate questions to ask.

One of those questions probably would have been: How could Cutler have possibly avoided violating laws prohibiting coordinated campaign expenditures while serving as Angus King’s U.S. Senate Campaign Chair and also serving on the Board of Americans Elect, an astro-turf, or rather, “grassroots” organization that was acting as a PAC to conduct independent expenditures to benefit King’s candidacy for Senate?

Another question might have been: Exactly when did Cutler resign his position on the Americans Elect board? Reports vary, with Americans Elect providing documentation that it may have been June 23, June 26 or October 5, 2012?

The answer to that question will reflect upon Cutler going forward, because each date of resignation has different implications for the legality of his actions with Americans Election and the King campaign.

Had the Maine media decided to cover this story in depth, the people of Maine might have some answers, but they don’t, because the story was largely overlooked while the Maine media covered the horse-race aspects of the U.S. Senate race.

Read AE Transparency Blog On This Topic

#12 – Maine’s Unemployment/Participation Rate Stronger Than National Economy

Maine’s unemployment rate consistently stayed below the national average in 2012, and when accounting for the fact that Maine has a higher participation rate than the national average, Maine’s unemployment rate looks more like 5.4% according to the Department of Labor.

While the Maine media covered Maine’s monthly unemployment rate, it seldom received any in-depth explanation or solid context. Also, details such as Maine’s higher participation rate were rare to non-existent in the Maine media throughout 2012.

#11 – State Rep. John Martin Gave $8,500 Taxpayer “Clean Elections” Dollars To His Own Business

The Maine Clean Elections System, a program that forces taxpayers to pay for lawn signs, bumper stickers and the political campaigns of Maine politicians is regularly cast in the most favorable of light by the Maine media. But in 2012, Maine’s “Clean Elections” system faced a potential blemish, along with Representative John Martin of Eagle Lake, when MPBP exposed that Martin had given $8,500 “clean elections” dollars to a now-bankrupt convenience store he co-owns.

As always, the Maine media was quick to inform the public on the taxpayer funded shenanigans of a long-time liberal politician, and completely ignored the story.

The Maine media was undeniably irresponsible and biased in not covering this story.

Read MPBP Report

Read Part 2 of the 20 Least & Worst Covered Maine Political Stories Of 2012

We cited the fact that the new Democratic majority in Augusta had tried to give three of their political allies $50k in pay raises, and the fact that the Portland City Council, controlled by Democrats, had voted to hand out $150k in raises to themselves, Portland Mayor Michael Brennan, the city manager and the city’s “non-union” employees.

This troubling news spurred us to launch an online petition demanding No Pay Raises For Politicians, to demand Maine politicians not vote to give themselves pay raises for the next two years. It quickly gathered more than 600 signatures from Maine people.

Now, ten days later, and just days before our nation goes off the “fiscal cliff” & hits our statutory debt ceiling, we have learned that President Obama, through an executive order, has handed out pay raises to all members of Congress, Vice President Biden and federal employees that will cost taxpayers $11 billion over the next ten years.

This is exactly what we were afraid of. It seems that these liberal politicians think the taxpayer’s money, even in incredibly difficult financial times, is there for them to use just to pad the pockets of their fellow politicians. We strongly disagree.

And while we can’t do much to hinder an executive order by a President who seems to be completely disconnected from the pain that average Americans are facing and the debacle he and Congress have created with the “fiscal cliff” – we can warn you that the new Democratic majority in Augusta is likely to try some shenanigans too.

As we previously reported to you, the Maine Democratic party’s platform demands “fair” pay for state legislators, and it wouldn’t be in their platform if they thought state legislators were already paid fairly.

So here is what we’re asking you to do:

If you haven’t already signed our No Pay Raises For Politicians petition, go here now, sign it, and ask your friends to sign it as well.

Please SHARE this page with your friends and family. Let’s make everyone we know aware of this issue. We have now seen not one or two, but three instances of Democrat politicians wanting to give out pay raises to themselves and their allies.

Instance number four is very likely to be in Augusta, where the new Democratic majority has already shown they are eager to take your hard-earned money and hand it out to their fellow politicians and friends & they have already written their demand for better pay into their party platform.

Sometimes it gets caught in the political spin machine. Sometimes it gets buried. Sometimes it gets ignored.

With that in mind, here are four pieces of good news about Maine’s economy you might have missed if you’re relying on Maine’s traditional media to tell you.

• Maine had a net increase of 6,800 jobs in just 12 months after passing pro-growth reforms. Click here.

• Maine’s average personal income growth outpaced the national average by 30% in the third quarter of 2012. Click here.

• Sales of existing homes in Maine surged again in November, up 23.6% over last year, and continuing their trend over this year in outpacing the national market. Click here.

• Maine’s unemployment rate dropped from 7.4% to 7.2% in November, and according to the Maine Dept. of Labor, almost 10,000 more Mainers are employed today than in January 2011, which was before any of the pro-growth reforms of the last two years could take effect. Click here.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

You now have some great news to share with friends and family as you gather this holiday season.