John MacDonald w/ Jon McKane - 1/29/11 Podcast -

http://560wgan.com/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=5142804

House Republican Office

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                      For more information:

December 21, 2010                                                                         Jay Finegan, 287-1445

Rep. McKane Named Co-chair of ‘Red Tape’ Committee

AUGUSTA – State Rep. Jonathan McKane has been appointed co-chair of a new, 15-member select committee created to study Maine’s regulatory system and propose changes to help improve the state’s business environment.

The panel, formally named the Committee on Regulatory Fairness and Reform, will work in concert with Governor-elect Paul LePage to draft legislation and bring their proposals before the Legislature.

The Senate co-chair is Sen. Jon Courtney (R-York County), recently elected as the Senate Majority Leader. Nine Republicans and six Democrats have been appointed to the committee by House Speaker Bob Nutting and Senate President Kevin Raye.

Rep. McKane (R-Newcastle), now in his fourth term in the Maine House, said the effort to root out damaging regulations is “a great opportunity to shift power away from the bureaucracy and put the people and businesses of this state back in charge. Some regulations are rational and serve a purpose, but too many are counterproductive. We should apply a cost-benefit analysis and determine the changes that make sense.”

The committee’s approach to its work is still under discussion, but the panel is expected to hold public hearings outside Augusta at perhaps five or six geographically dispersed sites around the state.

Rep. McKane has served on the Marine Resources and the Insurance and Financial Services committees during his time in office. He said those experiences and his own work have convinced him that regulatory excess is blocking job growth and contributing to Maine’s economic torpor.

“As an independent electrical contractor, I work with other contractors and small businesses on a daily basis,” he said. “I have been listening to stories about heavy-handed bureaucracy for years. More often than not, the problem is not the actual law but the interpretation and overzealous rulemaking by regulators. The enforcement that follows can spell doom to a small business. We can’t afford to needlessly punish and harass employers; not when we are in dire need of more jobs.”

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The Portland Press Herald Thanksgiving Day editorial:

Our View: We can be thankful for Baldacci's tax stance
Holding the line on spending has positioned the state well for economic growth.

Gov. Baldacci now can leave office knowing he has set the stage for an economic resurgence in the state he served diligently and effectively for eight years.

http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/we-can-be-thankful-for-baldaccis-tax-...

My response:

Another View: If Maine has hope of recovery, Baldacci had nothing to do with it ( author’s note – This is the PPH’s title – not mine)

Crediting a person with prudence who boosted spending and unfunded obligations is wrong.

The Press Herald's editorial on Thanksgiving Day, "We can be thankful for Baldacci's tax stance," was almost comical in its distorted picture of Maine's reality.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

State Rep. Jonathan McKane is a Republican who resides in Newcastle.

I believe in giving credit where credit is due, but to say that the governor "has set the stage for an economic resurgence" and that "Holding the line on spending has positioned the state well for economic growth" is beyond out-of-touch -- it's surrealistic.

Let's come back to earth.

According to the state fiscal office, total state spending is up more than $2 billion since 2001.

And spending on state employees has increased by $200 million (even though we supposedly cut 1,000 positions).

Because of the reckless expansion of MaineCare, we now owe our hospitals more than $400 million.

We have an unfunded pension debt in the billions and a budget structural gap that is now (only) $840 million.

During the Baldacci years, ,Mainers have endured over $1 billion in new taxes and fees, dramatic state spending shifts to property taxes, a Dirigo Health tax on all health insurance claims, a beer, wine, soda and health claims tax (repealed by a people's veto) and a "tax reform" bill that expanded the sales tax to over 100 new items (also repealed by a people's veto).

We have become the most welfare-dependent state in the country, we are one of only three states whose population is actually dropping, and our health care and health insurance costs are among the highest in the country.

This is not "being positioned for economic growth."

The misguided and painful tax-and-spend policy decisions made over the last eight years are helpful to economic growth only in dreamland.

Maine's future economic success will be in spite of those decisions, not because of them.

http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/editorials/if-maine-has-hope-of-recov...

Commissioner of DAFS Ellen Schneiter's  response:

nother View: Lawmaker's column smacked of campaign rhetoric
Rep. McKane stuck to partisan distortions when the time has come to govern.

The Another View piece by Rep. Jonathan McKane, R-Newcastle, on Dec. 4 was filled with the same type of distortions we expect during a campaign, only now it's trickling into the holidays.

http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/editorials/lawmakers-column-smacked-o...

Earl Inman’s response:

Maine's commissioner of Administrative and Financial Services, Ellen Schneiter, was unnecessarily harsh in her admonition of Rep. Jonathan McKane in a recent "Another View" column.

A state employee in her position needs to listen to all sides. And in criticizing McKane for "partisan distortions," she ends up defensively parroting partisan talking points.

McKane's column, written in response to the paper's Thanksgiving editorial that suggested Mainers be thankful for Gov. Baldacci's "hard line on taxes," told the other side of the story -- Maine's taxes, fees and spending have, in fact, increased dramatically over Baldacci's tenure. Mainers and particularly small-business owners know this is true.

Coupled with our hospital and pension debts, our stifling regulations, and our skyrocketing health insurance and energy costs, this spending has left us, according to Forbes magazine, with the worst business environment in the country -- dead last at No. 50. It has also left us, according to the Maine Heritage Policy Center, as the most welfare-dependent state.

Despite this dismal record, The Press Herald, however, said we were "positioned well for economic growth." McKane was right to call them on it. Commissioner Schneiter should, of all people, understand the dire economic condition Maine is in.

If she doesn't, we are in worse shape than I thought.

Earl W. Inman

Round Pond

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