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Issues
Too many Mainers are out of work
and I believe there are many more creative and effective ways that our
government can encourage people to get back to work - methods that are
either not being pursued aggressively enough, or not being pursued at
all. I recently submitted a bill entitled "An Act to Establish the
Maine Back to Work
Program" to encourage Mainers to
get back into the workforce by incentivizing the hiring of additional
employees. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much
more that we can do in order to show Maine businesses and workers that
Augusta is interested in their well being. With the right bi-partisan
leadership and the ability to look beyond our borders to other states we
should be able to come up with a series of comprehensive initiatives
that will successfully return unemployed Mainers back to the workplace,
and encourage the creation of sustainable, good-wage jobs in our State.
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Reduce the Price of Health
Insurance
Past attempts at government
solutions have been well-intentioned but have driven up the cost of
health insurance and failed to help insure more Mainers. I believe
that fewer
regulations and less taxes would result in more insurance companies doing
business in Maine, creating more competition within the marketplace and
resulting in lower prices for all of us.
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End Automatic Gas Tax Increases
Each Year, Maine's gas tax
automatically increases. In these times of high fuel prices, this
is unacceptable. I will put a stop to automatic gas tax increases
and demand a vote of the whole legislature on any tax increase.
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Innovative Energy, Boost Our
Economy
Maine's natural resources put us in
a unique position to become a leader in alternative energy research and
development. Augusta must lead the way in making alternative
energy possible and affordable in our state - and it
MUST be cost effective.
So many options are available and if we can think outside of the box and
do away with the not-in-my-backyard attitude we will find ourselves
among the leaders in low-cost energy and energy independence.
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