Well, with the coronation of King Paul set for January 5th, it seems only fitting that we should take a moment to pay homage to the leaving Lord of Maine, John Baldacci. Our 73rd governor of Maine. Lord John was born in Bangor, Maine, January 30th, 1955. He began his political career at the ripe age of 23, when, he was elected to the city council of Bangor. Lord John went on to serve in the state senate and the congress, before taking the Blaine House in 2002. His career in politics spans 32 years.
Now it appears he will head off into the shadow of old Lord Angus and practice the art of Renewable energy. Lord Baldacci has hatched a plan with brother Bob, to start chasing the wind and water for dollars. Lord Angus King, our 72nd govenor is already out there on the wind and water line. Something tells me insiders must have a sure thing on the renewable energy front. Oh, that's right they write the legislation. Must be nice to make the connections and the laws, and then go make the money.
When Lord Baldacci took over the State of Maine, we had a Budget gap of $1.2 billion and now we have a budget gap of $840 million with $50 million in reserves. Under Lord John, The state created Dirigo, not the motto, the health insurance program. Dirigo at its best had 15,000 clients though it was hoped to insure 150,000. Turns out, Dirigo "led the way" to expensive. He also started school consolidation. The original layout was to reduce the number of school districts to 26 from the startling number of 290. While there has been some progress and some painful savings, the number of school administration districts is only down to 179. Lord John also started a program for the free riding businesses of Maine, The Pine Tree Zones, where economically depressed areas of the state are labeled and any business willing to relocate, or start business gets large tax breaks. The numbers on this program are: 309 companies in the zones, 219 of them are manufacturing businesses and the total employment is 8,209 people. The payroll totals: $341 million. It was a start, to something, I think it's called corporate welfare, but who am I. When we give tax breaks to business, we the people of Maine, have to pay the infrastructure costs. Our Department of Transportation is $270 million short in their budget for next year. Any corporate donations would be greatly appreciated.
The one thing Lord Baldacci tried to do that I have not mentioned is ram same sex marriage down the back door of Augusta. The people voted, said no. Created civil unions. Not enough. So, without a court order to do so Lord John just goes ahead and signs legislation to legalize same sex marriage. While it might have been a legacy move, you know leave them with something to remember me by, it did not go over well. Remember John? The people stood up and stopped it with petition, referendum, and ballot. Although we voted down the Turnpike widening, many times, and somehow they did it anyway. All things being what they are, John Elias Baldacci, has been a good govenor for the State of Maine. He was dealt a bad hand from the start, yet he never raised taxes. He is leaving the State in a better condition fiscally than he found it. I'm sure he'd like to say your welcome King Paul. But he won't.
So, as you sunset your political career, and settle down as Lord John, of renewable electric, think fondly of your days, know that you did your best. Thank you John Elias Baldacci.
P.S. please leave Paul a primer, or at least a sticky note. For deconstruction is about to commence in blind fashion. Everyone will be working soon, but for $6.50 an hour, a half hour lunch, no overtime and medicare insurance, with no corporate taxes, just you wait and see.
No comments:
Post a Comment