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Dean Staffieri is the president of MSEA-SEIU Native 1989.
5 years in the past this month, Maine state authorities got here grinding to a halt.
Company places of work closed their doorways. Unemployment insurance coverage was delayed. Development initiatives had been placed on maintain.
Hundreds of employees who usually can be getting ready to rejoice with their households on July 4th weekend as a substitute had been furloughed. Their lives and livelihoods had been thrown into turmoil as uncertainty mounted about when their subsequent paycheck would come.
The shutdown that precipitated this mess was the end result of a months-long struggle over the 2017 state funds. Whereas fingers might be pointed at many for the failed negotiations, there was one man who I imagine was most accountable for the debacle — former Gov. Paul LePage.
From the start of the negotiation course of that yr, LePage appeared intent on forcing a struggle. He led off by proposing a two-year funds riddled with cuts that might have slashed very important state providers, put state workers out of labor, and devastated communities throughout the state.
As soon as the Democrat-controlled Home and Republican-controlled Senate started to barter over their very own, extra affordable, funds proposals, LePage started to inject chaos and made a sequence of ever-shifting calls for that made it unclear what he would assist.
Lastly, because the deadline loomed, LePage delivered the ultimate blow throughout what was described as an “aggressive” confrontation throughout a gathering with legislative leaders on the governor’s residence, forcing the federal government right into a shutdown.
LePage’s gridlock in Augusta, brought on by fanning the flames of partisan rancor, was nothing new. Time after time throughout his eight years in workplace, LePage sowed chaos and dysfunction by preventing with Democrats, Republicans, and Mainers of all stripes, as a substitute of truly fixing issues.
He vetoed extra payments than all Maine governors since 1917 mixed. One session, he vetoed each invoice sponsored by a Democrat out of pure spite after he did not get his method on a tax subject.
He repeatedly fought with courts, federal businesses, and coverage advocates to cease the implementation of bipartisan insurance policies like Medicaid enlargement, which has since offered greater than 90,000 Maine individuals with well being care.
He even went to conflict along with his personal celebration, drawing criticism for inflicting dysfunction and campaigning towards GOP management.
This combative and chaotic method didn’t simply trigger complications for legislators in Augusta — it has lasting unfavourable results on individuals throughout the state. By the tip of his two phrases, LePage’s negligent management had precipitated Maine to lose out on nearly $2 billion in federal funds, held our financial system again, and compelled tens of hundreds of Mainers to go with out well being care.
The chaos that LePage sowed ensured that nearly any successor would have been an enchancment.
Gov. Janet Mills has not simply met this admittedly low bar, however has offered the courageous, compassionate management that Maine individuals deserve. Up to now three years, Augusta has as soon as once more turn out to be a spot the place Republicans, Democrats, and independents can come collectively with out worrying that the governor will derail compromise.
Because of this, legislators have scored some massive, bipartisan victories for Maine individuals, together with laws to struggle local weather change, alleviate the housing crunch, and assist the state’s financial system get well from COVID-19. And as a substitute of getting protracted fights over the funds, Mills has now signed two bipartisan budgets into legislation.
Sadly, LePage’s makes an attempt to gum up the works and bathroom Maine down in partisan bickering aren’t fairly over. This yr he’s campaigning to take again his previous workplace, and already he’s utilizing smear techniques towards Mills and preventing with members of each events over bipartisan insurance policies. There’s little doubt that if he wins, he’ll pull Maine backwards to the chaos and dysfunction that precipitated the federal government shutdown of 2017. We are able to’t let that occur.
