Once conservative, Maine goes woke
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back to the future again
Governor Mills Stymies Progressives As They Provoke Business Bobby On taxes, Labor Law
That makes it sound as if the Democrat governor is holding the line, but as usual, the devil is in the details.
Talks reached a key step on Tuesday, when the Legislature’s tax committee killed a ream of tax bills from both Democrats and Republicans, but endorsed a plan along party lines from Rep. Mike Sylvester, D-Portland, the committee’s co-chair, to place a 3 percent surcharge on income over $200,000 and funnel it toward Maine earned income tax credit.
The business lobby is most threatened by another Sylvester bill that would make Maine only the second state to end at-will employment, which was approved by Democrats in the labor committee a week ago. Peter Gore, a lobbyist for the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, called it his biggest concern of the 2021 session.
But Sylvester, a longtime labor organizer, said both bills are aimed at helping low-wage earners who kept Maine running during the pandemic.
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The state’s fiscal landscape has changed dramatically during the pandemic, from doomsday budget projections at the outset to a projected surplus of $940 million over the next two years buoyed by federal aid. Between now and June, lawmakers will deal with new plans from Mills to add hundreds of millions to the state budget— including historic increases to school and local aid — and spend more than $1 billion in federal aid.
Notice that that “$940 million surplus” is based entirely on the $1 billion in federal COVID relief”. When the handout ends, ao, too will the surplus, but the state will be committed to hundreds of millions of dollars in new social welfare programs. Hmmm.
What should be more concerning to residents of all states is the organization behind all this, Revolution Field Strategies. An internet search will turn up a local Boston-based Llc, but further Duckducking reveals that the group has established LLCs throughout the country: Augusta, Maine, Naples, FL, Nevada, California, Montana, and ao on. I became curious about this organization last summer when I saw that it was offering $35 per hour to “petition signature collectors” to work the streets of Portland, Maine and gather signatures of people opposing the construction of a hydroelectric power line bringing electricity from Canada, rent control, a rise in the minimum wage to unsustainable levels, a ban on B&Bs, and more.
What “non-profit” group can pay so much money? I wondered, and that’s when I discovered the national organization. I can find no articles investigating these people, but a national group setting up and presenting its branches as “local” LLCs raises my suspicion; when someone does get around to doing some digging, I won’t be surprised if George Soros’s name appears.
And they were certainly effective in Maine. College kids were brought in for the summer, housed, and paid $35 an hour to work the streets of Portland to get the liberal agenda on November’s ballot. Portland being as woke as any of the worst cities in New England, many of those items passed: a $22 minimum wage, rent control, “green” building code changes, and new homeless programs affecting (non) enforcement of laws governing same, and funding new shelters so as to draw still more new “residents” from northern Maine and Boston (Boston cops have long dealt with bums on their streets by loading them on buses and shipping them to Portland; look for that to increase).
If these people haven’t appeared in your town and at your door yet, watch out: they’re coming.
