Author: Beth O'Connor

In addition to the ill feelings I shared yesterday regarding the reprehensible partisan behavior exhibited by House leadership this session, I was also appalled by the routine abandonment of Joint Rule 304. This rule determines procedure at the beginning of each legislative biennium. Joint Rule 304 reads: “At the beginning of each legislative biennium, the presiding officers shall establish procedures that govern public hearings, work sessions and confirmation hearings. Once established, copies of the procedures must be sent to the committees, the Secretary of the Senate, the Clerk of the House and the Executive Director of the Legislative Council. A…

Have you ever wondered what government officials do all day? I am going to do my best to answer that question because I am from government and I am really here to help. I am just finishing my third term serving as a member of the House of Representatives. During my time, I have served under three different House Speakers. The first was Bob Nutting, the second Mark Eves and the third Sara Gideon. The Speaker of the House controls the House Calendar and all of the scheduling for the House. The first two speakers I served under had a…

On Thursday, Jan. 11 the Joint Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology met for a public hearing on yet another solar bill – one that was nearly identical to a bill we just killed a few months ago in the first session. Now I suspected this public hearing could get contentious, however never in my wildest imagination did I think it could rise above the level of the D.C. swamp. It started off suspiciously when we learned that the Senate President and House Speaker granted permission for this hearing to take place even though there would be no Senator…

Once again, it seems that the debate on the value of harnessing sunshine via innovative lobbying techniques and crafty policy to save the planet is abundant in the halls of Augusta. The issue has certainly loaded up my email inbox. What I did notice about that mail was the clear majority came from the same server. My assumption is it originated from one of those special interest groups who are paid to scare me into voting in their favor on an issue they may profit from. In all honesty, I really wanted to help and deliver solar policy that allowed…

Question 4 is a bad idea for many reasons. I find it highly unlikely that the individuals who gathered signatures to get this job killing proposition on the ballot in November had an inkling of the damage this referendum would cause and the economic distress it will place on restaurants in Maine, from Kittery to Caribou and everywhere in between. Besides my personal opinion that business owners, not government should set wages, I find it very distasteful that the same group of individuals who pushed this initiative, the Maine People’s Alliance, do not pay their own employees what they deem…

Yesterday afternoon, on orders from Democrat party chairman Phil Bartlett, all Republican house representatives began getting calls to ask Governor LePage to resign. I answered the phone many times thinking it may be the carpet man with my estimates. I wrote down town of residence and party affiliations. Not one call was from House District 5 that I represent and not one call was a Republican, most were Democrats. Many of the individuals were a pleasure to speak with. There were two that raised their voices when I disagreed with their assessments and they did not want to hear mine.…

CONTROL: To exercise authoritative or dominating influence over others. To regulate. Question 3 on the 2016 ballot asks, “Do you want to require background checks prior to the sale or transfer of firearms between individuals not licensed as firearms dealers, with failure to do so punishable by law, and with some exceptions for family members, hunting, self-defense, lawful competitions and shooting range activity?” The phrasing of this question sounds about as innocuous as white on rice, until you read the legislation. What Question 3 would do is make criminals out of law-abiding citizens and strip you of your inalienable rights.…

I am not accustomed to feeling distraught, but listening to the media lately regarding the recent police officer murders in Dallas, TX has me not only distraught, but disgusted. Why anyone would choose to deliberately murder another human is beyond me. That any human would celebrate the taking of a life is incomprehensible. Statistically speaking, violent crime in the United States has been on a decline, and that is a good thing. However, the ever growing social media and technology available at our fingertips continuously floods us with information that isn’t always correct and can be misleading. From 2011 to…

Recently I received a candidate questionnaire from the Sierra Club, a left-leaning organization with interests in energy and environmental policy. When I sat down to fill it out, I couldn’t get past the first question. “Q1: The Sierra Club believes that our nation’s strong democratic traditions are essential to protecting our environment from well-funded special interests. Do you support Maine’s Clean Election law, and its full funding and implementation? *” I thought about that for a fleeting moment and simply wrote “no.” The little angel on my shoulder nudged at me and insisted that “no” was too blunt and could…

I have lived in Maine for sixteen years. When I first moved here, I learned of the referendum process, also called Citizen Initiatives, and have used the process to try and shape a more prosperous Maine through grassroots efforts. After observing the last few election cycles, I am beginning to think that perhaps the referendum process has become a free-for-all with many well-healed activists from out of state trying to infringe on the Maine people, who at times can be generous to a fault and even sometimes misled by the creative advertising and deep pockets of those from away. These…

A cone was excavated by the French at the site of ancient Lagash, a prehistoric city located in Mesopo­tamia. The messages on the cone were etched with a reed stylus on soft clay by Sumerians during the third mil­lennium B.C. This cone is now displayed at the Louvre Museum in France. The words inscribed on that cone are “freedom from taxes.” The nature of taxation thus revealed itself at the very dawn of history, and the early disclosure on the cone confirms that “taxes are easy to increase but almost impossible to decrease,” bringing me to a referendum question that leaves…

It is an honor to pay tribute to those men and women who have served in our armed forces in the past and those serving now. On this holiday, we join together to express our gratitude to those who returned home safely from their tour of duty to live the remainder of their lives as nature ordained. But it is with heavy hearts that we honor those individuals who have fallen in the line of duty. The greatest tribute that we can pay to them and their Gold Star parents is to apply to our own lives the strong faith…

When thinking about ethanol, I am reminded of a song my children listened to in the 90’s sang by Kermit the Frog, “It ain’t easy being green.” Selling corn ethanol as a fuel additive makes being green impossible, never mind not easy. The only thing “green” about the ethanol Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is the billions of green it takes from taxpayers and consumers to fund politicians, who pass the green to corporate giants, who then return some of that green as campaign contributions to get those politicians re-elected, and the beat goes on. Did you know that corn-based ethanol…

I requested (actually, I begged) to serve on Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee, because I know that every single household and business is effected by high energy costs in Maine and I wanted to have the opportunity, at minimum, to contain costs. But more so, I wanted to promote effective policy that would lower our overall electric burden. Much to my dismay, I am pretty sure that your electric rates are not going to decrease any time in the near future and I am certain that some people will benefit at the expense of others for a long time. Over…

Through my service on the Energy, Utilities and Technology (EUT) Committee in Maine, I have ascertained that the reason for Maine’s high energy costs stem from the actions, and in some cases inactions, of the work from that committee as well as the well-paid suits that have frequented it for decades. There were some good things we accomplished in the 127th. You, gentle reader, will have clean water to drink and the “Dig Safe” law is there making sure nothing leaks or explodes when companies lay pipes and wire! Those were easy choices with common-sense solutions, and it was a…

For the life of me I can’t understand why anyone would have the mentality to impose a citizens referendum question in Maine that is in antithetical to our state motto “VACATIONLAND.” The referendum to increase the state minimum wage would virtually crush the restaurant industry in our beautiful state, and lay a world of financial hurt on our nursing homes and private non-medical institutions (PNMI’s) by artificially inflating wages to a point that is unsustainable; so unsustainable that many will shut their doors. I have seen firsthand through experience dealing with Maine Peoples Alliance (MPA), the culprits for this economic folly, that…