Author: Terry Brown

While Maine voters were out rejecting a plan for “Universal Home Care” on Election Day last week, the left-wing activist organization which spearheaded it, the Maine People’s Alliance, was out collecting signatures for its next policy disaster: mandatory earned paid sick leave for all workers and businesses in Maine. Like most progressive ideas, this proposal would hurt many of the people it proposes to help. How many workers will be laid off in order for businesses finance this utopian folly? We at the Maine Heritage Policy Center (MHPC) are not wasting any time finding out. We are researching the language to find…

Question 1 promises a false sense of security that is destined to fail Maine’s elderly, disabled and those who care for them. Mainers have a right to care for their families without government interference. Never mind the devastating economic impact that the Maine State Economist has projected this program would have, or the federal privacy laws that will be violated by the terms of the new program. Why should the grown children of elderly and disabled Mainers who care for their parents in their own homes have to become state employees and pay fees to a labor union in order…

Over $400,000 of Soros money helped put the Universal Home Care initiative on Maine’s ballot in November. Question 1 proposes three new taxes to fund a Universal Home Care program. The commissioner of the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services detailed the negative economic impact of the proposal in an article in the Bangor Daily News on September 10. This proposal would be financed by the largest tax increase in Maine history ($310 million as determined by the nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Program Review).  The new taxes would disproportionately penalize married couples. Mainers would lose up to $2 billion in personal income from 2019 to 2023, and the state’s population and…

Proponents of the Universal Home Care tax plan were either caught by surprise or caught red-handed when the Maine State Economist at the Department of Administrative and Financial Affairs released a detailed and devastating analysis of the proposal. Those of us who have been wary of the disingenuous claims made by the initiative’s proponents were not surprised to hear the economist found the proposal would have a calamitous impact on Maine’s economy. The analysis found that the enactment of Question 1 would be detrimental to Maine’s economy. Over the next five years, the proposal would substantially reduce Maine’s population, overall…

When Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap was accepting public comment on the ballot language for the upcoming “Universal Home Care” (UHC) referendum between May 16 to June 16, roughly half of the comments came from people who were mobilized by The Maine Heritage Policy Center. Organizations like MHPC often reach out to their supporters to educate them about the impact of these ballot questions, and it is a positive sign that so many citizens weighed in on the language. In this case, MHPC mobilized citizens to encourage the Secretary of State’s office clear up confusion about how many new…

On Thursday, May 10 in Westbrook, a very unusual thing happened.  Thirty students of diverse backgrounds and political perspectives from seven Maine high schools came together to discuss some of the most emotionally-charged political topics of our time:  race, gun policy, education, and drug policy. They were joined on stage by nine gubernatorial candidates and a few very experienced facilitators. In the audience were dozens more students, parents, educators and public servants. The students led the conversation. They explained to the rest of us how they spent the past few months meeting to discuss these very challenging topics, about which…