Mini documentary film about my candidacy

Opportunity Maine and Economic Development

If there's one issue I am passionate about, it's transforming Maine into a place where young people can obtain economic opportunity. I often hear folks I've met on the campaign trail say that Maine's environment is "anti-business" and that we need to do more to attract good paying jobs. I believe that it's time to shed that reputation and recognize how business-friendly Maine can be. We've got a wonderful quality of life, a low crime rate, beautiful scenery, and great geographic resources like deep water ports which are ideal for transport.

Rob Brown, the executive director of Opportunity Maine, recently co-wrote an editorial which outlines a wonderful plan to get Maine on the right economic track. As some of you may know, Opportunity Maine is a program which allows those who earn an associate or a bachelor's degree at a Maine school to be reimbursed for education loan payments through a state income tax credit during any year in which they continue to live, work and pay taxes here after graduation.

Programs to guide Mainers to self-sufficiency

A new joint effort focuses on meeting high-wage employers' needs by helping low-income workers develop their skills.
By ROB BROWN and AUTA MAIN

The days when a high school diploma assured a good job for life are long gone. Like most growing industries, even Maine's manufacturing sector now frequently require education well beyond high school just to get in the door, let alone advance up the career -- and income -- ladder.

To make better jobs available to more Maine people, we must better align educational programs that should be ladders from poverty to self-sufficiency.

To that end, Maine's Department of Labor and Opportunity Maine are working together to promote a more comprehensive vision of work force and economic development that will improve business growth, create good jobs and raise incomes in Maine.

Maine has the lowest incomes and the lowest rate of degree attainment of all the New England states. We have a surplus of low-skilled workers and a shortage of middle- to high-skilled workers, leaving many businesses struggling to grow.

For the sake of our economy, common sense dictates that we invest in developing the ability of those low-income workers to gain the skills needed to meet this shortage.

Recent business surveys bear this out. For the National Association of Manufacturers, 90 percent of respondents indicated a moderate to severe shortage of skilled employees.

For the Maine Development Foundation, 42 percent of respondents ranked "educated work force" as their No. 1 need, ahead of other concerns such as taxes, transportation or utility costs.

Furthermore, Phillip Trostel, a research economist at the University of Maine's Margaret Chase Smith Center and School of Economics, has demonstrated that the states with the highest percentage of degree-earners also have jobs that pay the highest salaries. High-wage employers in need of high-skilled workers are not going to locate in a state with a work force like ours.

To improve the composition of our economy, we need to change the composition of our work force. We must invest in educational opportunity. Any economic strategy for Maine that does not have coordinated investments in the skills and capacities of our work force at its core is not sustainable and would not be likely to succeed.

Recognizing this fact, Maine recently passed two innovative laws aimed at increasing access to higher education and developing the state's work force:

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My opponent and off-shore drilling

In a recent editorial in the Camden Herald, my opponent endorsed John McCain's plan to lift regulations on off-shore oil drilling. In his piece, Dr. Walker writes:

I remember a time when America's unions were fighting the outsourcing of American's manufacturing jobs by promoting the "Made in America" label. I thought that was a good idea. I think they should have used their platform last month to promote using oil that is "made in America," too.

While I whole-heartedly agree that the US needs to do everything it can to make our country energy independent, I have not seen one shred of proof to suggest that big oil companies will keep the oil in the United States and not sell it to the highest bidder on the open market if they are allowed to drill in environmentally protected areas. There is also no credible evidence to suggest that lifting the ban will bring the price of gas down. The only people who will benefit are the shareholders and CEOs of the Big Oil companies that have already enjoyed record profits during my opponent's party's national reign of the past eight years.

Although the issue of peak oil is one of my big concerns, the problem right now is not a shortage of oil. What we have now is an enormous demand for the black stuff from developing countries which pretty much ensures that the price of oil will not significantly go down - EVER. I've talked to folks on the campaign trail who have expressed their support for drilling in environmentally protected areas with the stipulation that the oil STAYS IN AMERICA. However, what I always have to ask is this:

Given the amount of power and excess our federal government has granted to big business, what makes you think it would enforce any effective regulation that would force the oil companies to comply with this proposal?

In a response to Dr. Walker's editorial, Jerry Call of Midcoast Healthcare Reform recently wrote:

Peter Drucker, a famous business consultant who aided in the creation of the automobile industry and General Motors in particular, once said, “The problem with the railroads was that they thought they were in the “railroad” business. They would be just as strong today if they had only realized they were in the transportation business.” Likewise, the oil industry needs to realize (for themselves and their stock holders) that they are in the “ENERGY” business and get with the renewable program. Just imagine if that one oil company that proudly proclaimed they had spent $41 Billion last year on oil exploration and research, had instead said that they had spent that money on developing a wind or solar farm like the one oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens has built.

I’m not anti business; I’m anti status quo when it is a clear detriment to America’s future.

Food for thought. Instead of "made in [insert nation of origin] oil," which has brought us war, global warming, and our current energy crisis, why not have "made in Maine renewable energy?" It's there and it's waiting for us to harness it. It's time for us to elect folks who have the courage to stand up to big money interests and invest in our future. Our addiction to fossil fuels is not going to be cured through off-shore drilling. We need to invest in renewable energy and we need to do it now.

Listen to Angus King's May 23 speech at Bowdoin College entitled "The Saudi Arabia of Wind: Confronting Maine's Energy Catastrophe" and you'll see what I mean.