DEMS TO LEPAGE: RELEASE BONDS TODAY
Release Jobs Bonds, Stop Manufacturing Crisis
Augusta, Me. — Top Democratic leaders in the Maine Legislature are calling on Governor Paul LePage to release the jobs bonds he reneged on 22 days ago.
“It’s a bit of deja vu. Governor LePage is creating another manufactured crisis for Maine people and our economy,” said Senate President Justin Alfond of Portland. “At a time when construction workers are facing double digit unemployment and we are weeks away from shovels digging in to the ground, the governor is using Maine workers as pawns in his political game. He needs to release the bonds.”
More than $30 million in voter-approved bonds have been authorized by the Governor already, while millions are still waiting to be released.
“Once again Governor Paul LePage is holding up voter-approved bonds that will help our economy and our people,” said Speaker of the House Mark Eves. “There is no reason why he can’t release the bonds today. And he should. We can’t have such erratic behavior driving millions of dollars of business activity in our state.”
If the Governor does not release the jobs bonds, summer construction projects will be held up, according to the Governor’s own Finance Commissioner Sawin Millett.
“The governor says we should go to the voters on issues that matter. ‘Let’s ask Maine’s hardworking taxpayers,’ he says. If he truly cares what voters want to do about the economy, we can expect him to release the voter-approved bonds that would create jobs right now,” said House Majority Leader Seth Berry of Bowdoinham.
Governor LePage originally agreed to release the bonds in June. At the time, the state’s budget stabilization fund contained $17 million–short of the $60 million benchmark he manufactured.
“Governor LePage’s volatility is hurting Maine’s economy and Maine workers,” said Senator Troy Jackson of Allagash. “Shovel-ready projects are now on hold and construction workers in desperate need of jobs are stuck at home waiting to see if Governor LePage will let them go to work.”
LePage’s chronic mismanagement has left Maine with the worst record on private sector job growth in the country.
Maine ranks 50th among all other states in private sector job growth since January 2011, according to the Maine Center for Economic Policy’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics, Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Data.
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