GOP House Seat Candidates
David Burns, Tony Maker Air Views in Forum
Democrat Al Goodwin Says Either Republican
Would Beat Candidate Cassidy
By Will Tuell
The two Republican candidates vying in the June primary to be their party’s nominee in the House District 32 race—Tony Maker of Machiasport and David C. Burns of Whiting, answered questions at a primary candidates’ forum May 15 sponsored by the University of Maine at Machias, but it was former four-term legislator and maverick Democrat Albion Goodwin of Pembroke, who is running for county commissioner and was part of the forum (see article, page __), who ignored partisanship and declared in his closing remarks that either of the GOP candidates would beat Katherine Cassidy of Machias, the Democratic nominee, in the fall election.
“My experience is that I served in the Legislature,” said Goodwin. “I can say that either one of these two gentlemen—I don't care who gets elected—will make it in Augusta. I can tell by the way they chat here.” Of Cassidy, who did not attend the forum, Goodwin said, “Don't worry about her. You can vote for anyone you like, [but] they will make it. They're not from my party, but that's OK. We need people to go down there and scrap and fight. That's what it's all about.”
School Consolidation Dominates Forum
Burns and Maker distanced themselves from Maine's controversial school consolidation law by saying that local control—the right of voters to determine the future of their local government and schools—was the central issue behind reorganization.
Maker, an educator for the past 19 years and principal of Elm Street School in East Machias for the past eight, said that consolidation in and of itself wasn't a bad thing, but that it should be left to the voters of each community involved, not the state, in determining whether it was appropriate for them.
“The law that was passed, and the subsequent amendment, does not allow our schools to function as they currently function,” said Maker. “Local control will be given to a larger board and they will make the decisions. Consolidation in itself is not a positive or a negative. We can sit around and look at schools with small numbers [of students] across the state, and may think that the school should close, but that's not my decision to make. It's not yours. It's the decision of the people of that community.”
Burns said that the governor and Legislature “rushed into” their decision to reorganize Maine's 290 school units into a maximum of 80. “The decision that was made was wrongly decided,” he said. “Many of you remember the Sinclair Act of 1957. We went from 1,300 schools to 800 in 15 years. The difference was, they offered incentives back then. Now they offer penalties. The issue right now is that this is the law of the land, and we need to work with it the best that we can while we are at the business of changing the law back so that we can maintain local control.”
“I don't like the idea at all of us losing our local school boards' input, and having that diverted to somebody out of the area,” said Burns, who served on the former SAD 77 board and the Washington Academy Board of Trustees. “I don't think that's going to work. Time has proven it doesn't work. Plus, it lessens the involvement of citizens and the public.”
When asked what he would do differently from Rep. Harold “Ian” Emery, the Cutler Republican who is vacating the seat after serving two terms, Maker said, “I would not have voted for [the school consolidation bill] as part of the governor's budget that got us into this school consolidation situation to begin with.”
Burns found fault with Emery's tenure in the Legislature, alluding to the fact that Emery missed 265 roll call votes during the 123rd Legislature. “Let me put this in a positive [light],” he said. “I have the interest, the passion and the time to spend in Augusta. I think being a representative takes two qualities. You have to be able to speak for the people, but you also have to listen to the people. You make a poor representative if you don't listen to what the people you're representing would like to have done. I'm a good listener, a trained listener.”
Jail Consolidation
In the first sign of real differences between them, Maker and Burns offered their views on jail consolidation. Burns, a retired Maine State Police trooper and investigator, said he looked favorably on building a joint county/state correctional facility in Washington County. Maker questioned the amount of local input on the issue, saying that residents need to be careful about where tax money goes.
“My understanding of the funding of the plan [is that] everybody's going to take their county taxes that go to jails and [put it] into one pool of money,” said Maker. “When you send all that local money to Augusta, you have to be real careful it stays where it is supposed to be. I'm very concerned that when you take local tax money and send it to the statehouse, it may not come back.”
Maker questioned whether local officials had much voice in developing the final product, which, as with many controversial bills, was passed in the final hours of the last session. “The other question becomes how much real input did our area have? Does one size fit all? If it’s good for Cumberland County, does that make it good for Washington County?”
Burns agreed with the latter, but added that Washington County could see a new jail/prison as a result. “We are going to be in line to get a jail renovation or a new jail that would house both state and county prisoners,” he said. “That's going to be very good for our economy. It's going to keep those jobs here. We do a very good job taking care of the prisoners already. I see absolutely no reason why we should lose that income, because if we don't have it here, they're going to have it somewhere else in the state. We need those jobs here.”
Burns said he agreed with recent comments by Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith questioning the structure of the governor-appointed board charged with overseeing the new unified system. “I don't like the idea of this nine-member board that's going to make the nitty-gritty decisions on how this jail is going to be operated, because those people are probably not going to be from here. It's a big state and there's only nine positions.”
Economy, Taxes Also Loom Large
Machias resident Robert Ross asked what the candidates could do to help him start a business. Each expressed a desire to make Maine “more business friendly.”
“The solutions are here, not in Augusta,” said Burns in response to Ross’ question. “We have to stop whining; we have to work with what we have here. However, when you send people to Augusta, you send them down there with the idea that they should do something about the pressure that they're putting on business. We are the second-highest taxed in the nation. Our business sustainability is next to last in the nation. There's something wrong in this state. The problem is not going to be solved by Augusta. We just need to get them to back off. We're ingenious. We have a lot of tenacity here, and given the opportunity and the tools, we'll make it work.”
“It's my responsibility to help create a climate that would help anybody who has a business plan to encourage businesses here,” said Maker. “I realize we have some things in place in this area, but we need to expand that. Washington County is at a point where we need to stop whining and start working. We've complained too long that we're the poorest county in the state. We need to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and create environments where your business plan can work.”
Burns said he would not vote raise taxes and that he would “re-energize” the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability (OPEGA), which tracks how well state programs achieve their goals and expend their budgets. “It was created to take a look at each and every program we have in this state, to see if they're viable, whether they are actually doing something, whether we still need them,” he said. “There's been a lot of recent attempts to cut that [office]. It's saved us more money than any department in the state of Maine because it is the watchdog of your tax dollars.”
Maker also pledged not to raise taxes, condemning this past Legislature for its fickleness on the issue. “I would not vote for any legislation that would increase taxes,” he said, “as was the promise of this past Legislature. But on the very last day they did exactly that by increasing the tax on beer, wine, soda, and to pay for Dirigo Health, which, in my opinion, is an absolute debacle for this state.”
Republicans who favor lower taxes are often asked where they would cut. Maker said he had has his sights on the Department of Education. “I think it's too big. It's over-funded from what I've seen in Augusta—the number of folks who come out of the [DOE] to lobby for their particular plan on school consolidation. That would be the No.-1 area. I think we need to understand, in general, that the government of the state of Maine cannot be all things to all people. We've got to get to a point where we understand who are the most needy and how do we help them and get other people back on their feet.”
Burns and Maker support locating a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Washington County and each pledged to honor the voters of the municipalities involved, agreeing that such a facility should be placed where it was wanted, if it was wanted.
“I know that we need economic development in this county,” said Burns. “LNG is one of the possibilities. I do think that it has to be a local-control issue also. The people who are going to live around the LNG plant should have the biggest say, but it will bring us jobs, and some of the jobs will be better jobs than I just heard referred to long term. Certainly there'll be construction jobs. We do need some economic development. We can't keep saying no to everything that comes along. If we don't have the LNG here it's going to be across the border. One way or another it's going to be here.”
“I would say that we're underestimating the power of Downeast ingenuity when we [hear] that FERC [Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] is going to make the decision for us,” said Maker. “Many times the federal government has come in and said this is what you'll do. Down-Easters have risen up and said ‘No. This is not what we're going to do. I agree with Dave that it's going to happen. The question is where? Is it where the local citizens can support it? Where it will not hurt the local fisheries traffic? And is it a safe economic development opportunity for Downeast Maine? I will tell you, me sitting in Augusta, will not make that final decision. It will be the communities along that coast that make the decision.”
Burns and Maker took different positions on the proposal to build a new regional airport in Washington County. “I can't fathom the idea that the county seat doesn't have an accessible airport, so that when people come in here to take a look at new business opportunities and expand business opportunities they can get in here with a full-sized or twin-engine plane,” said Burns. “[We need] a regional airport to service the greater Machias area. And I agree that it needs to be agreed to by the people before we do that.”
Maker said that the county already has several airports and that we need to be very careful before we build another one. “For those few that would come in with a full-sized jet or twin-engine plane, my question is, Have we determined if there is a need? I keep going back to, “If you build it they will come,” and I'm not sure that just because we build a regional airport that people are going to flood into Downeast Maine. I think there needs to be more research, more discussion. … Is the need there? I'm not sure. If we're going to hinge our economic future on a regional airport, I think we're going down the wrong runway.”