Mills touts political experience in race for governor
By Deborah Mcdermott
SeacoastOnline.com

Republican state Sen. Peter Mills, R-Farmington, said he has a leg up on the other six men who are also seeking the GOP nod in primary voting this June.

Like them, he said, he works in the private sector, as the founding partner of a law firm in Skowhegan. But unlike them, he said, he knows Augusta and he knows it well, having served 16 years in the House and the Senate.

“I think I have a better insight as to what can be done to bring this state around,” he said. “And I’m inviting fellow Republicans to win this time.”

Mills was alluding to the loss four years ago of Republican Chandler Woodcock to Gov. John Baldacci, who is now facing term limits. Mills, a centrist Republican, lost to Woodcock, a conservative, in the primary in 2006. Baldacci easily defeated Woodcock that fall.

Mills is back this year running against six others: Steve Abbott, former chief of staff to Sen. Susan Collins; William Beardsley, former president of Husson University; Matthew Jacobson, the president of a business development company; Paul LePage, the mayor of Waterville; Les Otten, former American Skiiing Company owner and Red Sox part-owner; and housing developer Bruce Poliquin.

Mills said now is not the time to be choosing someone without a solid record in Augusta. And he made no bones about it, Maine needs strong leadership now.

“This state’s in trouble, and we’re not out of the woods by any means,” he said.

The next governor, he said, comes into office in January 2011 with a mandate to craft a biennium budget by April, when the Legislature leaves. More than $800 million had to be cut from the current two-year budget, and Mills said the new governor is likely to face another $500 million deficit for the next two years.

For one, federal stimulus funding which propped up the budget during this current cycle is gone. Secondly, he said, the state has to build into its budget $300 million or more to pay toward a $3 billion unfunded liability in the state pension fund between the number of people in paying into the fund and the amount paid out to state workers and teachers.

“These are two blocks of several hundred million (dollars) each that are going to be on the backs of the next Legislature and governor,” he said. “There are going to have to be cuts made that make the current cuts look like a walk in the park.”

The new governor “has to be smart” about making cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services. He said when Baldacci announced a 10 percent across-the-board cut to contractors, big contractors like Spurwink and Sweetzer proved they’re saving the state money and to cut 10 percent was ultimately going to cost the state more.

“It has to be based on results,” he said. “There’s too much emphasis on fraud and not enough on performance.”

He advocates an overhaul of the state pension system on several fronts. First, he wants to restructure the system for new hires. Secondly, he said, pensions need to be based on Social Security so that workers are not feeling trapped into staying with system they might like to leave.

He’d also like to see the pension system, which has $9 billion in its coffers, put a portion of that money into a venture capital fund for new business and industry in Maine. “Our intellectual capital is moving to Route 128, Palo Alto and the Research Triangle,” he said. “We need to stop that.” The state would be a partner, so that if the investments lost money over time, the state would reimburse the fund.

He said he voted for Baldacci’s school consolidation law “even though I hated it,” because it began to get at the issue of consolidation, which he said is “key. The governor was right on when he said we needed fewer superintendents.” He proposes setting aside a small fund as an incentive to schools who consolidate services with other districts in creative and meaningful ways. He said that same model needs to be applies to towns, that can share numerous services and vehicles.

He was the only Republican to vote in favor of a law passed last year that would reduce income and capital gains tax and make up the difference with sales taxes on a variety of services.

“My main goal was to see the capital gains tax reduced. Why are we taxing the thing we value the most, employment?” he said, adding that he would be “open” to repealing some sales tax expansions.

He’s not a supporter of President Barack Obama’s health care reform bill, saying it doesn’t do enough to reduce costs. “And guess who are going to have to? The states.” He said the state health care plan Dirigo needs to be revamped, with a voucher system that pays largely pays for itself and without deep subsidies.