Radio Address: Legislature needs to wake up and help create jobs
March 22, 2016
(MP3 Audio)With the sudden closure of Madison Paper Industries, 214 more Mainers will lose their jobs. The Legislature?s response is typical: they are holding more meetings and attempting to increase energy costs.
Hello, this is Governor Paul LePage.
With the decline in demand for the paper Madison produces, it is no surprise the mill was failing. Maine companies face these challenges every day, as well as fierce competition from the national and global marketplace. We should not be making it harder for them to operate at home. When is the Legislature going to wake up? I?ve been saying it for years: high energy costs, high taxes and more regulations from special interest groups are crushing the jobs that Mainers so desperately need. In fact, a General Consul from a foreign country just did a study and found Maine has the 19th highest cost of doing business in the United States. But Democrats won?t do anything to improve our business climate and help create jobs.
The solutions are right in front of us. The Legislature just has to act on them. First, the Executive Branch needs more authority over the tree growth program. With so much land in tree growth, not enough wood is being cut in Southern Maine, which drives up wood costs in Northern Maine. This program must be better managed to lower the cost of wood.
Second, energy costs must be reduced. Dozens of companies told us energy costs are making it difficult?if not impossible?to do business here. High energy costs have been a major factor in the mill closings that put hundreds of Mainers out of work. To reduce energy costs, we must be open to all resources, rather than artificially creating markets for solar. We also should encourage our biomass industry to build co-generation power plants.
Third, we need to approve a competing measure that would increase the minimum wage at a reasonable and manageable rate. The businesses that propel Maine?s economy simply cannot absorb a rapid increase in the minimum wage. Our job creators would be forced to lay off workers or increase their prices to cover the sudden jump in labor costs, which would hit elderly Mainers, our youth and those on fixed incomes particularly hard.
Fourth, liberals and socialists must stop picking on their favorite target: the ?one-percenters.? By constantly trying to ?tax the rich? and drive them out of our state, they are chasing away the business owners and investors who create good jobs for Mainers. When they leave, they take their wealth?and their jobs?with them.
Finally, we must remove the bureaucratic red tape that discourages business owners from trying to expand and grow their companies. We need strict regulations; however, they should not be wrapped so tightly in red tape that companies can?t cut through it to create jobs Mainers need and deserve.
Unfortunately, these common-sense solutions have no place in the job-crushing agenda from the liberals and socialists in Augusta. Their lack of action is causing layoffs and preventing other businesses from creating new jobs.
Meetings and sound bites don?t help the Mainers who just lost their jobs. Contact your legislators and tell them to wake up. If they don?t take action, the next Mainer to lose his job could be you.