Last week, I was truly proud to host the National Governor’s Association Annual Summer Meeting in Portland, Maine and I was proud to join the iconic singer-songwriter Dolly Parton to announce that the State of Maine is launching a statewide expansion of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in 2023.

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

You know, the simple act of reading out loud to a child stimulates brain development, it reduces stress and anxiety, it builds vocabulary, and develops the literacy skills that child needs to succeed in school and in life. 

Supporting childhood literacy also has significant impacts on our economy.  Our state needs every person to be able to contribute and that starts with giving them the skills they need at an early age.

So through our Department of Education, my Administration has been working hard to increase early childhood literacy rates in the State of Maine.

Every year, we sponsor the statewide “Read to Me” challenge to encourage adults to read to their children.

This spring, with the support of the Legislature, we invested $10 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds to create and expand pre-school programs across the State.

This summer, we are hosting our first ever Educator Summit to train our teachers in the most effective, evidence-based practices for increasing childhood literacy.

Later this fall, we are creating “Literacy for ME 2.0” to revamp our statewide literacy plan and we are creating the “Maine Association for Improving Literacy” to mobilize a network of educators who are committed to supporting statewide literacy efforts. 

And last week, I was proud to announce that the State of Maine is officially joining Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to provide free, high quality books every month to every child age 0 to 5 in our state. This program will complement existing programs in the state of Maine including the Libra Foundation’s Raising Readers and the Cashman family’s Dirigo Reads.

With the support of our Legislature, we’ve now dedicated $200,000 in the biennial budget to go to the Maine State Library to partner with local libraries to distribute the Imagination Library books statewide. Imagine, a paperback book coming to your child every month.

The Imagination Library will provide more than 105,000 books to local libraries for an estimated 14,000 children in the first year of this program. This will generate inspiration, education, and joy in every child’s life, no matter what else may be going on.

We hope to extend this program beyond local libraries to school districts across the State of Maine until every child has access to free, high-quality books every month.

Maine is proud to join the family of states who participate in the Imagination Library. And on behalf of all the Maine children, and parents, who will be served by this program, I got to thank Dolly Parton for her investment in our state and in the nation’s children.

This is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

At the height of the pandemic, people were unable to connect safely with their community. This fact alone had particularly deadly consequences for people suffering from substance use disorder here in Maine and across the country.

While the pandemic waxes and wanes, we are still losing people with substance use disorder every day.

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

This week, I held my fourth annual Opioid Response Summit, with the theme of “Community, Connection, Compassion,” to reflect on this ongoing epidemic and to recommit to saving lives and to supporting life-long recovery.

You know, this is not a white collar or a blue-collar epidemic. It is not a rural problem, or an urban problem or a suburban problem. It knows no boundaries, no zip code, no tax status. It knows no age limits. And sometimes it is multigenerational. And it is more deadly now, because of the kinds of drugs, like Fentanyl, that are being infused in other drugs as well.

But it is the children that I worry about the most. And it is the children who ought to stir us to action.

The headlines tell the story:

A young child whose teddy bear was contaminated with Fentanyl.

A three year who ingested heroin and had to be revived with Narcan.

An 11-month old infant exposed to Fentanyl.

A 14 year old who died — overdosed and died — a few weeks ago, a day after her graduation from middle school. A straight A student.

If these aren’t wake-up calls, I don’t know what is.

Whatever the causes – and they are multiple and they are terribly complicated – let’s not pass this problem on to another generation.

Not now when we now have the means to address it – and the will to act.

To stop drugs from reaching Maine, we have focused on disrupting mid-level and higher level drug traffickers. Last year alone, Maine DEA agents seized nearly 23 pounds of Fentanyl all over Maine.  So far this year, they have seized about 16 pounds of Fentanyl and 48 kilograms of Methamphetamine, equally dangerous.  

We will continue to support law enforcement’s efforts to stop drug trafficking, but we are also focused on preventing addiction, on expanding treatment, and supporting the life-long recovery of people with substance use disorders.

That’s why for the last three years we have been training people to become recovery coaches, help people turn their lives around. As well as getting hundreds of thousands of doses of Narcan out into the communities to save people from deadly overdoses and then give them the help they need.  

This session, we worked with the Legislature to invest more than $110 million through the biennial budget, this was a bipartisan move. We invested in new prevention, treatment, and recovery programs.  

And this week, I committed to investing another $4.5 million dollars for new treatment beds all across Maine.

There is no denying that things have been very challenging these last two years, but I firmly believe that without the actions taken by this administration, we would have lost many more people to this epidemic. 

We can’t be discouraged. We cannot lose heart.

We won’t quit – and I will not quit – until every child in Maine has a chance for health, security, and stability; until every person in our state is able to become their best selves – the best that they can be productively, whatever their past, whatever their troubles, whatever their needs.

We have a long way to go toward healing our state, and helping our nation heal, and getting people back into the workforce; but there is hope and there is the hard work of Maine people, which has seen us through hard times before.

That is why we are recommitting to our sense of community – a community in Maine who cares and who never gives up. Because that is who we are.

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s are global companies that analyze and issue reports of credit worthiness of states in particular. They have now affirmed their strong credit ratings and their stable outlooks on the State of Maine’s general obligation debt. 

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening. 

In its affirmation of our credit rating, Standard & Poor’s praised our “prudent expenditure management” and “measured approach to budget management with an emphasis on proactive structural solutions.” Moody’s stated that our “financial position has improved markedly over the last year” and that the Rainy Day Fund has grown significantly. Standard & Poor’s described our projected Rainy Day Fund levels as “very strong.” 

Well to put it plainly, we’ve done a pretty good job managing Maine’s budget. In fact, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s have reaffirmed our credit ratings every year since I took office, including during the pandemic at a time when at least 22 other states’ ratings and outlooks were downgraded. 

By reaffirming our credit ratings, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s are saying they are confident in our leadership, in our fiscal standing, in our financial strength.  

Thanks to our good fiscal management, not only is the state budget balanced as it must be — we have also doubled our Rainy Day Fund to half a billion dollars and we’ve achieved a record surplus. So this summer, as you know, we sent half of that record surplus back to you, the taxpayers of Maine, in the form of $850 relief checks to help you grapple with higher costs, one of the strongest relief measures in the nation.  

And we have dedicated more than $205.9 million to the Department of Transportation — an unprecedented General Fund investment to improve Maine’s transportation infrastructure – preventing, for the first time in years, the need to bond for transportation funding. We’re not borrowing. We’re paying General Fund dollars to fix the potholes and pave the roads.

Well while we are still grappling with higher costs that are driven by the pandemic and driven by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Maine’s economy as a whole has made one of the strongest recoveries in the nation. 

Since 2019, Maine’s Gross Domestic Product has grown at the 11^th fastest rate in the nation. Since the pandemic, our unemployment rate has now dropped to 3.2 percent which is below the national average and below the New England average.  

These economic signs, and Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s strong affirmation of our credit worthiness, are more indications that our state has made a strong recovery from the pandemic.

We’ve got a lot more to do, addressing workforce issues and prices, and while we continue to do everything we can to bring down the higher costs for Maine people as much as we can, this week’s report by Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s is a positive sign that Maine State Government made the right choices early on to protect our economy and that we’re making the right choices now.   

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening. 

WHEREAS, for more than twenty-nine years the State of Maine has provided a guarantee of reproductive rights independent of any protection provided by the United States Constitution, and the laws of Maine have long ensured that access to reproductive health care services remains readily available in the State;

WHEREAS, these rights have been recognized and expanded over time in Maine jurisprudence, law, and policy, acknowledging women's autonomy, liberty and essential role in our social, civic and economic life;

In 1826, fifty years after we had become united, free and independent states, former President Thomas Jefferson declared “Let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them."

As we celebrate Independence Day, we reflect today on the birth of our nation and the rights enshrined at the dawn of America. We remember how we have fought to advance our rights throughout our history to move us closer to equality for every citizen. And we recommit to the work we must still do, especially as some seek to turn back the hard-won progress we have made.

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

What binds us is a belief – that all people are created equal, that we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That is a promise we keep regardless of a person’s religion or race, geography or gender, political party or personal beliefs.

In the wake of the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to strip the fundamental rights of women, we will rise to defend them in Maine and restore them nationwide. And with an undiminished devotion to the dream of America, we will push to enshrine those rights so they are never again threatened.

As we gather with friends, family, and neighbors this holiday weekend, we remember the promise of our nation, we reflect on the sacrifice of service members who protect our freedom, and we recommit to building a fairer, freer nation for us all.

Let this day remind us of what we can accomplish when we unite in defense of the freedom and independence of our people.

I wish you and your loved ones a safe and Happy Fourth of July Weekend.

I am Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

This week, the United States Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

You know, I know what it means to live in a world without Roe v. Wade.

I grew up in rural, western Maine, in Farmington in the 60s and 70s.

I loved growing up there, it is still my home today and a big part of who I am, but I have got to tell you – it was by no means a hotbed of women’s rights activism when I came of age.

That was a time when abortion was illegal, when women across Maine who found themselves unexpectedly pregnant and in need had nowhere to turn. It was when an abortion, if you could get one, involved a clandestine, dangerous arrangement in some back alley in Boston or New York.

It was a time when birth control was virtually impossible to obtain, especially in rural Maine where the local doctor or the pharmacist was likely to be your neighbor, and when the best method to avoid pregnancy, we were told, was to be “extremely careful.”

It was a time when women’s health was of secondary concern and it was simply impolite or out-of-line to discuss reproductive health.

We fought hard – for decades and decades – to make progress for women.

We fought alongside legislative Republican leaders like Sherry Huber and Joe Sewall and David Huber.

The history of this fight for women’s health care, well it’s a history I was proud to take part in – from co-founding the Maine Women’s

Lobby when it was clear that women’s voices were not being heard in Augusta.

To standing up to those who would harass, intimidate, and block women from going to a Planned Parenthood clinic.

To advocating for legislation to make safe abortion available as a choice to women across Maine, in rural or under-served areas, regardless of a person’s zip code, regardless of income.

We came a long way – until this week.

The struggle is far from over and we’ve got to keep fighting.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision is a fundamental assault on women’s rights and on reproductive freedom that will do nothing to stop abortion. It will only make abortion less safe and jeopardize the lives of women across the nation.

In this state, I promise to defend the right to reproductive health care with everything I have, and I pledge to the people of Maine that, as long as I am Governor, my veto pen will stand in the way of any and all efforts to undermine, rollback, or outright eliminate the right to safe and legal abortion in Maine.

Because unlike the majority of the United States Supreme Court, I do not consider the rights of women to be dispensable.

I stand with the people of Maine — to honor their choices — including the choice for reproductive freedom and health.

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

WHEREAS, on June 21, 1775, soon after the Battle of Bunker Hill in the early stages of the American Revolution, Penobscot Chief Joseph Orono met with General George Washington at Watertown and agreed that his tribe’s warriors, as well as others in the Wabanaki Confederacy, would join forces with the Continental Army to fight a common enemy in the struggle for freedom; and

WHEREAS, members of 33 tribes served as code talkers in World War I and World War II; and