Latest / Newsradio WGAN / Eggs & Issues 5/14

Transcript

Eggs & Issues 5/14 · Newsradio WGAN

• 0:18
  And it is of course eggs and issues day last one of the
• 0:20
  season at the Hannaford Hall at USM, which is where I was to
• 0:24
  start the day. Technical difficulties have
• 0:26
  caused me to come back to the home base and here I am in the
• 0:29
  South Portland studio. But we do want to say a quick
• 0:31
  thank you to our sponsors, Moody's Collision and M&R
• 0:34
  Holdings for sponsoring our participation in Eggs and
• 0:37
  issues. And as it is 7:00, this is the
• 0:39
  time when we get an opportunity to talk to the folks that are
• 0:41
  going to be at the chamber meeting today.
• 0:43
  And Patrick Woodcock from The Maine State Chamber and Yellow
• 0:46
  Light Breen from The Maine Development Foundation are now
• 0:48
  with me, sadly by phone, but hey, they're still with me and
• 0:51
  that's a good thing. So, Patrick, Yellow Light Breen,
• 0:54
  how are you this morning? Great.
• 0:56
  Good to be with you. Great to be with you.
• 0:58
  You're with us in spirit, Matt. Indeed, I am.
• 1:00
  Indeed I am. So let me first of course and
• 1:03
  you know introduce the topic today which is from Augusta to
• 1:05
  action that legislative outcomes and business impact.
• 1:09
  I know that we are, you know featuring both of you as
• 1:12
  speakers today as well as Heather Johnson.
• 1:14
  So it's going to be kind of a collective effort here to try to
• 1:17
  answer the question of what happened in the legislative
• 1:19
  session, what is the impact on business, what's the main
• 1:22
  economy look like now, etcetera. Patrick, let me begin with you
• 1:25
  and then and then I'll talk to into yellow light Breen in just
• 1:28
  a minute. But Patrick, what was your
• 1:31
  general thought on on what you saw in the legislative session?
• 1:36
  Well, first of all, I'd, I'd say that Maine has an historic
• 1:40
  opportunity. We really came out of the
• 1:42
  pandemic, exceeded national GDP growth in the state, exceeded
• 1:48
  median population growth the top 10 States and we are quickly
• 1:53
  regressing to our historic performance as an economy.
• 1:59
  And I really saw this legislative session as a lost
• 2:02
  opportunity. We need a a breakthrough with
• 2:04
  our regulatory construct for housing production.
• 2:08
  We need to address our affordability issues with energy
• 2:12
  and our supplemental budget. We've discussed previously, you
• 2:16
  know, with a income tax increase.
• 2:18
  I really thought it was a step backwards.
• 2:21
  However, I think with a review of what the business community
• 2:26
  is saying is they want to invest in Maine, that was real
• 2:29
  reflection. So I do think we need to have a
• 2:31
  vision for data informed of what really should be an economic
• 2:36
  plan for the state. That's Patrick Woodcock from
• 2:39
  Maine State Chamber, Yellow Light Breen, also with us from
• 2:42
  The Maine Development Foundation.
• 2:43
  One of the other speakers at today's event, the same question
• 2:46
  really directed in in in this way right now asking about what
• 2:51
  the economy is looking like now in the wake of this.
• 2:54
  I mean, do you share Patrick's opinion is this, do you have a
• 2:57
  different perspective on this? What are your thoughts?
• 3:00
  Yeah, I think we share the perspective that we had a really
• 3:03
  strong recovery from the pandemic, stronger than most
• 3:06
  states for several years. But now the question is can we
• 3:09
  keep it going and double down on that growth rather than kind of
• 3:12
  fall backwards. And that's going to take, you
• 3:15
  know, a thoughtful long term plan with targeted investments
• 3:19
  in areas like education, workforce areas like energy and
• 3:23
  housing, infrastructure areas like research and development,
• 3:26
  while we also try to streamline and remove the barriers that are
• 3:30
  keeping businesses and workers from realizing their
• 3:33
  opportunities. So as you both look at how the
• 3:36
  legislative sessions have gone, actually, not just in this last
• 3:38
  one, but in the last several years here, if you were to, you
• 3:42
  know, snap your fingers and say, all right, look, this is the
• 3:44
  path forward. This is what we should be doing
• 3:46
  in the next legislative session. You know, what are the maybe 2
• 3:49
  or big things that should be done or be or be tackled, you
• 3:53
  know, to, to try to fix and reorient the main economy in the
• 3:57
  direction that you'd like to see it.
• 3:58
  Patrick. Well, first of all, I think
• 4:00
  there's a template out there. There's a lot of red state, blue
• 4:02
  states that have said we have got to speed up our regulatory
• 4:05
  approval process. Maine is not the template that a
• 4:08
  lot of states look to. It's bogged down in bureaucracy.
• 4:12
  We need permits by rule, not 12 months of delay getting an
• 4:16
  approval if we want to have an economy and investment in the
• 4:19
  state. Furthermore, you know, we really
• 4:22
  have to have not just nibbling on the edges with housing, we
• 4:25
  need to have a breakthrough. We really need to start saying
• 4:27
  yes to housing both at the state level and at the municipal
• 4:31
  level. And you know, NIMBA is really
• 4:34
  prevails in Maine and we really have to start saying, you know,
• 4:38
  we're going to lose a whole generation if we start seeing
• 4:40
  these housing prices persist. Lastly, you know, I, I, I do
• 4:45
  think we need to focus on, we've got a huge state budget now, but
• 4:49
  relatively, we are not investing in research and development,
• 4:52
  innovation, the aspects that grow an economy after 10/15/20
• 4:58
  years. So really creating those seeds
• 5:00
  of, you know, trading those entrepreneurs that will be that
• 5:03
  next IDEXX, that next wax that really creates an enormous
• 5:07
  dividend for our state's economy.
• 5:10
  Before I go back to yellow light to ask a sort of similar
• 5:13
  question, Patrick, you mentioned nimbism.
• 5:15
  You know, that is something that, you know, having lived in
• 5:18
  the state as long as I have is just like part of the psychology
• 5:22
  of living here it seems particularly in certain areas of
• 5:24
  the state too. It's you know, kind of an anti
• 5:27
  development sentiment. It's a maybe not in my backyard
• 5:30
  because I don't want things to change.
• 5:31
  I like things how they are right now kind of kind of sentiment.
• 5:35
  How do you culturally breakthrough that in New England
• 5:39
  and specifically Maine, when it's so much a part of how
• 5:42
  everyone around here thinks? You know, I, I think it comes
• 5:46
  down to do we want another generation of Mainers?
• 5:49
  It's as simple as that. You know, I look at these
• 5:51
  prices, I understand why people in their 20s and 30s are cynical
• 5:56
  about this economy. They cannot afford to live here
• 5:59
  and they're going to migrate South.
• 6:01
  So it's not about protecting a community, it's about protecting
• 6:04
  another generation. You know the headline today in
• 6:07
  the Portland Press Herald getting pushed back on
• 6:10
  development on Congress St. on the peninsula.
• 6:12
  You know that if you're going to start with where we should have
• 6:15
  development, it is Congress St. in Portland on the peninsula.
• 6:19
  You know, we have to start saying yes to these projects.
• 6:22
  It's not about that housing project.
• 6:25
  It is about another generation of Mainers who can can have an A
• 6:31
  real outlook in and opportunity in this state.
• 6:37
  We're speaking with Patrick Woodcock and Yellow Light Breen
• 6:40
  on the 2 speakers today at Eggs and Issues.
• 6:42
  Going back to Yellow Light, I'd love to talk to you a little bit
• 6:44
  about what you see in the future of Maine's economy here.
• 6:47
  Here's a fun question for you and and maybe a little bit of a
• 6:49
  different spin on what I asked Patrick.
• 6:51
  How much of your optimism or maybe what you think the
• 6:56
  direction of Maine's economy in the next two to five or maybe
• 6:59
  even 10 years is tied to political outcomes?
• 7:03
  Because obviously you've had, you know, a regime in charge in
• 7:07
  in Augusta for some time. Here you have another, you know,
• 7:09
  political party that's trying to recapture control after being on
• 7:13
  the outside for a while. And, you know, the political
• 7:15
  bickering in in spectacle is, is, is a pretty significant
• 7:18
  issue. But if one or the other ends up
• 7:22
  capturing things, are things materially different to you?
• 7:24
  Do you think that you could forge a path forward regardless
• 7:28
  of outcome? I mean, how?
• 7:29
  How optimistic are you? Well, that's exactly what we're
• 7:32
  trying to do here is say, you know, we're too small of a
• 7:35
  state, the issues are too big. We need to take a long term
• 7:40
  strategic, interconnected approach to these issues.
• 7:43
  And that means persistence. We're not going to solve it
• 7:46
  overnight. So what we're trying to do is
• 7:48
  use data and insights from the business community and people on
• 7:52
  the front lines in our communities to say here's a
• 7:55
  broad direction that should transcend what party you're in.
• 7:58
  We're not going to take politics out of politics.
• 8:00
  We're not naive. There will be different points
• 8:02
  of emphasis that any given governor or legislature will put
• 8:06
  on, you know, this kind of strategy.
• 8:08
  But persistence is everything when we're tackling these big
• 8:12
  long haul issues so that we're not just constantly reacting to
• 8:15
  short term crisis. So that's our whole hope is that
• 8:17
  if we lay something out, people might seize on different pieces
• 8:20
  of it, you know, more strongly depending on where they start
• 8:23
  from and what their expertise is.
• 8:25
  But we've got to tackle it all in a long term, interconnected
• 8:28
  way. Do you both, and this is a
• 8:30
  question for both of you, I suppose you can answer in any
• 8:32
  order you want to, But do you both believe that the lawmakers
• 8:36
  in Maine who are in positions to do much about this recognize the
• 8:40
  same problem you do? I mean, you know, is their
• 8:42
  opinion about The Maine economy, you know, maybe not being a
• 8:46
  model, as Patrick said, and perhaps not being, you know,
• 8:50
  pursuing the right, you know, path forward?
• 8:53
  Do you think that they agree with that?
• 8:55
  And if they don't, how is that change?
• 8:57
  How can that change? I mean, I'll, I'll start.
• 9:00
  We wouldn't be doing this project if we didn't think that
• 9:03
  there was an opportunity for a bipartisan effort to change the
• 9:07
  state's trajectory economically. I think these issues, when I
• 9:10
  talk to Republicans and rural districts, Democrats and, and
• 9:14
  more suburban and urban districts, I was saying is
• 9:19
  something they all talk about, you know, investments and
• 9:22
  innovation is something they all talk about.
• 9:24
  It really is creating a a coalition that, you know, as
• 9:30
  Yellow described, that is that is beyond the politics of the
• 9:35
  moment, that really has a vision that we all have to agree on a
• 9:38
  strong economy that that is that is what all the main people
• 9:42
  want. They they want to see
• 9:44
  opportunity for the next generation.
• 9:46
  They want to see affordability addressed.
• 9:48
  They want to see investments in workforce.
• 9:51
  And let's not get distracted. You know, let's, let's really
• 9:53
  focus on a plan for our state's economy, regardless of the
• 9:57
  makeup of the Legislature and the next governor.
• 10:00
  Yeah, and I think the key is we try to balance exactly in this
• 10:04
  plan the needs of workers and the needs of employers and
• 10:08
  investors. And you know, part of public
• 10:11
  policy making is empathy, putting yourself in the shoes of
• 10:14
  people that have a different experience than you.
• 10:17
  If you've never been on food stamps, you may maybe you don't
• 10:19
  know that what that's like. If you've never been homeless,
• 10:21
  you don't know what that's like. If you've never made a huge 20
• 10:25
  year investment decision, you don't know what that's like.
• 10:28
  So, you know, what we need, we need to ask policy makers to do
• 10:31
  is step outside what they know and be active learners about
• 10:35
  what it's like to make these decisions that will move the
• 10:38
  economy forward. All right.
• 10:39
  Well, I appreciate you both spending some time with me here
• 10:41
  on the phone. I know how difficult that is in
• 10:42
  the midst of all the fun stuff going on at exit issues.
• 10:44
  So you guys should get back to it.
• 10:45
  I know you got a panel to do, so good luck inside.
• 10:48
  Of course, everybody there will be paying attention and I can't
• 10:50
  wait to hear how it went. Thanks a lot guys, and we'll
• 10:52
  talk again very soon.