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Maine Policy Institute · Newsradio WGAN

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  Montana Towers Main Policy Institute policy analyst nice
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  enough to join us once again here on this Friday.
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  Montana how are things? Things are going good, Matt.
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  Things are indeed going good. The vice president of these
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  United States made a visit to Maine yesterday, popped up the
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  Bangor had a few things to say. Obviously a political
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  endorsement of Paula Page and all that fun stuff.
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  But obviously the biggest thing about the appearance that has
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  attracted most of our attention is the comments about fraud, the
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  administration investigating it, Janet Mills working with the
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  administration, not working with the administration and all
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  things circulating around that topic slash subject.
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  So Montana, I assume you watched the appearance as I know I did
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  and outside of the fainting person and every, you know,
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  other little dramatic thing that happened there, what was your
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  big take away? Yeah, Matt, you know, JD Vance's
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  visit to Maine put an even bigger spotlight on this issue
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  of fraud that The Maine Policy Institute and the Main Wire have
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  been warning about, you know, for a long time.
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  Vance used this speech to emphasize that the fraud is fast
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  from taxpayers. You know, it hurts the people
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  who actually need it. And I think Vance made this
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  point really well. You know, the fraud damages
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  American taxpayers because every dollar wasted or stolen is a
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  dollar taking from working class families.
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  It's not just this abstract money that comes from nowhere.
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  It's actually coming from everyday Americans and it hurts
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  real victims. He even emphasized how it hurts
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  people like through waves such as identity fraud, because the
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  government failing to crack down on fraud allows these schemes to
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  grow and just leads to more victims and even other ways that
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  you wouldn't think of necessarily from tax fraud
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  directly. And what stood out to me was
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  that it wasn't just like a generic national speech.
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  You know, he he really did emphasize the main part of it
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  and how Maine had become part of this national conversation about
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  fraud. And especially in these taxpayer
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  funded programs. I think one of the strongest
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  lines for me was when he was talking about fraud, he was
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  like, Oh, well, often asked, you know, whether it's hard to find
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  fraud. And the answer is,
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  unfortunately, no because it's everywhere.
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  And that really should be a wake up call.
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  This is a fraud that easy to find, you know, especially if
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  we're off here in Maine. And the real question is why is
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  the government being so slow to stop it?
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  It was also really notable for off of the MPI team and the
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  midwire team because we got so many shout outs and accolades.
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  The BPM S shouted out Steve Robinson and John Featherstone
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  who got a very warm reception from the crowd and quite a
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  contrast to the reception that some of the mainstream media
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  received who were booed on more than one occasion.
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  Yeah, that was cool. It was cool to also give Seamus
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  and John an opportunity to ask a question too, which was pretty
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  neat. Yeah, I know.
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  That was awesome and it really was this recognition of the hard
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  work that the Main Wire team has been putting into these
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  investigations. I think that was saying that he
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  thinks that Maine might be in the top three of most fraud
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  ridden states. And I think that the only reason
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  he thinks that the only reason that he frankly came to Maine
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  was because of the work that The Maine Wire team put in exposing
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  this fraud. And the fact that they were able
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  to get that rescue ignition from the VP himself and from the big
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  crowd that was there was really awesome to see.
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  So I'm going to read to you a statement by Janet Mills because
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  of course, JD Vance in town, there was an inevitable reaction
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  that was going to be coming from Mills since, of course, he
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  referred to her quite often. And, you know, before I read you
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  the quote, too, it's also probably worth noting that JD
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  Vance did say in his remarks, he's like, look, I mean, she's
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  not my cup of tea. And, you know, I got my issues
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  with Janet Mills, but we actually want to work with her.
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  Like we want to work together to do something about this, just
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  not really getting that from this administration.
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  But anyway, here's what Mills said.
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  Quote, the remarks by the vice president today are nothing but
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  a weak attempt to distract from the Trump administration's
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  failing agenda, Endless war in Iran and failure to control
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  crushing costs, including sky high gas prices that main
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  families and businesses are struggling with everyday.
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  Your reaction to that reaction? Montana Towers.
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  It's so laughable because, you know, internal audits, main
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  audits have shown that this fraud is real.
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  You know, the autism services, the overcharging.
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  There are this, a lot of media outlets today we're saying like,
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  oh, you know, JD Vance is here to talk about the alleged fraud.
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  It's not alleged. We have proof.
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  We have audits, we have investigations time after time
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  after time showing that this is the case.
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  The permits to just sweep it off as being a distraction.
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  There's evidence even from her own internal administration
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  investigation that this is real. So if it's real, which again all
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  the data seems to indicate it is, that I don't understand how
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  it is a distraction to be talking about this very real
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  issue that is affecting main taxpayers and is drastically,
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  you would think, hurting the Democrat chances considering
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  they are the ones in power. You think that they would want
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  to address this issue as it becomes this popular talking
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  point because they have to fight against the fact that they have
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  been the ones in power as this fraud has continued to grow.
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  We're speaking with Montana Towers, who is joining us at
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  this time every Friday to talk over what's happening in the
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  state of Maine and beyond. Obviously, we can keep talking
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  about the vice president's appearance, but I also want to
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  turn our attention to, you know, sort of more traditionally Maine
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  political stories here. And one of the ones that I want
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  to touch on is, is actually something that came from the
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  main state Chamber of Commerce. And that's a timely thing to
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  chat about because earlier this week, the Republican candidates
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  for governor showed up to a chamber debate.
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  And at that debate did a Bobby Charles went.
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  There was a lot of fireworks back and forth, but as it was
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  done, the Chamber released sort of its vision.
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  I guess this is the best way of characterizing it, its vision
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  for the main economy in the future.
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  Like, what's wrong with it? What ails it, What should be
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  done to fix it? I know you've had a chance to
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  review that. What did you think of what the
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  Chamber came up with? Yeah, the the chamber and the
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  and their partners say to the point was to offer a data-driven
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  road map to strengthening the state's economy and expanding
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  opportunity. And I do it by and large it's a
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  very good report as a lot of useful information in about
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  where it mains business client stands and where it needs to go.
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  I think more than anything from me, one of the most fascinating
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  things is seeing the polling data from Maine businesses on
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  where they feel it is today because it really is another
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  data point, the reflection of how bad things have gone and
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  over the last years of Governor Mills.
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  And one of the most important statistics specifically is that
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  business were asked to name the single biggest constraint on
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  growth and the top answer was legislative and policy changes
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  and unpredictability. And this is what MPI has been
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  warning about for a while. Businesses can deal with
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  challenges, but they need predictability.
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  They need to know what the rules are and that they will rules
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  will constantly change underneath them.
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  And that is something that Augusta has been very bad at
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  over the last several years. And these just things that the
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  means the government isn't bad at under Mills and they were
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  also asked would improve men's competitiveness as a place to do
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  business. And the number one answer, Matt,
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  I'm sure will surprise you, lower taxes and lower energy
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  rates, you know the number one answer.
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  But Governor Mills and the Democrats in the legislature
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  just ran through a new 2% income tax that will disproportionately
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  affect businesses. And they continue to pursue
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  green energy policies that will continue to ramp up the cost of
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  electricity in the state. So the number one thing the
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  businesses believe will improve Maine's competitiveness as a
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  place to do business. And there's just the license in
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  the governor's running in the complete opposite direction at
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  every available opportunity. Yeah, I mean, the, the other way
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  to put it, I guess, would be that everything's too expensive
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  for a business to really be feasible or thrive in Maine.
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  Like, I know that I, I can probably hear the eyes rolling
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  when somebody says tax cuts and you know, like there's a
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  Democrat, you know, listener who's listening to this, right?
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  They're like, oh, there you go again with tax cuts.
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  But it's, you know, tax cuts, regulation, all the things that
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  contribute to making it more expensive to do business here,
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  makes it harder to do business here, means it's less likely
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  that those businesses will start or grow or grow as significantly
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  here, which has a pretty significant effect statewide.
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  When you're talking about, you know, hundreds, thousands of
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  jobs not being created, wages not going up, etcetera.
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  It's a really big deal to have those extra costs associated
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  with these businesses. Yeah, you know, absolutely true.
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  And getting at that, like hard to operate, like almost, I think
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  it was almost 60% of businesses said that in the last two years
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  have become dramatically harder to operate in the state of
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  Maine. That's such a dangerous
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  statistic because it shows that if you keep doing that year over
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  year, the business will not be able to stay open, they will not
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  be able to thrive. They, one of the other big
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  problems I was talking about in the report was permitting and
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  how this is just the long permitting timelines, the
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  uncertainty, how it drives up costs and makes these projects
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  less viable. And, you know, projects get
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  delayed, they get downsized, they get cancelled.
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  And that means fewer jobs and less investment for Maine.
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  And the fact that that's such an easy thing for the government to
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  address, that is purely a problem of bureaucracy of over
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  permitting. The government can fix that so
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  easily. And it's a major issue affecting
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  businesses. And instead, again, in the
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  latest legislative cycle, we just saw several bills to make
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  permitting further and to increase the fees for permitting
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  for various buildings. So it just does not make sense
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  the direction that we are continuing to go under current
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  leadership when businesses are screaming for us to please go in
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  this other direction. And this report really shows
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  that they believe business, local businesses, believe we are
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  going in the wrong direction and that there are clear steps that
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  can be taken that are easy for the government to take to help
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  move the state in a more business viable direction.
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  And that's where we're unfortunately going to have to
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  end because we are, guess what, out of time Montana Towers from
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  the main Policy Institute, nice enough to join us.
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  As always, we appreciate it, Sir, and we'll talk again very
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  soon.