That didn’t take very long!
Fresh off her re-election victory, Gov. Janet Mills has declared a housing and energy emergency that will require nearly half a billion dollars in new spending just as soon as the new Legislature is sworn in tomorrow.
And get this: the spending orgy won’t be subject to any public hearings!
Janet knows best, peasants, so just sit down and shut up. We’re doing this for your own good.
Never mind that Janet Mills has been in office for four years with Democrat majorities in both chambers of the Legislature. How did they get blindsided by the twin plagues of housing and energy crises?
According to the emergency declaration from the Lame Duck in the Blaine House, the energy crisis stems from……are you ready?….” the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent impacts on global fossil fuel markets.”
Her bill also calls for $15,000,000 for “short-term emergency housing.”
Most of that spending is for housing the thousands of illegal immigrants Mills has welcomed to Maine since she took office. That’s in addition to the 100 new apartments the parasitic non-profit Avesta Housing is building for illegals in greater Portland, funded with $22,000,000 from a bipartisan budget deal earlier this year.
If Mills has her way, legislators will barely have time to read the final draft of the 13-page proposal before voting on it tomorrow afternoon, just hours after taking the oath of office.
Here’s how you can help.
As an emergency bill, the Mills’ welfare package for illegals needs a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate before it goes to the Swamp Queen for her signature. That means she MUST have Republican votes to get this spending orgy underway.
My sources in the GOP House caucus tell me there’s a whole lotta hand-wringing going on. Many Republicans are already getting wobbly just thinking about the blowback from the Fake News media if they deny Mills the votes she needs to declare an emergency.
Please take a minute to call the House and Senate Republican offices, and urge GOP legislators to just say NO to subsidizing illegal immigration, with or without a public hearing.
The Senate office can be reached at (207) 287-1505.
The House GOP office can be reached at (207) 287-1440.
Tell them this bill needs a full public hearing before it comes to the floor for a vote. Period. Full stop.
The biggest chunk of the spending is $371,000,000 for the “Winter Energy Relief Payment Program.” Those one-time payments of $450 will be sent to more than 800,000 Mainers to help us stay warm this winter.
With home heating oil selling for more than $5 a gallon — translating to over $1,300 to fill a 275-gallon oil tank — does anyone seriously believe a $450 check will save anyone from freezing to death this winter?
If they really want to help, perhaps the Governor and the Legislature should suspend the sales and income taxes for the winter. Let us keep our money, and let state government pay its bills with the budget surplus and all the COVID cash still sloshing around at the Statehouse.
Put the leeches in Augusta on a strict diet until springtime.
As for the illegals, I don’t believe Maine taxpayers have any obligation to feed or house them. That’s a job for private charities and philanthropists.
The virtue-signaling king of horror Stephen King can house quite a few of them on his spacious property in Bangor — if he would only put his money where his mouth is. And US Rep. Chellie Pingree could certainly provide housing, food, and medical care for many of them at her island estate on North Haven.
Leave the rest of us alone, thank you very much!
Best Regards,
Hon. Lawrence Lockman
Maine House of Representatives, 2012-2020
Co-founder & President
Maine First Project
PS Just when you thought we might have a brief respite from the spectacle of power-drunk politicians throwing their weight around at the Colosseum on the Kennebec, along comes Big Sister declaring an “emergency.”
I promise, this will be the last time this year I ask you to call the Statehouse.
Please take a minute to call the House and Senate Republican offices, and urge GOP legislators to just say NO to subsidizing illegal immigration, with or without a public hearing.
The Senate office can be reached at (207) 287-1505.
The House GOP office can be reached at (207) 287-1440.
Tell them this bill needs a full public hearing before it comes to the floor for a vote.
Period.
Full stop.