Greens Gather, Hear LaMarche Decry Wasteful Spending
By Elbert Aull
Gubernatorial candidate Pat LaMarche took aim at wasteful spending in Augusta, and Green Independent Party members voted in favor of an internal shake-up at the party's annual convention. The two-day event, held at the Center for Cultural Exchange in Portland, ended on Saturday afternoon.
Maine doesn't need more SAT takers; it needs more high-paying jobs — or else the students taxpayers spend their money educating will seek employment elsewhere, she said. |
"You don't need the SAT to be a plumber or an electrician," both jobs that pay middle-class wages, said LaMarche, of Yarmouth, who focused on wasteful state programs and looming problems during her 30-minute convention address.
LaMarche highlighted the Department of Education's decision to replace state assessment tests with the SAT for high school juniors as one example of misguided policy.
Maine doesn't need more SAT takers; it needs more high-paying jobs — or else the students taxpayers spend their money educating will seek employment elsewhere, she said.
Citing federal education figures, LaMarche said Arkansas, where fewer than 10 percent of students take the college-entrance examination, has a higher rate of young adults with bachelor's degrees than Maine, where about three-fourths take the test.
The candidate spoke in favor of seasonal increases in the sales tax to decrease the burden on Maine taxpayers. Year-round residents would know to make their big-ticket purchases outside of tourist season, and therefore wouldn't suffer under the plan, LaMarche said.
"The locals will know when to buy their cars," she said.
LaMarche also lambasted the current Blaine House administration for getting out of the profitable liquor business, allowing the state tourism office to pay an out-of-state firm to promote Maine, and for supporting an idea to burn waste from construction sites for energy.
She proposed looking to nearby New Hampshire for answers to Maine's hefty per-capita tax burden.
LaMarche's address came as Democratic and GOP gubernatorial candidates scoop up most of the publicity during the month leading up to the primaries — especially the three-man Republican race, which has drawn U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to Maine to campaign on behalf of one of the candidates.
McCain is scheduled to appear at a fundraiser in South Portland today on behalf of David Emery.
LaMarche's speech followed the election of the state party's first board of directors.
As part of a move members hope will improve efficiency, the Greens changed their party structure from a 13-member Steering Committee to a six-member board with an executive director, intending to make the party operate like a nonprofit organization.
Newly elected board member Jonathan Carter, the party's nominee in the 1994 and 2002 gubernatorial elections, said the realignment was intended to unify the Greens' base and get more of its 24,000 enrolled voters interested in running for office.
The change comes during an election year when fewer Greens are competing for State House seats — 12, compared with 20 in 2004. A similar proposal was considered at last year's convention, but not enacted.
Morgen D'Arc of Portland, a national party fundraiser who voted in favor of the change, said the larger steering committee was ineffective. D'Arc said the smaller board and the executive director will provide the party with more focus and better fundraising campaigns.
