In his State of the State address last night, Maine Governor LePage praised the virtues of right to work states as exemplars of "economic opportunity." The speech was a page taken right out of the American Legislative Exchange Council's playbook. In keeping with ALEC's script, the Governor left out less savory information on Right to Work states - their high levels of poverty, child fatalities, lack of worker and environmental protection, and low standards of living. Apparently these are the hidden standards the Governor thinks the good people of Maine should aspire to.
"...I spent most of my career in business creating jobs for hard working Mainers. I know what it takes to expand and create jobs. Maine’s cost of doing business is simply too high.
For example, Alabama, South Carolina, Indiana, and Texas are attracting huge investments by companies, providing higher paying jobs for their residents, without exorbitant taxpayer subsidies.
Why shouldn’t Maine people benefit from the same economic opportunity?
Remember one simple truth: “Capital investment goes where it is welcomed – and stays where it is appreciated.”..."
http://www.onlinesentinel.com/...
As usual, the Governor is ignoring inconvenient truths. The "capital" of the people he truly represents, ALEC, goes where it can make the most profit at the costs of workers, communities, our children, and the environment. Examples abound - the chemical spill in West Virginia, the
fertilizer explosions in Texas and in Indiana, and the
2.7 million gallons of crude oil spilled in Alabama, to name a few. These examples occurred in so called "Right to Work" states with abysmal environmental protection records. These are States that also have some of the nation's highest levels of infant mortality, children in poverty, and lowest levels of funding for public health and education.
[1st represents the best state for children and 51st represents the worst state for children in the country]
Alabama Ranks:
47th among states in percentage of babies born at low birthweight.
50th among states in its infant mortality rate.
41st among states in per pupil expenditures
Child Poverty in Alabama
Number of poor children (and percent poor) 306,973 (27.6%)
Number of children living in extreme poverty (and percent in extreme poverty) 134,329 (12.1 %)
Number of children receiving cash assistance from Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) 41,198
Maximum monthly TANF cash assistance for a family of three $215
Indiana Ranks:
24th among states in percent of babies born at low birthweight.
45th among states in its infant mortality rate.
32nd among states in per pupil expenditures.
Child Poverty in Indiana
Number of poor children (and percent poor) 360,859 (23.0%)
Number of children living in extreme poverty (and percent in extreme poverty) 180,971 (11.6%)
Number of children receiving
cash assistance from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families TANF)
44,839
Maximum monthly TANF cash assistance for a family of three $288
South Carolina Ranks:
47th among states in percent of babies born at low birthweight.
42nd among states in its infant mortality rate.
37th among states in per pupil expenditures.
Child Poverty in South Carolina
Number of poor children (and percent poor) 296,759 (27.8%)
Number of children living in extreme poverty (and percent in extreme poverty) 139,974 (13.1%)
Number of children receiving cash assistance from Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) 30,360
Maximum monthly TANF cash assistance for a family of three - $216
Texas Ranks:
33rd among states in percent of babies born at low birthweight.
23rd among states in its infant mortality rate.
43rd among states in per pupil expenditures.
Child Poverty in Texas
Number of poor children (and percent poor)
1,829,214(26.6%)
Number of children living in extreme poverty (and percent in extreme poverty) 762,622(11.1%)
Number of children receiving cash assistance from Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) 95,371
Maximum monthly TANF cash assistance for a family of three $260
http://www.childrensdefense.org/...
These are the Governor's examples of "economic opportunity." But the "opportunity" he's pushing is not for the people of Maine, it is for the benefit of LePage's neo-feudal backers - the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
ALEC's track record is evident in every "Right to Work" state where they have successfully pushed their legislative agenda. "Right to Work" states suffer on any measure of quality of life and middle class growth.
For those who prefer facts to the ALEC propaganda that LePage spins, Darrell Minor's study Poverty, Productivity, and Public Health: The Effects of "Right to Work" Laws on Key Standards of Living is a must read piece.
Minor has "analyzed a spectrum of seven measures for standard of living;" States' Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Poverty Levels, Health Insurance coverage, Life expectancy, Home ownership, Joblessness, and Income Gap, to determine whether there are differences in those measures between "right to work" states and those states that are worker friendly.
What he finds puts the lie to LePage and every right to work advocate's claims on right to work laws, job creation, and quality of life.
...To sum up, this study has found that worker-friendly states are significantly healthier, are more productive, have less poverty, and with citizens who enjoy longer life spans. In four of the seven measures (GDP per capita, poverty, insurance and life expectancy rates) so-called “right-to-work” states come out significantly (and statistically) worse.
These findings have broad policy implications in those states where lawmakers are wrongly considering RTW measures, and should inform the good efforts of union members and allies to quell those efforts. Instead of pursuing laws that actually lower the standard of living in their states, policy makers should look for ways to elevate everyone’s standard of living. Enacting RTW laws is not only misguided, but in fact counterproductive to achieving such ends. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as ‘right to work.’ It provides no ‘rights’ and no ‘works’. Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining.”[26] The evidence suggests that Dr. King was correct in this belief, and that those who would advocate for a state to enact RTW laws would also be lowering the standard of living for that state’s residents.
In other words, if Governor LePage's lips are moving, he's
lying, just as he has every time he has used the phrases "tax cuts," "Job Creators," or "Right to Work." Last evening's address was no exception. A robust middle class is what powers a healthy economy and Governor LePage's anti-worker, anti-education, anti poor, anti-towns, anti-education, anti-child, agenda is an attack on the middle class and the working poor by other means.
Despite the Governor's avowed love of lower taxes, that love only extends to the powerful corporate entities that support him, not to smaller businesses, our communities, or our people.
One of the most telling examples of that is the Governor's attack on Maine's public education. At a time when "Green" is the new Gold standard, with Green technologies creating more jobs in states that support investment in education, research, and infrastructure, the LePage administration has cut the state's share of revenue funding to towns. This has had a punishing impact on communities as they struggle to maintain infrastructure and educate our children.
"...The second fact left out of LePage campaign literature is that the cost of education has not stood still during his years in office. As state aid to schools stagnated at artificially low levels, it was up to communities to raise taxes and cut services, in effect subsidizing an income tax cut with cuts that hurt middle-class and poor families.
Another way to express this trend is by looking at how close the state has come to funding education at the 55 percent required by law.
According to a study commissioned by the Legislature, the state share hovered between 50 percent and 53 percent from 2006 to the 2008-2009 school year. It has declined steadily ever since, dropping to 42 percent last year...."
http://www.pressherald.com/...
The Governor repeatedly claims to be for lower taxes, when he is in fact pushing higher taxes onto our municipalities and our neighbors in order to give tax breaks to his puppet masters.
LePage is not pushing an agenda that benefits Maine's people. He's trying to sell the wish list of the American Legislative Exchange Council. "Right to Work" legislation is at the top of that list, along with limiting consumer rights, voting rights, and privatizing government services. Sound familiar? It should. ALEC has been pushing similar legislation in state houses across the country.
In spite of the Governor's "I'm just a hard working Mainer like you" rhetoric, he is not working for Mainers. It is ALEC who has been dictating LePage administration policies. The attack upon our state's workers and worker's rights, is not happenstance. It's a set up to rob us of our children's right to an education and our tax dollars.
"...the core of ALEC's education agenda is about vouchers and privatization. Of course, since educators have unions that resist vouchers and privatization, they will do anything in their power to weaken our unions and silence our voices. That's why ALEC backs anti-union measures like the attack on workers' right to collective bargaining. They want to strip away our ability to negotiate not only for salary and health care for our families, but also for things that affect our students, like smaller class sizes."
Governor LePage lied to the people of Maine last night. He used verbal smoke and mirrors designed to pit us against one another with buzz words like "welfare fraud" and "right to work." It is a subterfuge used in state after state where ALEC's agenda is pushed by willing politicians. It's designed to distract us from the men behind the curtain robbing us blind.
The people of Maine, the people of this nation, deserve far better. We deserve true public servants, not bought and paid for Governors and Legislators like LePage that work against the people's best interest.
Together, we can rid ourselves of these parasites who are sucking our states and nation dry.
If you would like to help Maine dump the odious LePage, please do what you can to support Mike Michaud's campaign for Governor - http://www.michaud2014.com/
We need him rather badly to avoid being another version of Alabama, South Carolina, Indiana, and Texas. That's an "economic opportunity" no one needs.