President Obama’s State of the Union address drew a mixed reaction from Mainers on Tuesday night.

His proposals to offer tax breaks to middle income families and to send students to community colleges for free were applauded, but the state’s senior senator expressed concerns that the president has not provided a clear strategy for fighting homegrown terror.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who is a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, was pleased that the president indicated his support for legislation to guard against the nation’s increasing vulnerability to cyberattack, but the Republican called on the president to pay more attention to Islamic terrorists.

“It is concerning that the president still has not provided a clear strategy for the very real terrorist threats we face from Islamic extremists,” Collins said in a statement. “We must develop a plan to address home-grown terror. This includes Americans who leave the United States and are trained abroad, only to return with the intention to do harm.”

As for the president’s economic agenda, Garrett Martin, executive director of the Maine Center for Economic Policy, said that asking the wealthy and corporations that have benefited from historically low taxes and a wide range of loopholes to pay more is a common sense approach that will improve the fairness of the tax code and support investments that will result in a stronger economy and more widely shared prosperity.

“Tonight, the president laid out an agenda for prosperity that targets America’s greatest economic asset: a robust, productive middle class,” Martin said in a statement. “Making sure that working families can afford child care, that they don’t have to choose between keeping their job or caring for a sick child, and that their historic levels of productivity are rewarded with higher wages should be priorities that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle can get behind.

“This should be true in Washington and here in Maine as well.”

The Maine Center for Economic Policy is a think tank that analyzes economic issues for the public and for policy makers.

William Cassidy, a member of the Maine Community College Board of Trustees, supported the president’s proposal to have the government pay for a student to attend two years of community college but questioned who will pay for it.

“I absolutely applaud it. It would be wonderful if that could happen,” said Cassidy, also the president emeritus of the Washington County Community College. “But the reality is the financial resources, which are limited. Where are the funds going to come from?”

The president’s speech also resonated with U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree. “The middle class issues the president talked about, like paychecks, jobs and college expenses, are the issues that working families struggle with on a daily basis,” the Democrat said in a statement. “Paid sick leave, making college more affordable and closing loopholes that wealthy taxpayers use should be issues that everyone can get behind.”

Rep. Bruce Poliquin, Maine’s newly elected Republican congressman, wasn’t impressed.

“Once again, President Obama filled the House chamber and our living rooms at home with empty promises for the remainder of his term,” he said. “However, I hope the president was sincere in wanting to work with Congress to pass legislation that will help our hard-working families and small businesses succeed.”

Poliquin said he will continue to work with both parties to fight for the best interest of the 2nd District, including for things such as more jobs, less debt and more freedom.

U.S. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said he welcomed many of the proposals the president discussed.

“They are important contributions to a debate that Washington must have about how we support middle class Americans who want and have earned nothing less than the opportunity to live a life where they’re not in constant fear of whether they’ll be able to put food on the table, pay for vital medications, an or just keep the heat and lights on,” King said in a statement. “Over the past decade, that’s became a faraway dream for too many people, and it’s time that we recommit ourselves to working with one another to make them a priority.”