For Portland native Bob Morrill, this year’s election was the right time for him “to get off the sidelines and into the game.” The Westbrook Republican is vying for the House District 125 seat.

Morrill, 61, grew up in Portland and graduated from Deering High. He then enlisted in the Air Force and was later honorably discharged. After attending the University of Maine for a few months, Morrill said, he realized he would “be better served with a vocation versus an education,” and began working.

Morrill has lived in Westbrook for 33 years and has a wife, Martha, and three children. He has worked as director of national sales for Itt Autowize Auto Parts, as vice president of distribution for Emery-Waterhouse, a hardware and building materials distributor, and as director of customer service and distribution for Sebago Shoe. He’s now director of client relations for First Suburban Title in Gorham. He has served on several committees in the city, including the Planning Board.

Morrill said he believes the state’s formula for property taxes “is antiquated” and needs to be revised.

“We need to change the method of the way people are paying property taxes,” he said, by freezing current values and increasing them only by the rate of inflation instead of by an appraisal process.

He also thinks the answer to reducing income tax isn’t to shift the burden onto a sales tax, which he thinks might happen.

“We need to eliminate the spending side,” he said, about the answer to lowering income taxes.

In general, Morrill said, he doesn’t like gambling, but doesn’t hold a strong position on the proposal for a casino in Oxford County.

He said he believes the school consolidation law “makes sense” as a way to pool the state’s resources. Education is an important issue for him, especially considering that the bulk of the state’s budget is spent on education, while, at the same time, Maine students are falling behind.

“We have to understand why,” he said.

Dirigo Health is a program Morrill believes is failing and doesn’t support the imposition of a tax on beverages in order to fund it.

Having a health care plan is an important issue for Morrill, who believes thatif the state doesn’t take care of its residents and businesses, Maine will become “a 100 percent vacation state.”

“We’re heading in the wrong direction,” he said.

Bob Morrill