Gov. Paul LePage held a Capitol for the Day event at Mount Ararat Middle School in Topsham today, capping off an afternoon of events in the midcoast region.

LePage and his cabinet took questions from a crowd of almost 200 people for 90 minutes, stressing the need for the state to get its fiscal house in order to compensate for high health care, energy and education costs and a relatively old population. Without changes in state priorities, Maine will not be able to attract new businesses, he said.

“In order to have somebody sign the back of a paycheck, you need to have someone willing to sign the front of a paycheck,” he said, underscoring his administration’s emphasis on job creation.

The questions covered topics from education to the environment, social services and economic development.

Many in the audience supported the governor’s message, applauding loudly. Others were critical, asking pointed questions about proposed cuts in the governor’s budget, his support for legislation targetting organized labor and his proposal to have teachers pay more toward their retirement.

Asked about his administration’s efforts to reform state environmental review, LePage insisted the changes do not weaken environmental protection but make the permitting process quicker and more predictable – something he said is essential in getting businesses to move to the state.

On education, he said he wants to pay the best teachers accordingly, but said unions won’t let that happen.  He said schools should do away with the No Child Left Behind mandates and paperwork and focus on teaching language, science, math and history.

One of those top teachers was in the audience.

Sherri Gould,  literacy teacher at Nokomis Regional High School in Newport was Maine teacher of the year in 2005. She criticized the governor for his efforts to cut the value of teacher retirement plans and make teachers pay more for them, as well as what she says is a lack of civility on his part.

“I want to retire with the pension I was promised,” she said before the meeting, standing with about a dozen protesters.
LePage said the state cannot sustain spending 50 percent of its budget on education and 30 percent on health and human services.

“We simply do not have enough resources because our people live in poverty for the most part,” he said, a theme he re-iterated several times during the session.

Asked about the benefits of merging the embattled Maine Turnpike Authoriuty with the Maine Department of Transportation, LePage said there could be some savings by consolidating administration. But he added that the authority’s ability to issue bonds could allow it to finance major road improvements in the state like a turnpike spur to Sanford or an east west highway, something the state can’t afford to address for at least 10 years.

Earlier in the afternoon, LePage met with Midcoast businessmen at a closed reception held by the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber of Commerce. The reception raised more than $3,000 for the Tedford Shelter and LePage visited the Brunswick nonprofit’s family shelter on Federal Street to present the check. LePage, who has spoken of his own bouts with homelessness as a child, met with some of the homeless families and offered them encouragement.

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