Our elected officials in Augusta are attempting to set the next state budget, the Windham town councilors just sent their proposed budget to the Windham Town Meeting, the proposed RSU 14 budget is ready for Election Day, the Republicans have more candidates running to be the next president than the entire population of Dixville Notch, N.H. and Governor LePage is promising to veto every piece of legislation he sees. That sentence probably just broke all rules pertaining to decent writing but I certainly have never claimed to be a decent writer in the first place. The only thing I ever won in high school was a pin proclaiming that I was that year’s most improved student, which either says a lot about me or even worse, a lot about my high school class. And all I can see is red.

Two recently submitted pieces of legislation submitted to the Maine Legislature ensures that I will continue to call our state’s capital city, Disgusta. If I am correct, those Maineacs have hundreds of pieces of proposed legislation to ponder over and then approve or disapprove them. Recently Governor LePage proposed a bill that would extend the hours establishments could serve alcohol to 2 a.m. I really don’t see why that’s so important other than the state of Maine could possibly have a slight increase in taxes on alcohol. What I do see is that gives someone another hour to drink and then be even more intoxicated when getting behind the wheel. All I can bet on is that the eyes of those who do will really be red.

What is really going to have people seeing red is a bill proposed by Maine Senate President Michael Thibodeau, R-Waldo, that would allow hunters whose religion prohibits wearing hunter orange clothing to wear red instead. The reason given for this proposed bill is that the Amish faith prohibits the use of bright colors. I have to wonder where this problem came from so suddenly because in 1973 the Blaze Orange law went into affect statewide and had been in affect six years earlier for the southwestern part of Maine for six years. It either means Maine eventually gets things accomplished or we act rather slowly. If this law passes, why do I have the strange suspicion that the amount of hunters wearing red will probably be higher than the Amish population of the state? I know plenty of hunters who hate to wear fluorescent orange and some I know take it off when deep in the woods. Hopefully that’s all that they take off because if they do, I suspect even more of us would be seeing red.

Then there’s the case of the Democrats in Augusta blocking or at least slowing down Governor LePage’s nominee for the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). We all know that same thing goes on at Capitol Hill in our nation’s capital and probably is no different than why the Windham town councilors never appointed someone to fill a vacant council seat, although the Windham Town Charter states they should. I must mention that my nickname for Maine’s PUC is the Public’s Useless Committee because that’s the way I feel about it. Guess some might say it makes me see red.

Then there’s all the taxpayer money paying for some exorbitant salaries in Windham, which has quite a few people seeing red. Our superintendent of schools is making somewhere in the neighborhood of $140,000, our town manager now has a salary of around $112,000, our tax assessor has a salary of around $85,000, our new director of the Parks and Recreation Department has a starting salary of $66,000 after leaving Standish with a salary around $57,000 and replacing the previous Windham director who had a salary of around $73,000. When I see someone like a nurse who has been working her whole lifetime and will never see a salary of $66,000, it makes me see red as well.

Lane Hiltunen of Windham sees red when seeing empty municipal vehicles running for hours to keep cool or warm.

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