Gov. LePage’s continued refusal to issue the $15 million senior housing bond is both immoral and illegal.
The senior housing bond was approved by 70 percent of Maine voters and our Legislature. It is intended to provide badly needed housing for Maine’s low-income seniors. Without the bond funds, many seniors remain in unsafe houses or apartments, with their lives and safety at risk. That’s the immoral part.
I conclude that his inaction is illegal based on the Maine Constitution, which makes clear that “any measure referred to the people and approved by a majority of the votes given thereon shall … take effect and become a law.”
Our state constitution also declares that “all power is inherent in the people” and that the governor’s constitutional duty is to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
The voter-approved bonds are “law.” The governor does not have the authority to veto the will of Maine voters. He cannot pick and choose which laws to comply with and which he will ignore. He cannot thumb his nose at the Legislature and the people of Maine.
John Nale
Waterville
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