Good evening, we are live in Augusta for the Governor's State of the State Address - I'm Jennifer Rooks here with Maine Public Political Correspondent Mal Leary.

Mal, this is the first time-- or the last time we're gonna see Governor LePage issue a State of the State address, isn't it?

- It is and this is a tradition that goes back several Governors of addressing the legislature with the traditional State of the State address.

You go way back in history, they were written.

Which is why the Governor a couple of years ago reiterated and brought that back.

- What do we expect tonight?

- We expect the Governor will probably talk about his favorite topics that he's tried to get through the legislature for the last seven years.

Further tax cuts, that's been a big issue ever since he got elected.

Welfare reform is another big issue.

And some very specific pieces of legislation like one that would help elderly stay in their homes and not be foreclosed on by local municipal officials.

He has talked about that being in his speech tonight.

- A little bit of an unusual scene here.

The Governor's done something that he has not done in previous years which is hold a little bit of a gathering, a party for the legislature just downstairs from where we are today.

Does that signal anything now?

- Well traditionally he's had the legislature over to the Blaine House afterwards.

This time he's had a reception down in the Hall of Flags prior to-- legislature some overtures but we'll have to see what he says in his speech and what he proposes and the tone of his speech to see whether that will be successful or not.

- Another thing that does not happen every year is that there are a number of protesters, really lining the hallway between the Governor's office and the door that he will enter the House Chamber.

We've seen a few protesters in recent years, but really nothing like this.

- Now this, you have to harken back to the days of the shutdown in the 90s to when there were large crowds here during the State of the State Address.

The Senate had to go through that cordon of protesters to get down to the House Chamber, which is part of the Pomp and Circumstance we go through for State of the State.

It's a joint convention, a meeting of both the House and Senate together.

- Here ye, here ye.

Make way, make way, make way.

For his excellency, Governor, Commander in Chief of the State of Maine, the honorable Paul R. LePage.

(applause) (gavel banging) - The Chair is please to welcome the honorable Paul R. LePage, Governor of the State of Maine.

(gavel bangs) (applause and cheering) Oh, I gotta take the gavel.

(applause) Oh, I got one more, I'm sorry Governor.

I'll call you up here soon.

What page is there?

What page?

What page?

What page?

(gavel bangs) The chair would like to thank this evening's Harold Staff Sergeant Richard Fowler of the United States Air Force, State of Maine, 2018 Outstanding Airman of the Year.

Would he please rise and accept the greetings of the convention?

(applause) The Chair would request that the Governor LePage please step forward and address the joint convention.

I'm supposed to grab that gavel.

(applause) - [LePage] Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Members of the 128th Legislature, distinguished guests, my fellow citizens, I want to briefly remember Paul Mitchell of Waterville, brother of Senator Mitchell, who passed away this weekend.

He was a dedicated public servant and a good friend.

As I begin the last State of the State Address of my time as Governor of the great State of Maine, let me be first to thank my wife.

Honey, please stand.

(applause) First of all, she looked gorgeous.

(laughter and applause) She has been unwavering and as representative from the Governor to the people of the State of Maine, and here she's done it with grace, with dignity, and she's never said no that I can recall.

She's just unbelievable.

And in case I forget, Happy Valentine's Day.

(applause) I also want to thank our children, and tonight there are two that are here.

Lauren, who you've all heard and known.

She's been with me since 2010.

Now she's on her own trying to set her own career and I wanna tell ya.

Before it's done, she's gonna tower over what I've ever accomplished.

My other daughter, Lisa, who has two children I'm so proud of, and she has a son that's very active (laughing) and all I can tell you is payback's a bitch.

(laughing) Because I remember when she was young.

(laughing) To Staff Sergeant Ronald Fowler, the Air Force 243rd Engineering Installation Squadron.

Thank you for your service to the State Maine, and to the United States of America.

You make us very proud to be the outstanding officer in 2018.

And I cannot be any happier, and my wife Ann, and the First Lady is so proud to be seated next to you, as she is such a dedicated person of our military.

(applause) Little unusual, I'm gonna thank a few people, and recognize a few people tonight.

And one is Sergeant Angela Kooistra, and believe me I don't know how to really pronounce her last name, but she is head of the security detail.

And in our home at the Blaine House, the rule is this, if my wife's not around Angela's in charge.

(laughing) And the other one is Holly Lusk.

Holly Lusk is my Chief of Staff who just took over recently, and I was approached by the press in saying holy mackerel, you seem to be more assertive than you've ever been.

Well Holly has the distinction of getting me out of my shyness.

(laughter and applause) Tonight I'm here to speak to you about the future of Maine.

The future about this great state.

We have made some progress, but there is so much more we could have done and we should have done.

But as we move forward, I hope that you can get it done.

In his last State of the Union, Ronald Reagan said If anyone expects just a proud recitation of the accomplishments of my administration, I say leave that to history, we're not finished yet.

So, my message tonight is very similar put on your work boots, our job is not done.

Now is not the time to slow down.

Now is the time to working until the very last minute of my administration.

The last day, as they inaugurate the new Governor in 2019.

I hope to take my lovely wife, and I sit back, take some rest and get to enjoy each other's company once again.

I came into office saying I would put people before politics and I've tried to do that every single day.

Politics, as usual puts our most vulnerable Mainers at risk.

As most of you know, I'm not a big fan of status quo.

Today, special interests continue to high jack our ballet box, and politicians continue to kowtow to wealthy lobbyists and welfare activists.

The legislature has forgotten about the Mainers who mean the most, our elderly.

Our intellectually and physically disabled, and even our youth are being left out of the process.

I vow to spend my final year as Governor fighting for those Mainers whose voice is not heard here in Augusta.

(applause) For this last seven years I have heard that the left is compassionate.

Subsidizing solar panels for wealthy homeowners at the expense of the poorest people in Maine is not compassionate.

Raising taxing on hard working families to expand welfare entitlements for able-bodied people is not compassionate.

Catering to activists in the halls of the State House, instead of struggling family businesses on Main Street is not compassion.

I know what it's like to need help, and I know some representatives-- I see Craig Hickman right there and we've talked about it recently.

We know what it is to have rough times.

We understand that it's not always easy.

That's why every Saturday, I meet with constituents one on one.

We talk about their problems.

I have been accused of getting involved with people's personal lives and trying to fight for them from my office.

It is all our jobs.

It is our jobs as elected officials to help them.

We are, after all, public servants.

For the last seven years my priority has been to make all Mainers prosper.

And I have been fighting both sides of the aisle.

Because I believe that both sides of the aisle need to be working closer together.

Too many Maine families are facing skyrocketing property taxes that strain household budgets.

Our elderly on fixed incomes are particularly vulnerable to these increases.

Yet simply, we cannot tax our way to prosperity.

As Chief Justice John Marshall wrote, the power to tax is the power to destroy.

School budgets are not commonly blamed, but are normally blamed for tax increases.

The real culprit is the tremendous amount of land and property value we've allowed to be taken off our tax rolls, leaving homeowners to pick up the tab.

These land owners must contribute to our tax base.

It's time for all land and real estate owners to take the burden off homeowners and pay taxes, or a fee in lieu of taxes.

The federal government does it.

Maine's property tax people, homeowners need a break.

We, you, and I need to make sure that the large foundations, the Natural Resource Council of Maine, who are ripping off the land owner in the State of Maine, need to step up to the plate.

They can put all the land they want in conservation, but they have to contribute to society.

(applause) It's gonna be the same thing as last year.

All those of you who have exercises during the course of this meeting, you're welcome to the Blaine House.

The rest of you, you know you gotta break a sweat sometimes.

(laughing) We proposed allowing municipalities to collect property taxes or fees from large nonprofit entities, and we've tried to require Land Trust to contribute to the tax rolls.

We have been met with staunch resistance from the Democrats.

Now let's talk about this.

Let's think outside the box.

Tough problems need tough decisions and tough solutions.

I don't walk away from tough decisions, and I think I've proven it many times.

Even in this last weekend.

And I'm not embarrassed to tell you it's the right decision.

We need to be efficient and effective leaders for this state.

We establish an online registry for all nonprofits to report conservation land ownership.

The result of all property tax exemptions reported within municipalities exceeds $18 billon.

Think about that, $18 billion.

The loss of that tax revenue has shifted over $330 million to guess who?

Hard working property owners in the State of Maine.

My office is going to be distributing to each one of you the total value of property taken off the tax rolls for each town along with the estimated increase in taxes that the annual homeowner has had to pay.

It's gonna be out tomorrow.

You can run away, but you can't hide.

The Maine people need your help, and you need to stand up and be counted in this dialogue.

It's not-- You can continue to put land on conservation, and I compliment you for that.

Let's save the planet.

But let's pay a fair share.

You need to pay your taxes.

(applause) Over four million acres have been conserved by the federal state governments, as well a nonprofit organization such as Land Trust.

Nearly 20% of this state is conserved from development.

Ladies and gentlemen, and people of the State of Maine, this area is larger than the entire State of Connecticut.

Think about that.

We have taken the State of Connecticut, and made it tax exempt.

In 1993, about 35,800 acres of land was owned by Land Trust.

That number has increased by an astonishing 1,270% since 1993.

Land Trust now control over one half million acres, with an estimated taxable value of $400 million.

I'm all in for conversation, but they need to contribute towards the hard working Mainers in the State of Maine.

We cannot just turn our backs and walk away.

We need, and could, have a state that is as very bit as prosperous as the State of New Hampshire.

All we need to do is make sure that everybody contributes.

Ask your local officials how much land in your community has been taken off the tax rolls, then ask them how much tax revenue they could be contributing to help the property tax owners of Maine.

The desire to preserve land without benefit to the tax payer, while their input is out of control.

We must restore balance.

We must ensure that all property owners are required to contribute to the local tax base.

Everyone must pay their fair share.

Now I have listened the fair share comment at least a thousand times in the last eight years.

It's not only here in the halls of government, but it's in your communities.

Everyone has to pay a fair share.

It's common sense.

Let me move on.

Richard and Lynnette Sukeforth are the elderly couple who were evicted from their home due to their inability to pay their property taxes on their fixed income.

Due to health reasons, Mr.

and Mrs.

Sukeforth were unable to attend tonight.

There are two or three other couple that have gone through the same thing and they are also elderly and weren't able to get them arranged to get here tonight.

But I will tell you this.

In 2015, the town Albion foreclosed on the Sukeforth home and sold it for $6,500.

The property was worth between $70 and $80,000.

A compassionate neighbor offered to pay their taxes on the day the lien perfected.

And the town officials refused to accept the money.

Folks, the town refused.

I don't believe there's a person in this room, whether they're in the gallery, or sitting here as elected officials, that would think that that is a proper thing to do.

If somebody walks in and is willing to help these people, why couldn't they?

I was told that it's one example.

I'm telling you, it's a lot more.

As we're digging into it now, it's a lot more.

A lot more than you realize.

And I will tell you this though, I will say this, we're finding out that some of the cities are far more compassionate than some of the rural towns.

But it's a problem.

This couple was removed from their home.

Mrs.

Sukeforth was bedridden from a stroke.

They lost everything.

All of their equity and everything else.

The budding landowner that bought it demolished it and evicted them.

I wish I'd learned from the Sukeforths a little earlier, 'cause we could have intervened and we tried.

But it was too late to help them.

I've submitted a bill to protect the elderly from tax lien foreclosure going forward.

I am not suggesting-- and if you need to sit with me and talk about changing the language of the bill, please work with me.

I am not suggesting that we cannot, and will outlaw foreclosing on elderly.

What I am saying is very simply this.

As a Mayor for eight years in the city of Waterville, I never had to throw an elderly couple out of their homes, because there are options.

When you file a lien, it takes 18 months to perfect.

A town official has 18 months to work with this family.

And I urge you all to have the compassion to work with them so that we can preserve whatever little equity they have, stay in their home for as long as they can.

Because ultimately guess who picks up the tab?

I can tell you right now that Mr.

and Mrs.

Sukeforth are in a nursing home, they're both very ill.

And since they lost everything, we the people are picking up the tab.

They didn't want that.

They were very proud people.

Mr.

Sukeforth is a veteran.

Elderly gentleman and he's from the greatest generation that they don't ask for hand outs.

We, the public officials of this state, threw him on the street.

We must fight to protect out parents and our grandparents, who's fixed income cannot keep up with the rising cost of property taxes.

This common sense solution will require municipalities to put a little bit more effort and show a little bit of compassion for the people who live in their communities.

And frankly, I don't think that's too much to ask.

When I was Mayor we would have folks who had problems with their taxes.

We would come in and I see a councilor here that I shared in those meetings that we've never had to throw people out, and there were some really sad stories.

But we always found a way.

And I think, we as Mainers have the fortitude to do that.

And we don't have to make it very complex, it could be a couple, a one paragraph.

Do everything you can before you foreclose.

That's all we ask.

(applause) Thank you.

I wanna thank Representative Epsling for sponsoring this bill.

And I truly, from the bottom of my heart, urge you all to support this bill.

Because it can be made very simple, and it can be made so that we'll all wanna do the right thing.

And there's many, many options available to elderly.

The problem is always been they simply don't know.

And so I think that's a really good opportunity for this body.

I wanna get into the tax conformity now, 'cause I'm on a roll with taxes.

My tax cut have resulted in tangible savings for Maine families.

A family of four earning $90,000 pays 29% less today than they did when we did the tax package.

A family of four earning $35,000, who are paying $298 in income tax, no longer pay income tax.

(applause) And despite-- despite the rhetoric that you hear from people, this is not wealthy people.

This is not tax breaks for the rich.

These are tax breaks for hard working Mainers.

The people in the State of Maine's per capita incomes is around $42,000.

New Hampshire is $74,000.

The number one highest per capita income in the United States of America, they border our state, and we haven't figured out their secret yet.

We ought to try.

(applause) - We ought to try.

(audience applauding) The new Federal Tax Cut and Jobs Act will provide more savings to families and businesses.

The Federal Tax Cut will result in an estimated economic benefit of approximately $1 billion in 2019 for Mainers.

More than 500 million of that will be in direct income tax benefits to the Maine families and to small businesses in the State of Maine.

However, whenever Congress changes the federal tax code, Maine has to make a decision whether to conform to the federal tax code or to stay on its own.

We have historically in most states with an income tax have historically stayed and conformed with the Federal Tax Code.

Doing it is better for Maine because it simplifies the tax code, it keeps one tax system.

Not doing so means the State of Maine has to go on to its own and hire a whole lot of people and beef up their income tax division.

For that reason, I am proposing legislation to conform fully to the Federal Tax Code.

However, again, because of the hard work that's been done over the last seven years and in reducing our taxes, dealing with the exemptions and the standard deduction which the Federal Government is doing now, if we conform fully, we are gonna be having a tax increase.

I am asking you all that this is really federal tax dollars and I'm asking you to pass it on to the Maine people.

Conform but pass it on, because that's the right thing to do.

(audience applauding) And I'm asking you that if you don't, I will not use the Tax Cuts the Federal Government is trying to pass on to Americans.

I will not stand in the way and allow it to conform and not pass it on.

I'm simply not going to.

In fact, I think after seven years, you probably got the hint that I'm not big on increasing taxes.

I do believe in conformity and I do believe in Medicaid expansion.

Medicaid expansion, while I think it's a bad public policy when you give able-bodied people a free ride, it is the law of our state.

I will enforce the law of the state.

(audience applauding) That's the good news.

(audience applauding) That is the good news.

(laughter) Now let me give you the bad news.

Medicaid expansion is the law, and I will execute the law.

But funding is a Legislative constitutional duty, and it is the Legislature's responsibility to appropriate the funds.

Appropriate the money, so we can implement the law sooner than later.

I do not believe it's appropriate for this Body to wait till after the November elections.

Do it now!

Do it now!

The people of Maine, if you believe in it then fund it.

I have laid out some basic principles to guide your decision on how to pay Medicaid expansion.

I will not jeopardize the state's long-term fiscal health.

We must avoid the budget disasters of the past.

And many of you were here and you know what I'm talking about.

We paid off $750 dollars to our hospitals.

We must fund Medicaid expansion in the way that we are sustainable and ongoing.

Therefore, my principles are very, very simple.

No tax increases on Maine families or businesses.

No use of the Budget Stabilization Fund, which is better known as the Rainy Day Fund.

No use of other one-time funding mechanism known as gimmicks.

You all know what I'm talking about.

Fully fund the vulnerable Mainers who are still waiting for services.

(audience applauding) No reductions of services or funding for nursing homes or people with disabilities.

(audience applauding) It would be fiscally irresponsible for the Legislature to demand we implement Medicaid expansion without adequate funding.

It is simply not too much to ask a Legislature to prioritize our truly needy over those looking for taxpayer-funded handouts.

And I'm very serious when I tell you that it's important that the disabled, the elderly, and those with mental, the intellectual disabilities are put in front of the line and not behind the line.

(audience applauding) DHHS cannot hire and train the additional 105 people needed to run expanded Medicaid program without money.

We cannot pay the state's share of new enrollees' medical bills without funding.

Democrats, hospitals, advocacy groups and wealthy out-of-state interests who campaigned for this referendum claim that adding 80,000 people onto this program will save us money.

And I will tell you right now I will take you to your word.

Show me the money and put it in writing.

(audience applauding) Before this election, show the Maine people that what you campaigned on is the truth.

And I will be the first one to admit that I was wrong.

But I will tell you I have been trained in this business of finance for many, many years, and there's only two ways to fund this program, one is the way you say it could be done because there are savings and the other one is with new revenues.

And either way, you have the responsibility to make sure that the executive branch and the Department of Health and Human Services has the resources necessary to move forward.

And I'm ready to do it.

(audience applauding) I now ask Theresa Daigle and Josiah Godfrey to please stand up.

If you look back at the top, these are people you should be thinking about.

Theresa has shared with me the hardships she and her son have experienced while awaiting services for his physical and intellectual challenges.

Josiah has autism, an intellectual disability, and bipolar disorder.

He qualifies for services, but he is stuck on a wait list.

Because his mother needs to care for him, it will be impossible for her to continue working.

She has been told that she could leave Josiah at St.

Mary's and refuse to pick him up, thus making him homeless and available for Section 21.

Mainers, this is wrong!

It's absolutely highway robbery to do that to a Maine citizen who is actually a constituent of all of you, all of ours, and we need to take care of our own.

(audience applauding) I ask that the Legislature fully fund these programs so people like the Daigles can get the help they desperately need and qualify for.

It would be unconscionable to have to do the nuclear option and leave Josiah so he can get services.

We are better than that.

You are better than that.

And we need to take care of it now.

(audience applauding) Now I'm gonna get on my high horse.

(laughter) Many legislators tell me they don't pass bad bills.

I had a whole list but I've decided to just cut it down to one that is current and one that I see, I feel very, very passionate about and my family does, my wife does in particular because she's given so much of her time for the military.

I vetoed a bill that would prohibit 18-year-old adults from buying cigarettes, but the Legislature overturned it.

The law denies rights and responsibilities to 18-year-old adults who want to purchase a legal product.

Folks, this is not about cigarettes.

No one should ever start smoking because it's a little difficult to quit.

Actually I will say it's not that bad as done it seven times.

(laughter) It is a terrible thing to do, but this is about protecting one's personal choice from an ever-expanding nanny state.

Our laws must recognize one age when adulthood begins.

You, the Legislature, must pick that age.

I don't care if the age is 18, and I don't care if it's 21, but it can't be both.

(audience applauding) Legislators have no problem letting 18-year-olds vote for them in elections or die in wars.

Let's think about that a moment.

Legislators think 18-year-olds are not adult enough to decide whether they can buy a pack of cigarettes, but they think 18-year-olds are adult enough to vote on complex referendums like the legalization of marijuana, the elimination of tip credit, and the 3% tax surcharge that almost devastated our economy.

Think about that.

Thank God.

Thank God that cooler heads prevailed, because economically, folks, that was an absolute financial disaster.

Just the period between November and the time in which we shut down government 500 prominent affluent people said I'm done with the State of Maine.

It would have continued.

Young adults should be treated like young adults.

If an 18-year-old can fight for our country, pay taxes, get married, divorced, make personal medical life and death decisions, and even younger teens can use birth control, smoke medical marijuana, then let 18 years old be the maturity age.

Let them be adults.

As a parent I will tell you I would much prefer 41 'cause I have a son.

And when he was going through college and when I was in college 'cause there's very few in this room that were around when I was in college.

I mean, I was Abraham Lincoln's roommate.

But the point was it was a draft.

You didn't have a choice then.

And I will tell you, in Vietnam we lost 55,000 soldiers, 38,000, 38,000 were 18 year olds.

Nearly 45,000 of the 55,000 were under 21.

Folks, if we're gonna put a rifle on their back and send them to war, I think we owe it to them to help them have the maturity to make the decision whether they could buy a pack of cigarettes or not.

So my message to you is educate, don't legislate.

It's time.

(audience applauding) We are the oldest state in the nation.

And we must attract people to Maine.

Matter of fact I would prefer attracting young people to Maine.

Our current position requires us to get serious about growing our state.

I'm gonna ask you all to please join in that effort.

Let's talk about it.

Let's try to move in that direction.

I put forth a bill, I will put forth bills this session to support investment in Maine and the development of our workforce.

We have spent seven years fixing Maine's balance sheet.

Now is the time to make strategic investments in our economy and for the people of the State of Maine.

Our bond sales have not focused on commercialization.

I support commercialization of bonds.

Maine has always supported research-and-development, and that is good.

It's critical, it's important.

And the hope has always been to create jobs.

R&D is very critical, but it's not enough to bring the innovative products to market.

Developing a patent that sits on a shelf is not a good return on investments to the taxpayers.

And that's what's happened in the past.

Most of our money in R&D has gone to universities, has gone to Jackson Lab, has gone for research and development and patents.

And at one point early on in my 10th year as governor we had 37 patents on shelves collecting dust.

Our innovators create a vast array of the products in many industries: bio-tech; high-tech; forest products; manufacturing; aquaculture; agriculture.

Aquaculture, aquaponics.

We must invest in commercialization in addition to what we've done in research.

We have to do both.

Let's get our products to market.

Let's be who we used to be, innovatives, creators here in Maine, we were leaders in the boating industry.

We were leaders in the forest industry, in the paper industry.

We were there.

But we've got dumb, fat, and happy.

I had to go on lose 75 pounds to wake up.

The bottom line is this, Maine needs to reinvent itself and the time has come.

We need to do it now.

(audience applauding) I believe a commercialization bond will go a long ways at helping companies like NewPage who wants to put in a new tissue machine.

It will go a long ways and some of the people that I will talk about in a little bit that there's some great things happening and some great companies that are looking at Maine to come and invest.

The paper companies may have left but the 18 million acres of forest land is still here.

Let's reinvent ourselves.

Let's get into better more high-tech products.

Let's get in to the 21st century and move this state so we can catch New Hampshire.

(audience applauding) But, and, it's but and if we are to survive and succeed we need to grow our workforce and keep our economy growing.

Record numbers of baby boomers are entering retirement.

Employers need to replace these skilled workers.

For our economy to continue to grow, we must attract and retain young workforce.

Not only will these young people work in our industries, but they will also buy homes, they will pay taxes, invigorate our communities and, yes, most important for Maine right now is have children.

We need to have children.

Our schools are losing population.

We need to reinvent ourselves again and put more kids in our schools.

My wife and I are done.

(laughter) (audience applauding) We can and should invest in relieving the burden of student debt for those who want to stay in Maine or choose to relocate to Maine to start their professional career.

No one else is doing it.

(audience applauding) High student-loan payments prevent our young people from buying a house or car or spending their money at local businesses.

Many take higher-paying jobs out of state to survive.

They simply cannot afford to live in Maine.

That is unconstable as parents.

We should do everything we can to turn that around.

We cannot continue to sit by and watch employers have vacant positions that young people could fill.

I will be submitting legislation again to create funds to make strategic investment in our youth.

My initiative, the Maine Student Debt Relief Program, calls for a $50 million bond to fund zero-interest student loans to Maine kids who attend Maine schools.

(audience applauding) It also calls for a new, low-interest refinancing program to encourage graduates from other states to move to Maine.

And so many people that I've met in the course of the travels these last seven years would say Maine's so beautiful.

Loved to live there, but it's so expensive.

And it is.

It is.

And there's no question about it.

And until we realize that we have to get involved in commercialization and we have to develop a training program for young people and attract young people we are always gonna be a very high cost place to live.

So in addition, to just asking the Legislature to simplify the Opportunity Maine credit and providing low income loans and interest-free loans to our students, let's increase the credit so that employers can get involved in paying off student debt, it could be a hiring mechanism for employers.

You come to Maine, I'll not only pay you X but I'll help you pay your loans off.

We've already put it on the books.

There's the no phantom income.

And yesterday when I was in Washington I spoke to the president and to Ivanka Trump who's on the program to take phantom income at the national level and get rid of it for phantom income for students.

And I also said Maine would be a great place to have a pilot.

(audience applauding) I'm gonna ask you one other thing to have a serious dialog and I don't expect it to happen this year but I really do believe you need to have this dialog.

Good-paying jobs attract good workers.

To attract manufacturing jobs, more than half the states, 28 in fact, have now passed Right to Work legislation.

(audience applauding) I'm gonna talk a little bit of reality here.

28 states now have Right to Work.

And the most recent state to become Right to Work was the State of Kentucky in 2017.

And within three months after they announced it, Toyota committed, Amazon committed, and another company, I think it's called Bailey Industries or Bailer Industries committed.

In 2017 the State of Kentucky received commitments for $9.1 billion of capital investment setting a new record of the previous high of being $5 billion.

They nearly doubled it.

And folks, I will tell you, when I spoke to Airbus three or four years ago about getting them to come to Brunswick, which I really believed it was the right thing for them to do, they would have invested $250 million but they elected to go to Alabama.

And this is what the CEO told me.

Governor, I'm gonna ask you two questions.

How's your energy cost?

I said, well, the cheapest in New England.

(laughter) He said, but we're looking at Alabama.

Strike one.

Second one was are you right to work.

And I said no.

He said, well, Alabama is.

So they went to Alabama and spend $600 million.

And this is what she said to me.

And I think I said this last year in fact.

He says, you may be a good governor or you may be a bad governor, I don't know, but I'll tell you right now you don't know how much energy it takes to assemble a jet.

And at 14 cents versus 4 cents, we will get our money back, our investment back in Alabama three times faster than we could in Maine.

It's just food for thought.

I think you really need to be thinking about it.

I think it's very, very important.

Now, I've told you all the things you should be doing.

Let me tell you what we have done.

And to your help, for many of you you helped.

Some of you you didn't.

But some of you really put it on the map and really went to battle force and we got some things done.

Despite our challenges we have made state government more efficient and more accountable.

We have lowered the tax burden on hard-working Mainers.

We cut the pension-fund deficit by nearly half.

We paid off our hospital debt.

We reformed welfare.

And you know I was in Austin, Texas last year and I heard somebody say people say they want government to run like a business, until it does.

(laughter) Well guess what, I have run it like a business.

I think I'm very, very compassionate because I believe that a state lives and dies by its safety net.

But you have to be able to afford your safety net and you have to be very what I call tough love when you set your safety net up.

I am all for our elderly.

I am all for disabilities.

Intellectual disabilities under the King Administration, we close them high and we thought the problem went away.

But what we have done is we've filled our county jails.

It's time to fix it.

(audience applauding) (audience applauding) - We must continue to make progress, and progress is not allowing ourselves to be hijacked by big out-of-state money.

We must continue to look at our referendum system as a means of implementing a new way for Maine.

I will tell you right now the referendum system in Maine, whether you're Democrat or Republican, you must admit that it's not working.

(audience cheering and applauding) I will tell you right now it is not the will of the people because if it was the will of the people, we would rip up our Constitution and we would get rid of a representative republic, and you'd all be out of a job, because referendum is pure democracy, and it has not worked for 15,000 years.

If you're going to have a system, have a system.

If you want to have referendums, loose referendums, and you do not want to save it so that you can get the true will of the people, I'm going to tell you right now 50 plus one is not the will of the people.

And I will tell you it is heartbreaking, if you're a governor, to have to continually veto bills because no one wants to work on getting to a good bill.

And so, you've got to lobby like heck to get the minority to beat the majority.

Folks, that's the wrong way.

And if you are doing your job, and we were working at the center, and we're all working together, we would not need these referendums.

They're destructive.

Right now, right now, as you're going to be hearing it more and more, minimum wage is great, the private sector, unemployment is way down, everybody's makin' money, except for one group, the non-profits who serve nursing homes, home care.

All of the medical services that require a lot of intensive labor are losing money, and we're not giving 'em reimbursements.

We're not increasing their reimbursements.

This is wrong!

That's another way of forgetting our elderly.

We can't walk away, we need to allow the elders to live their lives in dignity in their golden years.

(audience applauding) We are not a true democracy, and I would urge you all, strongly urge you to go into this session and fix our referendums.

Make 'em equal to the whole state.

And I will tell you, and folks on the left, I will look at you right now and tell you I can get any referendum passed in this state by spending two weekends in a Portland mall, and that's not governing properly.

(audience cheering and applauding) I am pleased to report the state financial house is in good order.

In fact, it is in better shape than any time in the last 40 years.

Our economy's strong, unemployment is at or below 3%, it was at 8.2% when I took office in 2011, and lower than the national average, and lower than all of New England.

(audience applauding) I'd like to take full credit for it, but guess what, I'd be a hypocrite.

The fact of the matter is there's only one thing I did that was different than when I took office, one thing, is I changed the environment for business.

I became more business-friendly.

People come into our office and say, "Wow."

I get more letters and compliments from people talking about DOT, DEP, DECD, that now, people are working with business instead of against business.

That's all we did.

Everything else was done by business.

And I really tell you, that's a message for the future.

I just finished a book, reading a book, Scalia's Letters.

In there, there's one of his speeches that he gave about the right and the left.

And he goes through a whole lot of very complicated analogies and analysis, and it all comes down to two things: capitalism and socialism.

And he says in this day and age, capitalism is greedy, and socialism is power-hungry.

If you fix those two problems, society is great.

The only people that can fix that are you people.

You're the only ones that can do that with good public policy, public policy that will invite capital investment into our state, and once it gets here, you appreciate it, and you treat 'em fairly.

It's all we ask, fair treatment.

You know, people talk about unemployment rate.

I'll be very honest, 3% unemployment rate's not the real story.

The real story is that unemployment has a lot of people that work part time, and unemployment has people that have given up working, looking for work at all.

But this is one that I really believe that I've had a little bit to do with.

The state of Maine is number one in the country for having the most amount of people working that are in the labor force as a percentage of its population.

We lead.

If they can work, we get 'em to work, and we have to continue doing that.

(audience applauding) Number of jobs in the private sector, all-time high in 2017, never been any higher, although our population is not as high as it has been in the past.

Our good fiscal health is the result of making tough decisions and taking bold action.

And I believe that using the liquor money to buy bonds to pay off the hospitals was a good move.

(audience applauding) The only mistake I made there, we should have paid it in smaller increments, we shouldn't have paid it all at once because right now, there's 800 million dollars of hospital projects on the drawing board.

800, we paid off 750 million, now we got 800 in capital investment.

I guess they're not as poor as I thought they were.

(audience laughing and applauding) Before I took office, Augusta used a budget stabilization fund as a personal slush fund.

It damaged our credit rating and put us at risk in very severe emergencies.

And you must go back to '11, '12, and '13, when we first came in, and those of you that were here, we had budget shortfalls in DHHS like there was nobody's business.

We had a structural gap of 1.2 or three billion dollars.

Now the structural gap is 165 million, so let me explain it.

A structural gap is simply the amount of money that a legislature wants to spend, versus the amount of money they have available to spend.

That's the differential.

We have lowered that, and I will thank both sides here.

You've both done a very good job in helping me get this state in good financial order.

(audience applauding) Right now, the rainy day fund is over 200 million dollars.

I will challenge you to look forward to getting it to 300 million because I believe that 300 million dollar rainy day fund or budget stabilization fund will yield the state of Maine a AAA credit rating, and we would be in the top 10 states of America.

(audience applauding) This area that I'm talking about for a minute, I take great pride in, and I do take a lot of credit for it, and I got the scars to show it.

We have right-sized state workforce, making it more efficient, more accountable.

Former administrations balanced the budget on the backs of our state workers.

I promised I would not do that, and I didn't.

We eliminated furlough days.

We restored merit pay increases.

We provided cost of living increases, which, this biennium, is 6%.

We told the state employees that if you like your unions, you can keep your unions.

But we also told them if you don't want to, you don't have to join a union.

(audience applauding) And this, I believe, before the end of this year, you will find the Supreme Court of the United States coming in and saying, "You do not have to pay "extortion money to have a job."

(audience applauding) Many of our state employees have left the union ranks.

I think that the whole nation is moving away from seniority into performance-based employment, and I think that is the path of the 21st century, because you know what the alternative is?

The alternative is going to McDonald's, and you hit a couple of keys, and then your food comes down a little trough, and you never see a human being.

That's the problem overpowering the business community.

They go to robots.

Now, do robots think intelligently?

No, they do what they're told consistently.

There's no creative thinking, I agree, and it's the downfall of society.

I don't like it.

In fact, I don't go to a bank, I don't use ATMs.

If I can't see a person in front of me, I don't bank.

I haven't been to a bank in seven years.

(audience laughing) As long as I'm married, I won't have to.

(audience laughing) I haven't seen a check in 35 years!

(audience laughing) We really have made a lot of progress.

And all joking aside, and a little seriousness and joking aside, but we are moving ahead.

Folks, we are moving ahead.

This week, there are gonna be three major announcements, I'm hoping three major announcements, for companies coming to Maine, one I will make tonight.

Just today, North Carolina-based company LignaTerra announced it will build a new cross-laminated timber facility at the former Great Northern Paper site in Millinocket, Maine.

(audience cheering and applauding) 28 million dollar investment, 120 new jobs, good-paying jobs.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome, LignaTerra.

Your investment is welcome, and we will appreciate you.

(audience applauding) By Friday, I hope you're gonna hear two more major investments.

We have been working very, very hard at getting people here.

It is a difficult one, and I would ask you, you can make our job a little easier if you attacked the high cost of energy, 'cause that's the single biggest issue.

Our red tape that we had back in 2011 is under control.

They like the consistency.

They don't mind having tough regulations, as long as we're consistent, and we're reliable, and we don't change 'em every three months.

Energy, however, is a big problem, is a really big problem.

I think that if we continue doing what we're doing, if we could get our energy under control, bring new companies in, our revenues will be there.

The revenues will be there.

I just think we need to work together to make sure that we look at energy.

This weekend, Oklahoma, the state of Oklahoma, who is big in wind, have pulled all their wind subsidies.

They're saying, "There's no return on it.

"We've been doing it 15 years, it's killing us."

Now, don't think for a minute that I'm against wind or solar.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am not.

My energy policy is very simple.

It's so simple, it's hard to understand.

Lower the cost without hurting the environment.

That's my energy policy.

Do not raise rates above market.

You only hurt your own people.

That's that simple.

Right now, you've all heard that Massachusetts was trying to go through the Northern Pass, and they were gonna have power from Quebec go through New Hampshire.

They rejected it.

The people from New Hampshire are coming this week, I mean from Massachusetts, are coming this week to see if we are serious about allowing a transmission line that's only about 40 miles that we need to connect into infrastructure we already have.

So, there's an opportunity, it's not over yet.

(audience applauding) I do want to thank many of you in this audience.

First, I will tell the Republican caucus in the House, thank you.

Without you, we would not be having the financial success that we currently have.

It's that plain and simple.

I'm just telling you the way I see it.

I want to thank Ken Fredette, Ellie Espling, Jeff Timberlake, and Heather Sirocki for being tough and consistent, and hard on appropriations.

We needed you.

(audience cheering and applauding) I also want to thank John Martin, Craig Hickman because they're two of the few Democrats that had the courage to come down and work with me.

And while we didn't get everything we worked on, we certainly had some good dialogue, some good debate, and we moved, we both moved in the right directions, and Craig knows what I'm talking about.

He moved me about a mile, and I got about six inches.

(audience laughing) (audience applauding) I want to thank Rod Whittemore, Senator Whittemore, Senator Keim, Senator Brakey, and Senator Jackson.

These senators never hesitated, when I had a question, to come down and sit down with me, and talk.

And believe me, I am the first one to know I am a tough negotiator, but never phased them at all.

They didn't hesitate to come down.

And Troy and I have been down and out on several issues.

(audience laughing) But we do agree on one thing.

We do agree on one thing, and we're both committed to it, is Maine people come first.

(audience cheering and applauding) About ready to close.

This is an election year, and this year's vote will be especially important, especially important to me 'cause I'm leaving, and I really feel that I'm leaving with a state that's in good financial condition.

Mainers get the government they vote for, so I urge Mainers to think long and hard who you're gonna vote for, and who you're gonna send to The Blaine House, who you're gonna send back to the Senate and to the House.

Many are termed out.

You will be voting to either protect Maine's fiscal health or let politicians run it back into the ground.

I'm not picking sides here.

I'm just telling you these are the options.

You'll be voting on whether to keep our taxes low and to maintain the right size of government, or to allow the special interests and the public sector unions to raise and bloat government again.

You will be voting whether to respect our young adults, or exploit our youth and chase them out of state.

You will vote on whether to keep growing our economy or stifle it once again.

Now, I want to tell you, I'm not speaking as a governor now.

I'm speaking as Paul LePage, who spent the overwhelming majority of his life in this state.

And I have watched it.

And matter of fact, when John Reed passed away a few years ago, I was the only elected official in the state of Maine to go to his funeral who remembered him, though I speak of something I've experienced my whole life.

You will be voting on whether to continue our significant progress on welfare reform.

Our policies now protect our most vulnerable, while encouraging welfare to work, if you are able.

That is critical.

I do not want to force somebody to work who is not able.

If you are able and you have work skills, you will find that working will improve your life, your quality of life.

That's all I'm asking.

(audience applauding) I'm a firm believer in a hand up, but not a handout, only because I lived the American dream here in Maine, because of some very compassionate and thoughtful people who helped me out, who got me off the streets, and I'm very indebted to those people.

And I believe that the ideology, that process, that whole caring of moving you forward and allowing you to learn is so, so important for all Mainers and all Americans.

They all have to have an opportunity.

And you know, most people, and we've experienced it now, I'm getting letters all the time of people that said, "I used to hate you years ago when you first got elected."

Now, we have one, a young lady who's got (mumbles), she's working in Bangor and she says, "I don't take anything from the state.

"I give now, I pay back.

"I'm really happy, my kids are proud of me.

"I get my kids looking at going to college."

Think about that, that's really what is success, and I really believe in that.

We will be voting to whether we continue the path we're on or revert back to where we were.

In my inaugural address, I made a pledge to the Maine people to put people before the politics.

I think, if you read the newspapers the last seven years, I've been rather successful at one of my pledges.

The parents trying to keep and make a better life for their kids, the retirees trying to hold on to their home on fixed income, the college graduate trying to find a good-paying job in Maine, the entrepreneur with the courage to take a chance on an idea, the tax payers, tired of footin' the bill for a bloated establishment in Augusta.

Do you know what we've done?

When I came here, we were just short of 14,00 employees.

Right now, we're about 11.8.

We have 1.3 million people.

We're considered an outlier.

We're high on employment, employees to population.

New Hampshire's right where they should be.

They're at 9,500.

9,500.

All a matter of managing and making sure that the people you have are treated well, they're compensated well, and you give 'em the proper resources that they need.

And this is one area the state needs to invest in, is we have to have better resources for our employees, and they can become more efficient.

(audience applauding) So those are promises I made, and those are promises I kept.

And I will promise to all the Maine people tonight that I will continue to fight until 11:59 a.m.

on inauguration day.

To all the hardworking Maine taxpayers out there, it has been a marvelous and the biggest honor to serve you, be your governor.

As a person who was born in a very difficult situation, on the streets, homeless at 11, never once did I ever imagine that I would be living at The Blaine House.

Never did I imagine that I'd even be invited to The Blaine House.

(audience laughing) Ann and I both can tell you that you are in our thoughts and prayers every day.

Maine people, we absolutely love you.

Your prosperity is paramount to Maine's success, and we will fight for prosperity for the rest of the way.

I fought for every day, and believe me, I made some good decisions, bad decisions, and sometimes, I drive my staff crazy, but I will tell you, there's not one day or one second, in the last seven years as your governor, that every decision that I tried to make was not for the betterment of the state of Maine.

I will leave you with a quote President Reagan attributed to Abraham Lincoln, and I firmly believe this with all my heart, and that's how I've tried to govern.

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

"You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

"You cannot lift the wage earner "by pulling down the wage payer.

"You cannot further the brotherhood of mankind "by inciting class hatred.

"You cannot build character and courage "by taking away people's initiative and independence.

"You cannot help people permanently by doing for them "what they could and should be doing for themselves."

God bless the state of Maine, God bless all of you, and God bless America.

Thank you.

(audience cheering and applauding) (loud clapping) - [Mal Leary] Governor Paul LePage has given his last State of the State address, his longest State of the State address, he ad-libbed considerably from his prepared text, and that's why this speech has gone just about, not quite an hour and a half, in which he's covered many topics, many whom we've heard before, in his previous State of the State addresses, and in numerous news conferences and town meetings he's held across the state.

Such themes as tax reform, the need to provide for more educational opportunities in Maine.

Joining me to talk about the governor's speech are two political scientists, Jim Melcher, from the University of Maine in Farmington, and Dan Shea, from Colby College.

Jim, your first thoughts about the governor's last speech.

- Well, it's, some of the things were surprising.

I was really surprised to hear him bringing up the land trust issue, a lot of this was classic Paul LePage, bringing in personal stories to make his cases.

It was a little softer edged, and I think he's got some things that are dead on arrival with the legislature, but I think some of the things like the student loans and other things, I think he's left some room for things that people across the aisle can work with him on, so I think it was overall as effective a speech as one could hope for, for him.

- Dan, your thoughts.

- Well, he seemed like he was having a good time, there were a lot of jokes, he's always entertaining.

He seemed more comfortable, to me, in this State of the State, than in others that I've seen, and I would also agree, there was a bit of a laundry list, and I think there was a bit for each side.

There were some proposals that he was pushing that I think the Democrats could get behind, but there was at times when he sort of fell back into his more strident conservative positions, but I would agree, a bit of both.

- Some of the reactions from the legislature were reminiscent of President Trump and his State of the Union, thought of Democrats sitting on their hands when Republicans are applauding, and vice versa.

That what you expected, Jim?

- Well, certainly, and we've seen that long before President Trump, if you go back to, I mean, you know, President Obama had a congressman yell, "You lie!"

at him.

Well, we didn't have any of that kind of unpleasantness this evening, so it was more or less what I expected, but there were certainly things that were designed to appeal to his base, some of which I don't think are very likely to pass, such as Right to Work, which he tried to frame in terms of, "I want you to think about this," kind of implying he knew it wouldn't pass, but I think there were things for both sides.

I think Daniel's absolutely right about that.

I think that it was skillful in those senses, some of the digressions might have detracted some attention from what he was trying to focus on, but I think there are some things for both sides.

I don't think it was anymore contentious and angry than State of the Union addresses of the last 15 to 20 years.

- You mention the governor's sense of humor coming through tonight, do you think that's going to help him in his dealings with the legislature, where it's been very contentious for the last couple years?

- Yes, he's not had a good relationship with the legislature, the record number of vetoes speaks volumes about that.

I have this feeling, at least from the speech tonight, that he's open on some of these issues.

He seemed to reach across the aisle, some compliments to other members, members of the other party.

I think we can hope that he'll get along in his last year, a little better than the previous years.

- And praise for Troy Jackson.

Who else has he been as critical of, outside of his own party, than Troy Jackson?

Very interesting he mentioned Troy Jackson, not Mike Thibodeau, not some of the leaders of his own party.

He went out of his way to praise several Democrats that really are very much on the liberal side of things, Craig Hickman, Troy Jackson, a number of these, John Martin.

I thought he very much went out of his way to say, "I'm not being partisan, I want to work with whoever's gonna help me get my agenda through."

And to some extent there's a certain back of the hand to some of his own party, and that's been very typical of him, that he's had a lot of contention with various members of his own party.

I think in some ways, those omissions continued that trend.

- And this governor has not liked bond issues at all, yet he talked about several large bonds tonight.

Do you think that's something that's going to fly with this legislature, given the status of our finances right now?

- Right, well, I think probably the devil's in the details on that.

He was a bit vague on that, bond issues for commercial development, and sounded good, and we want more business in Maine, but exactly how that would work, it was a bit vague, I'm not quite sure.

But I think that was an interesting turn on the bond issue, right?

He's not a fan of bond issues, but to spur development and growth in Maine, probably a pretty good idea.

- But he used it as a way to sell how well he'd done.

He essentially said, "Now that I've been doing this good work for seven years, now we're ready to do that."

So he both set up the possibility of having bonds, and I think he could get a lot of bipartisan support for the student proposals in particular, but he used that in a way to essentially say, "We weren't ready, now we are.

Look back at how successful I've been."

I thought that was an artful way to tie the two of those together.

- Final thought, Dan?

- I wish he would have spoke about the opioid epidemic, you know?

Not a word on that, you know, maybe five minutes on the cigarette issue, nothing on the opioids, but it was a laundry list, with a little bit less focus than, maybe, maybe you'd think, but overall I think he had a good night, to be honest.

- Dan Shea, from Colby College, Jim Melcher, from University of Maine at Farmington, thank you, and we'll go to Jen Rooks, who's going to talk with the Democrats.

- Hi, Mal, thank you, and I'm here with two Democratic leaders, we have Representative Erin Herbig of Belfast next to me, she is House Majority Leader, and next to her, Senator Nate Libby, the Assistant Senate Minority Leader, thank you so much for hustling down the hallway through the crowds to be here with us.

And why don't I just start by asking your reaction?

- The State of the State is always a festive occasion for those of us that serve in the legislature, who came into office because we so much respect the people of Maine, and want to serve you all.

When I think about the governor's remarks tonight, he said a lot of nice things, a lot of things, policies that I agree with, but the fact is, his record just has not backed those remarks up over the last eight years.

I think about a lot of missed opportunities.

I was happy to hear that the governor said that he's concerned about adults with intellectual disabilities and autism, a bill that I'm sponsoring, but he's only flashed reimbursement rates on that population.

I agree, though, now is the time to increase those reimbursement rates so people, these vulnerable populations, don't sit on this wait list.

I also heard him talk about the elderly population, and how they're being, they're suffering due to property tax increases, but the governor's record has just increased property taxes in the eight years he's been in office.

These have been things that we've been fighting for.

So I'm happy to hear that the governor cares about these things, but I'm just disappointed that over the last eight years, his record just hasn't backed this up.

- Senator Libby, your reaction.

- Yeah, I think we look forward to the governor's address every year, to sort of lay out the policy goals that he looks to accomplish, working with the legislature, so I think on student debt, for example, it's an issue that a lot of Democrats have been leading on.

We are really concerned about demographic challenges that means facing young people leaving the state to find work, older workers retiring, you know, those of us that have been working on this issue are really concerned about that and want to come up with something big and bold, that's going to change that situation.

So I think on that area, we're very interested in working with the governor.

But as Representative Herbig said, while the governor was talking about, for example, folks with special needs, or the elderly, and wanting to protect those folks and help those folks, I distinctly remember fights that we were having over the last several years with appropriations, and in particular, House Republicans who blocked efforts from other legislators to reinstate those funds, so there's a bit of a disconnect between what we have been fighting for over the last several years, and what the governor has said he's been doing.

- Let me ask you about a couple of the things the governor talked about, specifically tax conformity.

Is this something that both sides of the aisle are behind, or only one side of the aisle?

- Well, tax conformity that was passed at the federal level, we need to make sure that it's something that's gonna work for the state of Maine.

Maine isn't like every single other state in the country.

I know I am confident that our bipartisan appropriations committee is going to look at ways to implement this in Maine.

What I will say is right off the bat, I have some real incredible concerns.

First off, this is being sort of talked about as a huge tax cut, but as far as what this looks like in Maine, it eliminates the estate tax, which is a big tax cut for 20 Maine families that have over 20 million dollars a year, or has over 20 million dollars, whereas it's typically a tax increase for most families by over $300 a year.

I don't think that giving a huge tax cut for the most wealthy, on the backs of your average Maine family, is a good idea.

So we need to really look into this and make sure that it works well for all Mainers, not just the most wealthy.

- Senator Libby, for the past seven years, Governor LePage has opposed most bonds on principal, but tonight he talked about some bonds, including one that would be student loan forgiveness for Maine students going to Maine schools.

Do you think this is something that will get broad support?

- I hope so, this is an idea that I introduced last year, I've had meetings with the governor and his staff on this issue, we seem to agree that population loss, the aging workforce, are two major impediments for growth in the economy, and for Maine to do something really different, and to send a message to the other 49 states, to young people, that if you move to Maine and work here, and pay taxes, we're gonna help you with your student debt, we think that's a real game changer.

We think that's something that can turn, it could be a piece of turning the demographic issues around.

- When talking about Medicaid expansion, which voters approved at the polls, Governor LePage said, "Do it now."

He laid out conditions, which he's repeated several times, but over and over again, said, "Don't wait."

Do you have confidence, I'll ask you, Representative Herbig, do you have confidence that this will happen soon?

- It is my hope that it will.

This was passed overwhelmingly by the voters.

It is going to require the efforts of Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and the administration, to work together on this.

This is an opportunity to offer more health care to over 70,000 Mainers.

When I'm in my district, people tell me they want more health care, not less.

I think of the families whose lives could get better because they would be able to receive treatment for an opioid addiction.

I think about people, or I think about our rural hospitals, that are being bogged down with debt right now.

These are people that we'd be putting on health care, so our rural hospitals would receive more money, could create new jobs.

This is something that 31 other states have done already, and with success.

Again, because people in this country want more health care, not less.

This is also tax payer money, Maine tax payer money, that we've paid into the federal government.

If we're not accepting it back to give health care to more of our citizens, it's going to another state, and I'm not okay with that.

- All right, well thank you both, Representative Erin Herbig, Senator Nate Libby, for joining us tonight, and drive safely home.

- Great, you too, thanks for having us.

- Thanks, Matt?

- Thank you, Jen, I've got two Republican leaders with me to talk about the governor's final State of the State address, Ken Fredette, who's the House Republican Leader, and Garrett Mason, who is the Senate Majority Leader.

Ken, what are your thoughts?

I mean, the governor laid out a lot of things you've rejected, even on the Republican caucus in the past, Right to Work has never quite made it through this legislature.

- Well, look, I think that that's something that's gonna continue to be part of the conversation to move Maine forward.

The reality is, I think the governor talked about the accomplishments that he's had, that we've had as Republicans in the legislature, about paying the hospitals back, reducing the structural gap, three significant income tax cuts, announced the addition of a company coming to Maine to locate, Millinocket, those are the sorts of things that I think of moving Maine forward, and we look forward to continuing doing, as we go forward.

- Garrett, your thoughts?

- Yeah, I mean I think this was a celebration of successful conservative policies being implemented over the past seven years.

I mean, we've seen income taxes lowered, we, as Ken just said, the governor just made an announcement of over 100 new jobs in Millinocket, that we can look forward to.

I mean, we see month after month of more money coming into the state coffers due to this tax cuts that have been implemented during this administration and during the last four legislators, so I think that we can be really happy as Republicans, as conservatives, about the LePage legacy and what he has left the state over the past seven years.

- You've opposed Medicaid expansion in the past, but now the governor's saying, "Fund it, and fund it now."

Are Republicans going to sit down with the Democrats and work out a way to do this?

- I think what the governor says, he's going to implement the law, and that is what the governor, and we, as legislators, always swear to uphold, is the law and the Constitution, and I don't think anybody can disagree with that.

- There's some members of your caucus that really are opposed to-- - Yeah, I think clearly, to be clear I think what the governor said was, is look, as Democrats, if you want to do Medicaid expansion, make a proposal and put it in writing.

That's what we haven't seen from the Democrats.

In terms of the funding that's required, we haven't seen, how do they want to raise that 50 or 60 or 70 million dollars?

It's needed to do Medicaid expansion, without raising taxes and without taking money from the rainy day fund, and the other conditions that he talked about, that's what we haven't seen from Democrats.

- He also talked about a lot of large bond issues, which have been anathema to a lot of House Republicans.

You think there'll be support there for these particular groups of bonds?

- I think we're gonna have to look at each one individually.

Last session, the House Republicans turned away a couple, three bonds that we said, "Look, we've spent too much money.

We don't want to spend more money in bonding."

So I think it's gonna be a case by case analysis, at the end of session.

- Garrett?

- You know, I mean, I think that in regards to bonds, I mean, the governor's looking beyond research and development, and into making sure that we have more further investments into our state in the future.

That's important, I mean as we move on, we look at the successes that the governor outlined tonight, we do need to make investments in our economy, and those are the things that I think that he was looking forward to, and we'll see what the packages look like.

- Do you think the governor made progress in reaching across the aisle tonight, because, as both of you well know, it was very contentious last session.

- Yeah, I mean, I think the governor pointed out many people that he's worked with across the aisle, and I think the governor presents himself as somebody who's always willing to be right in the middle, but he did it a little bit different way than anybody else.

As Frank Sinatra said, he did it his way, and I think that's what the governor said tonight.

- Ken?

- Well, look, I think the reality is, and I've been here the whole eight years that the governor's been here, the Democrats, quite frankly, never accepted the election of Paul LePage, they never accepted the reelection of Paul LePage.

He's pushed really hard, in order to move Maine forward, be very consistent in terms of what he wants to see for the state, in being a very strong chief executive.

The Democrats have pushed back on that for now, seven and a half years, and so I think it is what it is, I think most people know it for what it is, and I think that's what we're gonna look at in terms of the conversation going forward as the governor said, "In this next election, what sort of chief executive do you want to have?"

- Quickly, looking at what the governor said tonight, what he's done over the last seven years, what do you think his legacy's going to be when he leaves office?

- I think putting the fiscal, the state's fiscal situation back in order, I mean, we were in a real crisis.

I like to say people had the amnesia back, now looking back on 2010 and realizing just how bad it was then.

I served on the appropriations committee, we had lots of problems that we had to start working on, and we were able to do that.

- Garrett, your thoughts on his legacy.

- I think that the governor's legacy will be one of which he said tonight, and that is bringing Maine, he brought Maine from poverty, and he's bringing us into prosperity, and that has been something that the governor has fought for, for seven years.

And I think that will be the LePage legacy.

People know that they are better off than they were seven years ago, they have more money in their pocket, they're paying less taxes, and they're seeing more and more things going on around the state that are a betterment, whether that be in education, whether that be in business, or whether that be, quite frankly, in the streamlining of government, I think that is the LePage legacy.

- Garrett Mason, Ken Fredette, thank you both for joining us on this coverage of the last State of the State by Paul LePage.

- Thank you, now.

- Thank you.

- And I'm Jennifer Rooks, for all of us here at Maine Public, thank you so much for joining us for Governor LePage's final State of the State.

If you'd like to watch it or listen to it again, you can go to MainePublic.org later this evening.

Thank you, and good night.

- Good night.

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