District 52 incumbent Elizabeth (Lisa) Miller of Somerville is campaigning for her third term in the State House. District 52 includes Chelsea, Whitefield, Washington, Hibberts Gore, and part of Jefferson.
Raised in California, Miller has lived in Somerville for 26 years where she and her husband, Roy, have raised three sons. She is currently employed as a Senior Program Officer for a Maine health foundation called The Bingham Program.
Miller said she is running for reelection in order to continue working on issues supporting small business and healthcare reform. If reelected, Miller said the accumulated experience from her first two terms would be a great asset to her constituents.
“I am continuing to run because I have built a body of experience, particularly on issues of healthcare and I think we have serous issues around not only health insurance but also access to healthcare,” Miller said.
While Miller agrees that Dirigo Health, Gov. Baldacci’s signature health insurance plan, has not lived up to its potential, she is not ready to consign the effort to the scrap pile. Miller said she would like to see Dirigo continue until a reasonable alternative can be devised.
“One of the things Dirigo tried to do was address healthcare cost, access, and quality all at once,” she said.
In Miller’s opinion, Maine’s healthcare system needs to bring health insurance costs down, and increase access to healthcare, improve the general health of Maine residents and address the disease patterns and risk behavior of the state’s young people.
“If you are not addressing all of those things at the same time, you are going to come up short,” she said.
Fully 50 percent of the state budget is devoted to education, Miller said. Another third of the budget is spent on healthcare and Medicare costs, of which nursing homes are one of the largest consumers.
Addressing the issue of Maine’s tax burden, Miller said she understands that Maine has a fairly high tax burden, however the exact status of that burden depends on whose numbers are considered.
“I think we do have to recognize that Maine has a fairly high tax burden but we are not number one or number two,” she said.
Addressing the issue of a 5 percent flat tax advocated by her opponent Washington Republican John Stewart, Miller claimed a 5 percent flat income tax would create a huge budget hole on top of the $400 million shortfall the state is currently facing.
“I would like to see us whittle down the income tax by spreading the sales tax into other areas we haven’t been taxing,” Miller said. “We are a service economy so we should probably be looking at things like entertainment, lodging and that has to be a broad conversation involving interests from across the state.”
It is very easy to propose cutting taxes, Miller said, but it is important to look at everything in context. Addressing the state’s welfare system, Miller said around 85 percent of the people who enter the state’s welfare rolls, remain there for less than two years.
In Maine, welfare recipients are expected to work and they do, Miller said, noting Maine has the highest percentage of working welfare recipients in New England.
“It is very easy to rail against the system and someone who is a client, but it is very important to look at the entire situation and realize that it is a very important hand up,” she said.
Discussing serving in the legislature, Miller said the hectic pace of the work and the nature of coalition building and compromise, that are the wheels the state government rolls on, can be hard to sum up in a sound bite.
For example, she cited her vote supporting the state sale of saltwater fishing licenses.
On the one hand, it could look like another example of the state levying a new fee. On the other, since the state didn’t do it, in July 2009, the federal government will begin charging for those licenses.
Miller explained her vote was an effort to put the state in line for that revenue. “Who would you rather have collecting that money?” she asked, adding later, “A lot of things can be taken out of context in a sound bite. It is a little harder to explain the gray underneath.”
As someone who has spent 22 years as the town health officer, three years as a regional recycling volunteer, five years on the Somerville School Committee and at least 17 years volunteering in various capacities for the town school and the fire department women’s auxiliary, Miller said her desire to serve remains undiminished.
“I am increasingly worried about the world my generation is leaving for the next generation,” she said. “If you care about that, you can’t stand on the sidelines.”
