We thought we were done kicking Gov. Paul LePage’s tires for a little while after last week when we considered his reelection chances in light of a hypothetical race with former Gov. John Baldacci.
Earlier this week, however, Courier Publications broke the story that during a meeting with three independent legislators Jan. 15, LePage slammed his fists on the table, swore, called his visitors “idiots,” “worse than Democrats,” stalked out of the office only to return after few minutes and complete a half hour harangue.
What did these three legislators say that brought on this tirade?
Well, they questioned the Governor about his budget proposal that includes a curtailment order, slashes municipal revenue sharing and increases local responsibilities for state retirement contributions.
As discussed on these pages and elsewhere, there are a host of potential problems with the Governor’s yet to be formally unveiled budget, most of which can be summed up by saying the problem is the funds are simply moved from one column to another.
As discussed, it apparently does nothing to reduce spending overall, and in fact creates significant shortfalls for local municipalities and school boards and leaves them with the burden of addressing those holes.
We would suggest this incident underscores the problems we are having with this governor.
One: As is the case with his infamous comment to the NAACP, there are some things a sitting governor just can’t do. Losing your temper is one of those things.
Two: This budget mess firmly presents the idea that LePage has finally been co-opted by the process he ran against. He ran for Augusta as an outsider, a businessman going to the Blaine House to loosen onerous regulations and make Maine friendly for business and development.
Yet, it is less than two years later, and this Governor is doing the exact same thing all of the career politicians he has railed against do: change the semantics and declare victory.
We believe Gov. LePage went to Augusta with the best of intentions. We believe he has accomplished some good things, much of which is obscured or ignored by an antagonistic, and antagonized, press corps.
However the Governor’s office, Paul LePage personally, and we, the people he represents, are diminished by actions like his last week.
