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• Anonymous

  I’m waiting for comments from the fiscal conservatives on this one. Guess we’ll see who really wants to serve and who doesn’t.

• Patten_Pete

  ““He has to — any governor has to — find people to serve because they want to serve the state, not because of the salary they will receive,” he said.” —- that’s great advice if you own a mustard company which produces revenue even if you take another job.

  This is a very real concern and I would hope this can be fized asap so Go-elect LePage can hire the best. If it’s 10 people and each needs another $100,000, that’s $1,000,000 or less than a dollar per person in the state.

  If you’ve got unqualified people in there, they can cost the average person thousands of dollars. The damn CMP upgrade for Baldacci’s wind friends will cost about $4,500 per Maine household, or Maine’s 8% portion of ISO-NE’s $30 billion plan for this and similar projects across the ISO. That is just one small example of what can happen when the wrong people are in the jobs – in this case the PUC folks like Kurt Adams and David Littell.

• Anonymous

  I really thought the voters elected him to reduce state spending though…

• Anonymous

  I commented on this earlier and some yahoo attacked me and accused me of being ‘inaccurate’. The most interesting part of this story is that as Penguin has encountered road-blocks, he has blown his top. Which is, of course, the part of this guy that scares most of us. He doesn’t seem to have any control over his temper.

• Anonymous

  I’ll be waiting for comments that criticize LePage for packing the Government with the wealthy elite. But maybe it’s only a problem when your opponent wants the best and the brightest, when it’s your guy, it’s something completely different?

• Anonymous

  The low range for commissioners is 76,000. So you’re saying that we need to pay these guys at least 176,000? And yet, the unionized teachers are evil because they want health insurance included in their pay.

  The world we live in…

• Anonymous

  Where exactly does it say in this story that he blew his top? I missed it, it does state that he has had some of his picks turn down the positions because of the cut they would have to take in their pay rate. I don’t believe Paul LePage set the rate of pay for state government and he states that he will have to look elsewhere for appointees which is exactly what I would expect he would do. I think the part in your comment about this story that says LaPage blew his top because of this is ‘inaccurate’

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C7WSWODNC5J5S2PF7DCW6JOKLQ Rocketman

  If he still insists on picking Mr. Nutting I would suggest everyone that thinks he’s a crook for ripping off the State of Maines taxpayers to call the IRS and the FBI and complain until the man is brought to justice.

• Anonymous

  In relation to the rest of the country, Maine is like Washington County to the rest of the state. When we hire a county manager we don’t attract people with experience in bigger counties, we get the best we can afford. If that person comes to the job with less than a long resume as a county manager, they can learn on the job. If they do an excelent job, they may use it as a resume builder to move on to bigger and better pastures.

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1063165669 Jill Fletcher

  Pay no more than $55,000 a year. Consider after all that they get all the benefits of being a state employee as it. It’s more than what most Mainers make. Why, think of all the 1000′s of dollars saved right there?

  How SICKENING that someone would demand over ($76,190 and $109,990 a year)

  I don’t want to hear how “broke” Maine and other states are if THIS is seriously what people are paid.

  @ 12.00 an hour that’s only around 23,000 a year. Change the minimum wage to that before you go giving people salarys that knock on 100,000 on the taxpayers dime.

  What are their skills that are supposedly worth that?

• Anonymous

  Cabinet members in other States receive an annual salary in the range from $141,000 to $164,000. There are folks in Town school departments and Town Managers that make more than the Governor. As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. You wonder why departments such as DHHS are so poorly managed, it is because the State does not provide the incentive to attract top notch managers to these posts. If you use as a guideline parity to what people in the private sector make, you will find that top management makes far more than any State level management position. One other consideration is that Mainer’s deserve to have good jobs and good paying jobs, so from my vantage point , not only should top state level executives be well paid, rather than simply comparing pay levels to what they are in the private sector. The private sector in Maine should be paying it’s employees much more consistent with the private sector average across the country. It is the only way our educated kids will stay in this state and not leave to find a good paying job somewhere else. Maine needs to bolster existing business profitability and so they can provide adequate compensation and attract and retain new industry with good paying jobs. All Mainers will benefit. And good executives at the state level will reduce inefficiency in government and reduce tax burden, conversely new business and better jobs will broaden the tax base and reduce the tax burden. Simply put, without a broad tax base, Mainers who have little, will have less if government continues to take more out of us. Mainers need more money and less government, but efficient government.

• Anonymous

  Only smart, well paid people, with performance incentives will reduce spending. Look at the wasteful spending in these agencies. If you cut the waste by just 10% the governor could probably hire 100 well paid executives per agency, when all’s he needs is one. That would save the salary of 99 to reduce the budget by.

• Anonymous

  I worked for a company constructing a 2.5 Billion dollar power facility who paid a project manager $190,000. The project estimate quickly went to $4 Billion dollars. They replaced the manager with a top notch executive and paid him $400,000. He brought the project in at $2 billion dollars. Pretty cheap to save 1/2 billion dollars. You get what you pay for.

• Anonymous

  Maine has an anemic economy period. This is the direct result of 42 years of Democratic control. Socialism did not work in Russia and does not work in Maine

• Anonymous

  LePage does seem to have contracted the ‘money fixes everything’ disease, according to his own comment regarding salaries for his people. It seems pretty bad PR to be holding up $70K salaries as insufficient, during the holiday, when so many Mainers are unemployed and cutting State expenses was top on voters’ minds this November.

  I am not sure why he would make that comment in the first place, it’s like he is making an excuse for not having the cabinet fully appointed.

• Anonymous

  That 70% cut in pay from working at Mardens comment was a real sign of the weakness of the character of this man. He’s gotta be the first governor (maybe since Jesse Ventura) that mentioned that he makes less as a governor than in his real job.

  Duh.

• Anonymous

  So you think increasing pay to state employees is the solution? I hope Gov. LePage advocates for more pay for teachers, first responders and human service workers, too.

• Anonymous

  Is the governor planning to wave the ‘money fixes everything’ wand over all state employees, or just this handful of people who can’t afford to stoop to $70k a year?

• Anonymous

  Remember, when the folks on the Right use the term ‘elite,’ they don’t mean rich people, they mean smart people. They love rich people and hate smart people. So I don’t think there will be any problem.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3AQMM75BAMMGINBGY5PB6ONJ44 Kathy W

  Well said. We also have to remember that there are only 1.3 million people in the State of Maine. We cannot compare our salaries to states that have many more taxpayers and much more revenue. We just can’t afford all these highly paid cabinet members.

• Anonymous

  His top picks obviously were not interested in public service. The difference in income could easily be made up in speaker fees, fringe benefits, etc. This is only a first baby step on the learning curve. Hurry up and get to work on trimming the fat, lowering taxes and creating jobs. (We would all like to see that plan, by the way.) Remember, you have a mandate!

• Anonymous

  So LePage’s first argument is that we need to pay state officials more $$$$$? That sounds odd considering that one of his arguments he campaigned on was bloated overpriced state government. Maybe Robert Nutting will continue to work for the state at his salary of $1.2 million dollars a year.

• Anonymous

  Lemme get this straight…in another article today, the median income for Mainers is somewhere around $46,000 (and numerous commenters stated they felt this was a bloated figure)…From THIS article it states that most commissioners earn between $76,000 to a maximum of $134,000…and the claim is that this just isn’t enough to lure the “best and brightest”. So paying from 1.5 to 3 times more than the average Mainer earns just isn’t enough (not to mention the so-called “cushy” state employee benefits)? These people can just stay home. So much for ‘conservative’.

• Anonymous

  So much for getting the best and the brightest.

  It looks more like getting the old and infirm to me.

  Smart move on Mr. LePages part to announce that he’s offered these jobs to others who have turned them down. Now those who eventually take the jobs will know they are third or fourth choices.

• Anonymous

  I’m sure one of his first priorities will be giving his chums a nice big pay raise.

  Typical.

• Anonymous

  70k a year is really not that much. I never went to college and I work in this State. I am 25 years old and will bring home 56k this year.

  These are people who presumably have 6-8 years of college and years of experience, they can leave our state and make 2-3 even 4 times as much in private sector jobs.

  It is unrealistic to focus on 70k as if it is some HUGE number that only the super-elite will achieve, because it isn’t.

• Anonymous

  Let’s do the math.

  If the job of governor pays $70,000.00 and Mr. LePage took a 70% pay cut to take the job; that means Mr. LePage was making 1 million dollars per year at Mardens.

  Good thing we elected just a regular guy who knows the problems of average Mainers, huh?

• Anonymous

  I’m sure the Marden employees will be pleased to hear it. A 70% cut would be an initial salary of around $250,000. That figure rings a bell, something having to do with the Bush Tax Cuts…

• Anonymous

  70K isn’t that much for running a State………

• Anonymous

  I have just reviewed all the comments to date. I expect most of the negative (snarky) comments are from people who put in the White House a man who is:

  - the most radical leftist president in our history

  - the most inexperienced president in our history, with no executive leadership background and no accomplishments in Congress

  - breaking hundreds of campaign promises, including his latest, when pledging to reduce earmarks yet stating his support for Reid’s $1.1 trillion omnibus spending spree (6,600 earmarks totaling over $8 billion)

  As it is so easy to see that many Obama supporters voted because of the color of his skin and not for the content of his character, it is fairly easy to dismiss most of the snarky comments below.

  Mr. LePage is sticking to his campaign promises and vision. God Speed!

• Anonymous

  How about instead of a full time commissioner we could have two or three people share the job part time, like they do at Mardens.

  We wouldn’t have to ay their health insurance and they could hold down a couple of other jobs to make up the difference in pay from their old job.

• Anonymous

  The story states that Paul LaPage is doing his job for the $70,000 that it is set by the state even though it is a 70% cut from his current pay rate from Mardens, I think that is holding up his end quite well. The people that turned down the jobs offered because of the cut they would have to take I assume, and I no that can be dangerous, done it all by themselves at least the story implies that.

  And it IS the reason that these positions aren’t filled by the people that turned them down because, well……They turned them down.

• Anonymous

  $12/hr x 40 hrs = $480
  $480/wk x 52 = $24,960 so we’ll round it to 25k a year.

  Your math is as flawed as your logic. 4 years ago I made around $12.18/hr and I just checked my tax-return for that year, I was just over $30k. That takes less than 5 hours of overtime a week, so don’t complain to me about anything.

  And as to your 55,000 a year gimmick, I am 25 with no college and I make that kind of money. Do you expect somebody with a masters or doctorate to make the same wages as a guy with some grit and a wrinkled GED?

• Anonymous

  Cabinet members in other States receive an annual salary in the range from $141,000 to $164,000. There are folks in Town school departments and Town Managers that make more than the Governor. As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. You wonder why departments such as DHHS are so poorly managed, it is because the State does not provide the incentive to attract top notch managers to these posts. If you use as a guideline parity to what people in the private sector make, you will find that top management makes far more than any State level management position. One other consideration is that Mainer’s deserve to have good jobs and good paying jobs, so from my vantage point , not only should top state level executives be well paid, rather than simply comparing pay levels to what they are in the private sector. The private sector in Maine should be paying it’s employees much more consistent with the private sector average across the country. It is the only way our educated kids will stay in this state and not leave to find a good paying job somewhere else. Maine needs to bolster existing business profitability and so they can provide adequate compensation and attract and retain new industry with good paying jobs. All Mainers will benefit. And good executives at the state level will reduce inefficiency in government and reduce tax burden, conversely new business and better jobs will broaden the tax base and reduce the tax burden. Simply put, without a broad tax base, Mainers who have little, will have less if government continues to take more out of us. Mainers need more money and less government, but efficient government. And government efficiencies will only happen if pay and performance incentives exist. More pay can be provided by getting rid of government waste and there will still be money left over.

• Anonymous

  He didn’t pick Nutting that position has nothing to do with the Governor, Nuttings peers elected him by voting for him, although I think he should be in jail I don’t think LePage should have to shoulder the blame for him( Nutting ) getting that position.

• Anonymous

  Hmmm, I came up with $250,000, as in $250,000 minus 70% equals $75,000.

• Anonymous

  Um, your number is WAY off. He appears to make $233,333 as CEO of Mardens.

• Anonymous

  Yours is the correct figure. It’s probably somewhere around there, since we’re just throwing around round numbers.

• Anonymous

  Well said – Thank You.

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1452684179 Jason Simonds

  I am so tired of this false comment… The D’s didn’t kill the Paper industry. It left for CHEAP labor we could never compete with, not to mention leaving for areas where strict environmental laws do not apply.

  The Shoe industry is no more, and that also has nothing to do with the D leadership.

  The Fishing Industry fished itself out of business, because the wouldn’t listen to warnings that the stocks were depleted.

  The woodworking business has been killed off by the move to plastics and the costs of running a manufacturing plant of any kind within the US borders. This is not just a Maine problem.

  We have a world where the 3rd world countries have grown up and taken a share of the global market and we, the US, has sat on our butts and not reacted. This is not a D or R issue, it is an American issue.

  The military has all but abandoned Maine, but seems to find billions upon billions to spend in other parts of the world, and I do not think the D’s had much to do with that….

  No doubt Maine is in a rock and hard spot situation.

  We have the highest percentage of people over the age of 65 in the country, and the lowest of 19 and under. We are.. a retirement community.. like it or not… we are a vacation community.. like it or not.

  Perhaps the D’s could have done things a bit different, but would what they have done saved any of the major industries this state has lost?

  It is easy to pick on the D’s as a source for all our problems, but really, given the above set of major setbacks to the Maine economy over the last 40 years, some of it self inflicted by avaris and greed, can one lay blame at the feet of the D’s?

• Anonymous

  devon — thanks for that. So many people do not realize that sometimes we pay more for people who are able to deliver more and save what would have been much highter costs This is many times lost on the average joe who just wants to spout off about how much the rich make. Often, those folks are where they are because they are bright and intelligent people. They aren’t always crooks trying to ‘take’ from the little guy.

• Anonymous

  You’d look nice in a tin-foil hat, and then the guvmant can’t hear what you thunk!

• 525_44

  It’s not looking very impressive.
  Good ol boys is what comes to mind.

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  ?????
  ? ´_???

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y3AXQVNDVKK5OL7F2JGONIRWMI Mainer50

  So much for being loyal to the change of Maine for the better. My heart bleeds that those “people” would have to take a salary cut….NOT…Why doesn’t the govenor elect give some of his salary to his “top” picks? That would give a good example of how he wants to streamline Maine?? Didn’t realize that money can buy “good” people. Oh well, another fairy tale bites the dust. Gotta have money to make money? Then Maine has got a long ways to go on that score, especially where the businesses keep outsourcing the jobs to make MORE money….never ends.

• Anonymous

  You get what you pay for. An accomplished executive can easily offset his or her pay many times over with efficient and resourceful ways of conducting business.

• Anonymous

  $70,000 WOULD LOOK AWFUL GOOD to a 100% disabled service connected veteran who
  can NOT work to earn any more money. They go to war and get their lives ruined FIGHTING
  FOR us and end up this way , Know what they get including their wife taking care of them ??
  $33,984 and NO raise for 2 years now . And we expect them to live on this amount .We all should be ashamed to do such a thing to our Veterans that get their lives destroyed and pay them such a little while we talk about wages of these people in Augusta and Washington DC.

• Patten_Pete

  The money is not there to do this en masse. But it is to pay the leadership whose work, good or bad, can affect us all. I am not suggesting a mmaoth package like we see at some large corporations that are not as big as the state of Maine. I am suggesting a small realistic adjustment.

• Anonymous

  You do realize that woodrow wilson was far more leftist than Obama, right? You do realize that most of the presidents we elect don’t come from congress, right? You do realize that the democratically controlled congress drastically cut down on earmarks from the all time high during the republican controlled congress, right?

  It’s easy to see that so many Obama supporters voted because they were fed up with the bums in office, which is the exact same reason lepage was elected… You do see that, right?

• Anonymous

  When you take in all the other benefits that the governor gets he is making well over 70,000 a year, don’t kid yourself.

• Patten_Pete

  Do you want to see Gov-elect LePage succeed or do you want to just take drive by shots?

• Anonymous

  There’s a reason why effective executives make more money than mediocre ones. One would have to be crazy to take a substantial pay cut to take on the monumentous task of fixing state government while at the same time withstanding constant personal attacks and abuse from the like of you leftists and the media.

• Anonymous

  As I predicted, the lepage administration would enrich his circle of friends but not Maine as a whole.

• Anonymous

  I love how y folks find nuance now, but everything is so black and white otherwise. Healthcare reforms are predicted to save us money by increasing efficiencies, but I never hear anything but bashing over the short term increases. The economic stimulus took the sting out of the worst of the recession, but I never hear anything but bashing over the fact that unemployment didn’t reverse altogether.

  Well, to this voter, asking for more money to pay cronies in the cabinet is more state spending, from a politician who ran on a promise to reduce the bloated state budgets.

• Anonymous

  How can you predict that when he is not in office and has done nothing yet that supports your conclusion. I would give it six months and come back with your evidence. Otherwise you are most likely prognosticating from a broken crystal ball.

• Anonymous

  Is money the only reason some of these highly qualified folks say “no thanks” to serve on the LePage team ? I wonder.

• Anonymous

  Cut the condescension, CV. As my detailed posts indicate, I’ve forgotten more than you’ll ever know.

  They are all a bunch of bums, yet the Republican base can come together to keep Congress at least somewhat accountable. Witness the defeat of Reid’s steaming sack of omnibus last night. Dems just keep clamoring for “more spending, faster”, “more illegals, faster” etc. regardless of the negative impact on the nation’s financial and social health.

  Obama supporters were swept up by the hopey-changey stuff, the dream of the first non-white president, and their failure to seek any information n the candidates other than the muck shucked by the lamestream press.

  My fellow conservatives and I predicted the terrible outcomes of Obama’s presidency long before he was elected. We are culpable for Bush’s failure to rein in spending, and that’s why we turned our backs on him.

  Is that so hard to understand?

  Long Live the Tea Party!

• Anonymous

  When budgeting for a project you put your money in the areas where it will produce the best results. In my Democratic Liberal Socialist Commie way of thinking we need to run the government the same way. Hire the very best executive management money can buy and results will follow. It may not look pretty today but…

• Anonymous

  Maybe his top picks weren’t all that interested in having him for a boss. Do any of us really know?

• Anonymous

  It ain’t just the money – it’s the need for power, or, as they say, the “opportunity to serve the beloved public.” That’s what separates any of them from the rest of us. It’s alright with me, as long as we can accept that piece of the equation.

• Anonymous

  Sometimes, a carefully applied temper can be a useful tool.

• Anonymous

  Talent costs money. Using people with insufficient talent can cost more.

• Anonymous

  Since Maine has developed a growing population on some kind of assistance, not always their fault, many think that any amount over $25k is big bucks, and to them, it is.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_HIGXPANXIJVKJJIKQAZU7TIYXU Ricardo Cabeza

  In case you hadn’t noticed, one has to be very rich to get elected in the first place. That’s the way our political system works. Keep the wealthy folks in power. Remember, he that has the gold makes the rules. Plus, any “regular” guy that might manage to get elected is nothing more than a lame duck. The ‘good old boys’ demand compliance or they simply drub them from office by blocking any good things they try to do.

• Anonymous

  Dear Gov. LePage – try a little creative thinking – I’ll bet there are some really talented homeless people that would do a bangup job for a reasonable fee.

• Anonymous

  You’re right. Since we don’t know who the “top picks” were, we’ll probably never know. I just assumed they were his friends and business associates. My bad.

• Anonymous

  I believe Mr. LePage has virtually no idea what it means to be Governor. His surprise that people will not simply rally around and come to work for him, even if it means taking a pay cut, is just the first.

  He’s in for a long list of surprises about how complex and difficult his new job is.

  As the saying goes, “Some people don’t know nothin’, but he don’t even suspect nothing.”

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=675072960 Colin Michael

  Comments from both sides of the aisle point out that artificial wage (price) controls tend to make bad situations worse. Our hands are tied by a salary cap law that takes away our ability to negotiate for what is in our best interest. If we were all to agree that a certain person was the right candidate to improve the operations at DHHS for instance, we would be unable to negotiate with that person. We’d be stuck and only able to offer a fraction of what is paid to a surgeon, a CFO, or a law partner who likely has less responsibility on their shoulders.

  Instead we will hire someone who has to “learn on the job” while we pay for their education. Or we will bring in someone who wants to use the job as a political stepping stone, who will avoid making any hard decisions in order to protect their future earning potential or electability.

  Our pop culture has a word for that kind of thinking. ::FAIL::

  Instead, we would be better served by offering a base salary with incentives for reaching certain milestones. Another possibility might be to reduce the number of positions while increasing the salaries of the fewer remaining leadership positions, thereby getting more bang for the buck. I’m certain that others can come up with even better ideas than mine here, but it would be to no avail. With salary caps written in law we have gagged ourselves. This is what LePage is pointing out, which lays the groundwork for discussions about a better way.

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=719791897 Chris Grindle

  It’s not what you know….its who you know. They all put their pants on one leg at a time just like the rest of us.

• Anonymous

  He wants to cut the cost of state government but thinks we don’t pay enough . . .

  No matter who you voted for, the Government won.

• Anonymous

  You tea party folks are responsible for this. Why don’t you call your Governor and ask him why he’s willing to pay people 6 figure salaries with ‘our tax money’? (to use a tea party cliche).

• Anonymous

  I would not knock the people on your list just because they are not your No. 1 pick. Look at Tom Brady who was a second string quarter back! Diamonds in the ruff!

• Anonymous

  I don’t have a job…I’ll take it for what ever Paul wants to pay me………

• Tyke

  Arrogant and assuming much?

• Anonymous

  My question is, are you actually worth it or are you a BS artist?

• Tyke

  The myth of total Democratic control of Maine government for the last 30 (some people like lgreen48 even stretch this tall tale to 40) years has been repeated so often that even those telling the lie have begun to believe it. It has been 15 years since Republcians held both the governorship and dominated the legislature in 1995, and many of us remember that disaster of a government very, very well.

  Jock McKernan was governor from 1987 to 1995. McKernan’s last, and most notorious, budget was passed by Maine’s 119th Legislature. In the 119th the Maine Senate was run the by Republcians where they had a 18 to 16 majority, and the Maine House was split at 75 Republicans and 75 Democrats.

  Taxpayers are STILL paying off the damage they did during that session. Much of the state employee pension unfunded liability comes from it, as does a considerable portion of the still outstanding hospital debt.

  It is true that after that horribly disastrous 1994-95 Legislative session Maine voters turned away from Republcians in disgust and until now had not given them a majority again. It is also true that Democrats have not had sufficient discipline to completely clean up the mess that McKernan and the prior Republican dominated Legislature made.

  Because Democrats have not completely or adequately cleaned up the mess, they have now lost the governorship and both houses of the Legislature. However, if Republicans now govern as badly as they have in the past, and run up our debt again, voters will surely send them to wander in the wilderness for a few more decades.

• Tyke

  Lepage did express his unfailing support for Nutting as Speaker, though it is true he had no say in his selection.

• Tyke

  Commissioners are listed as “Governor’s Special Assistants” on the Heritage Foundation website and the rightie tighties has been taking pot shots at their “exorbitant” salaries for many months now.

  Does nayone believe that they will do this for Lepage’s Commissioners?

• Tyke

  No, but it is the safest answer to give to a known hot head who will be heading up the state government.

• Tyke

  BULL. If leaders on the right are committed to improving Maine then they will take the jobs and do their best.

• Tyke

  There is a reason they call these jobs “Public Service”

  … and contrary to the mythology from the right lower level government workers also make less than private sector jobs that require equivalent education, training, experience and certifications.

• Tyke

  We have already failed then. We hired Lepage as our CEO.

  Epic fail

• Anonymous

  Raye is wrong. Very few state employees are paid what is paid for a comparable position in the private sector. However, the legislative employees are very well paid. There is a difference in pay and benefits between regular state government employees and legislative employees. Perhaps, when they are looking for cuts; they should look at the benefits of legislative and confidential employees.

• Anonymous

  The Governor is paid $70,000 but he/she gets many benefits — like free housing, free transportation, and lots of other bennies. I would hope that Lepage knew the salary before he ran for office.

• Anonymous

  What? You need a math lesson.

• Anonymous

  Governor Elect LePage – Declare a State of Emergency and go get the people you need!

• Anonymous

  Our President is not a radical leftist, that is a complete lie and a distortion of reality. His base is very upset with him for being a moderate Democrat, for continuing many of Bush’s policies and enacting health care reform that essentially mirrors Republican proposals from the ’90s.

• Anonymous

  Perhaps – but not TOO often.

• Anonymous

  That’s part of the concept “CAREFULLY”.

• Anonymous

  I agree, a lot of the nurses in EMMC make more than that.

• Anonymous

  These positions should be filled by responsible people who are experienced. They should be balanced with a desire to serve the state and receieve a reasonable wage or compensation for doing so. No where does it say that LePage wants to raise salaries for cabinet members.

  There seems to be some sort of desire of the majority of the posters for this administration to fail. I wonder what are the reasons? What specific policy can you refer to that you dont like? What plan can you point to and say that this is not good for the state of Maine?

• Anonymous

  I didn’t vote for him in November and I would not vote for him today. But he is the Governor elect and he hasn’t had a chance to prove himself yet. I will give anyone the benefit of the doubt. I will reserve judgement until mid summer. By then he may not have saved us all but he should be showing some progress.

• Anonymous

  If Democrats are the party of the people, caring and compassionate, then I wonder why you mock people who are of an older generation. Do you believe they are not smart enough to serve, have no pertinent ideas, senile or demented? At what age does someone become to old to be useful?

  Perhaps the human interest of democrats is really putting `people into groups and classifying them as victims, spreading the notion they are not good enough or smart enough to live without governmnet help.

• Anonymous

  “Most state workers are well paid…..” I think he needs a reality check. Some highly educated state workers that are in jobs that require advanced degrees and have years of longevity are pretty well paid. The difference between the worker and the commissioner is not only the huge gap in pay, but the worker has to work. The commissioner……..well, they spend a great deal of time not at work. Lord only knows what they are doing!

• Anonymous

  “Most state workers are well paid…..” I think he needs a reality check. Some highly educated state workers that are in jobs that require advanced degrees and have years of longevity are pretty well paid. The difference between the worker and the commissioner is not only the huge gap in pay, but the worker has to work. The commissioner……..well, they spend a great deal of time not at work. Lord only knows what they are doing!

• Anonymous

  “Most state workers are well paid…..” I think he needs a reality check. Some highly educated state workers that are in jobs that require advanced degrees and have years of longevity are pretty well paid. The difference between the worker and the commissioner is not only the huge gap in pay, but the worker has to work. The commissioner……..well, they spend a great deal of time not at work. Lord only knows what they are doing!

• Anonymous

  How much is everyone in the Baldacci Administration being paid? Are they entitled to that pay?

  Yes, the evil Republicans are stealing from us!

• Anonymous

  You cant apply logic with these people. Obviously Bangorian has a secret, inside operative amongst the governor elects staff who is suppling this information about LePage’s mannerisms only to Bangorian.

• Anonymous

  The point is that you cant reward anyone for going to college, working hard and using thier own skills and brain to benefit themselves. That makes other people feel bad. Rather than rising up and providing opportunites to advance we have to dumb down to the level of people who prefer to be classified as victims of society by the Democrats.

• Anonymous

  dlaurels, you should make sure to differentiate between Legislative employees and Legislators…..the Legislative employees are those that either work at the Legislature with year round tasks or those that provide support functions while the legislature is in session. Trust me, the Legislative employees are NOT overly paid. Legislators on the other hand….not great pay but HUGE benefits for what amounts to part-time work

• Anonymous

  dlaurels, you should make sure to differentiate between Legislative employees and Legislators…..the Legislative employees are those that either work at the Legislature with year round tasks or those that provide support functions while the legislature is in session. Trust me, the Legislative employees are NOT overly paid. Legislators on the other hand….not great pay but HUGE benefits for what amounts to part-time work

• Anonymous

  dlaurels, you should make sure to differentiate between Legislative employees and Legislators…..the Legislative employees are those that either work at the Legislature with year round tasks or those that provide support functions while the legislature is in session. Trust me, the Legislative employees are NOT overly paid. Legislators on the other hand….not great pay but HUGE benefits for what amounts to part-time work

• Anonymous

  dlaurels, you should make sure to differentiate between Legislative employees and Legislators…..the Legislative employees are those that either work at the Legislature with year round tasks or those that provide support functions while the legislature is in session. Trust me, the Legislative employees are NOT overly paid. Legislators on the other hand….not great pay but HUGE benefits for what amounts to part-time work

• Anonymous

  Im amazed that you are able to do this without the help of our government!(sarcasm)
  Your points are valid, a person can gain success of their own free will and determination. Class envy seems to be a big thing among posters here. The reality is that the amount of money a person makes will always be under scrutiny as long as there are other people who feel envious of your accomplishments.

• Anonymous

  What are the salaries being paid to Baldacci appointees and has LePage introduced any legislation to raise the pay for anyone?

• Anonymous

  Remember the article about the Veteran Marine Officer that received deplorable treatment at the VA Hospital and eventually was shot by the police? His health care was run by the government and thats what scares me.

• Anonymous

  Yes, by that reasoning President Obama who is a millionaire should probably resign as he has a personal income much higher than the average american.

• Anonymous

  How honest of Mr. LePage. I wasn’t at all surprised at the inevitable reality but it’s nice to hear straight from his mouth how he won’t be getting “the best people” to fill his cabinet posts.

• Anonymous

  You mean he didn’t even know how much the pay was? That will explain the low level of competence and poor results to follow I guess? Talent starts at the top.

• Anonymous

  We need people committed to public service – making government work better.

  If 70K+ and the opportunity to do meaningful work on behalf of the citizens of Maine isn’t motivation enough for them, it is obvious that their priorities aren’t well suited for public service.

  They should stay in the private sector and make their money.

• Anonymous

  Yes, ryanrrobbins posted a few hours earlier that it would be closer to $233,333.

• Anonymous

  You want to apply logic to people who cant understand normal thinking in many ways. Obama is a millionaire and yet he is not clumped into the evil rich republican class. His Secretary of the Treasury is a Tax Cheat. His plan of Stimulus has not worked, even though he had the example of years past to show that massive government spending does not benefit or stimulate the economy. He advocates programs that have led A lot of European Countries into financial ruin, like Greece, Spain and Ireland.

• Anonymous

  Obviously the understanding that government does not exist to enrich us is a a concept that ConvivialVisists does not understand. The concept of increasing taxes to provide programs and foster waste, fraud and abuse is the mantra that the majority of posters here seem to embrace.

• Anonymous

  The perspective of the Maine tax payer is all important.

  Person A) Gratduated from Brewer High in 1985. Went to work strait from high school for a local construction company operating a bulldozer. The person has been employed by the same company for 25 years. They make $21.00/hour and they work hard for it.

  Person B) Graduated from UMO in 1989 with a degree in Chemical Engineering with very high marks. Was recruited by a large engineering firm and has worked for 3 different companies over 25 years. This person makes $90/hour and works hard for it.

  Person A may have a hard time swallowing $180,000 year for anyone employed by the state and paid with tax dollars removed from their pay check. Person B may be asking their self “how can the state find anyone good for $180K?” In reality, there are many more A’s in Maine than their are B’s in Maine or that have left Maine. The real situation in our state is so dire that while we may need someone with the skill that earns well over $200K/year we certainly don’t appear to be able to afford it. Even if there are only a handful of cabinet positions that pay out a total of a couple million $ in salary….and the budget runs in the 100′s of millions and billions….I don’t see the guy on the skidder or the lobster boat buy’n into it.

  With that said…If our new governor finds ways to generate income for the State of Maine without raising taxes, raping the environment or starting “state owned businesses” I say let him spend some money to make money. I expect to see expenses for trips abroad to generate contracts or even treaties to sell Maine goods. Export of products leads to jobs.

  If “We The People” are going to spend big $’s for a person in a high end state position, I’m of the opinion we had better see a tangeable paper trail that points to stuff made in Maine going out along with jobs and cash coming back in.

  If that’s the plan…..pay the man.

  If not…..sharpen your pencil Mr. Governor, because Mardens didn’t strike me as the kind of place paid 6 figures to many besides you.

• Anonymous

  What color is the sky in your world? You are truly out of touch if you are outraged with those salary levels you indicated. Do you really want billion dollar budgets to be managed by someone with the skill set that will agree to work for a salary below $76,000 per year??

  What is SICKENING is that we have paid for mediocrity for years – and look where that has gotten us. Me – I’d rather have 10 well paid effiective managers willing to make the hard decisions than 100 mediocre bureaucrats.

  Your comment is just typical of the tired old liberal class envy mindset.

• Anonymous

  Contrary to right wing thought, government service is not about getting rich. Supposedly it’s about serving all the people.
  It seems a while ago these same greedy people were talking about all the high paying state jobs that were taking all our hard earned tax money.
  I suppose Guv will also be turning down that socialized guvmint health care and retirement benefits.

• Anonymous

  Thank you for your post. You use real facts that any reasonable person should agree too. I dont really care who messed everything up. I do care that it gets fixed. Its not the fault of one party as you say. I wish more comments like yours would be posted, it would perhaps encourage people to take a more balanced view of things.

• Anonymous

  Check out the website that lists the salary of all state employees. See if they are comprable to what other people you know make, for doing similar jobs. I do know that there are a lot of benefits attached to the base salary of these employees that private citizens have to pay for or partially pay for.

• Anonymous

  That’s what we need, high paid CEO’s running our state into the ground. Will they supply the vaseline or do we have to provide that too?

• Anonymous

  What a shame. Join the rest of us. Perhaps this is the best lesson our new governor can learn.

• Anonymous

  Your ignorance is astounding.

• Anonymous

  Welcome to Maine, Mr. Governor-Elect. There’s another story in the news today about how Mainers are among the lowest paid workers in the country. Perhaps the candidates need to lower their standards of living, like the rest of us who are scraping to get by on far, far less than $70K a year.

• Anonymous

  !!!! Good word: “nuance” vs. the black and white mentality of our conservative posters. all of a sudden the details seem to matter.

• Anonymous

  I’m 31, work in Maine, and make more than the governor. At this point in my career I wouldn’t take a job that paid 70K.

• Anonymous

  Good comment. Pay the people who really make a difference.

• Anonymous

  someone qualified to be a commissioner is not going to work for $55K a year, they can easily make 4 or 5 times that in the private sector. The state isn’t competing with wal mart for filling these positions – they need to at least be in the ballpark.

• Anonymous

  Kind of like the slow let down to reality.

• Anonymous

  Poor guys/gals Dont see how they can make it on less then $100 grand a year…..Ied do it for free just to get rid of DHS, one of our states most useless agencys…… Get a life People, you dont live in Calif or Mass….Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

• Anonymous

  If the governor makes $70k, then maybe the pay scales of the rest of the state government should be based on less than that.

  Maine has been suffering from poor leadership and the incompetence and corruption of many in state government.

  If the majority of us are at or below 50k, then maybe it’s time to doc Augusta’s pay…!

• Anonymous

  Maine has the lowest paid governor in the country. Our governor gets paid less than the governors of Vermont, Wyoming, Delaware, Rhode Island., Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska… yet all these states have lower populations that Maine – sometimes almost half that of Maine. A handful of highly paid cabinet members is not the cause of our budget problems – these are a drop in the bucket and it takes money to attract the right talent in most cases. Even if you increased the salary of the cabinet members by 25% they would still be taking pretty big pay cuts in most cases.

• Tyke

  Do not forget to look a bit further into the requirements for those legislative staff jobs. Many (perhaps most) require a law degree and a valid license to practice law in Maine, a CPA or some other highly advanced degree and/or certification/license. Many also requirement years of experience on top of the professional credentials.

  You need to compare the private sector salaries with the same requirements. When you do that you will find that most state employees are paid less than private sector equivalents.

  … and state employees do pay for their benefits. I don’t know where that myth originated but repeating it over and over doesn’t make it true. The mandatory retirement payment that comes out of the employee’s pay is actually more than the state portion.

• Tyke

  He didn’t complain about his salary.

• Anonymous

  Imagine that DUNDERHEAD LePage trying to pick the best and brightest! IMAGINE!

• Anonymous

  You can say that again! I heard that Lepage will actually bite a person if he or she doesn’t give a good enough reason for turning down an offer!

• Tyke

  Smart dedicated people will do it regardless of the pay.

  That is the nature of public service and it is reflected in the lower pay for the public sector than in private jobs with equal requirements. This is true at all levels of state government jobs.

  http://www.slge.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={22748FDE-C3B8-4E10-83D0-959386E5C1A4}&DE={BD1EB9E6-79DA-42C7-A47E-5D4FA1280C0B}

• Tyke

  State workers make less than in the private sector for jobs with the same education & experience requirements at ALL levels.

  http://www.slge.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={22748FDE-C3B8-4E10-83D0-959386E5C1A4}&DE={BD1EB9E6-79DA-42C7-A47E-5D4FA1280C0B}

• Tyke

  Here’s a study that shows that government employees at the state and local level make less than equivalent positions in the private sector.

  http://www.slge.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={22748FDE-C3B8-4E10-83D0-959386E5C1A4}&DE={BD1EB9E6-79DA-42C7-A47E-5D4FA1280C0B}

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1452684179 Jason Simonds

  Thank you.

  I agree.

  I can be persuaded, but not by opinion. Logic and facts work well for me. Name calling and accusations and repeated false talking points just sound like so much noise after a while.

  I have a challenge for us Americans. Watch this documentary put out by the Swedes about Assange and Wikileaks… I will warn you that there is some seriously disturbing video from Afghanistan about 20 minutes in… it made me nauseous… still does if I think about it too much… no “American” should be able to watch this and be “proud”. We have some serious issues to deal with as a country and the partisan bickering and constant spinning of information from all sides is very damaging to this country.
  http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/62269/WikiRebels__The_Full_Documentary_About_WikiLeaks/

• Anonymous

  Isn’t it funny – when you are in an airplane and you run out of gas, you fairly quickly get the idea of what happening. In Maine, and maybe even in America, standing on the ground, some of us don’t realize what’s happening, or maybe they do.

• Anonymous

  When Lepage was accused of cheating on his Taxes by a city in Florida he publicly blamed the whole thing on his wife. …..If he will throw the mother of his children under the bus just imagine what he will do to one of his cabinet members when things don’t go his way.

• oldgrump

  The positions are ones of “public service”. Considering the pay scale for these positions, the “best and brightest” don’t go for them unless they are actually interested in working to help the public, looking for prestige or power. Heck, the salary as President of the US is only $400K a year. Considering this is the office of one of the “most powerfull men on earth”, that’s chicken feed. Yet the perks, prestige, ability to actually work for (or, in some cases, against) the people is what draws people to these positions. If one is not willing to take the “pay cut” to fill the position, then they are not interested in what the job actually represents. They are not the “best” for the job.

• Anonymous

  The name Concannon comes to mind – do you suppose he has any idea what happened to the missing $20 million that was discovered after he left Maine? Mediocrity, incompetence, or criminality?

• Tyke

  Penguins bite?

• Anonymous

  Yah, imagine,,,,, LePage trying to pick the best & the brightest,,,, Baldacci couldn’t—even at twice the price.

  At this point “anyone” could do a better job than the past administration…!

• Anonymous

  Some the posters here are starting to remind me of lobsters waiting next to a pot of boiling water – they think that something big is about to happen!

• Anonymous

  Thanks for your info. My point was that State Employees as a whole are not getting rich by being paid high salaries. I think some of the posters are saying they are, talking about $70000 being a huge amount of money.

• Anonymous

  Can you point out in the article where LePage said I dont make enough money? Or are you putting words in his mouth by refering to his comment or the information that he makes less as governor than as a private citizen.

• Tyke

  Lepage whined about the pay cut he was taking and tried to make sh*t up about people turning down commissioners jobs because they couldn’t “afford the cut in pay”.

  His overpaid business class buddies are turning down the jobs because they have a grossly insufficient sense of public service.

  Pay is just an excuse they are giving.

• Tyke

  Soory – My reply should have been to dlaurels. He/She said legislative employees are “very well paid”, which is true when they are compared to the average Mainer but not true when compared to jobs at similar skill levels.

• Tyke

  Deleted: disqus keeps misdirecting my replies.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y3AXQVNDVKK5OL7F2JGONIRWMI Mainer50

  What about all the hubub about “Civic” duty and having these same people “put their money” where their mouth is? I have talent and I would love to have a position. As a single parent, I had to learn how to strictly budget the money that I had…can’t say that for the new administration, by the looks of things.

• Tyke

  So which benefits do you believe state employees get that they do not have to pay for but workers in the private sector have to pay to get?

  Not retirement: state employees pay a larger portion of that than the state does
  Not Health insurance: they pay part of that too

  Legislative employees pay for these as well.

  You think the lawyers and CPA’s in the legislative staff offices should be paid like other folks with substantially lower education/skill requirements? Why? The private sector pays very well for those kinds of backgrounds too.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y3AXQVNDVKK5OL7F2JGONIRWMI Mainer50

  I’m happy for you, you are in the top what 3% of the upper income bracket…for those folks over 45 and had industrial jobs, once upon a time, 70K was considered poverty wages, today, they would love to be able to make 45K just to make their mortgage payments. Hope your 401K is secure as well as your job security, nothing is what it seems in this day and age.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_IWT5OBZ25YXL35KHNJYOCGAVXQ Tammy

  The Baldacci Administration folks are being paid exactly what those caps in State Law that LePage is so upset about say they are allowed to be paid. Talented and intelligent people are not all out for the money. Some are drawn to serve, and money isnt everything to them. If we equate smart, talented, and intelligent to people who’s mind set and life philosophies are all about the highest paying pay check; then we are doomed to get what we pay for, and if they find themselves “undercompensated” for their arrogant notion of self worth they will just walk away without a look back at the people that may suffer because of it; but hey, why would they care about others when they take a job as a public servant, it is all about the pay. Disgusting thinking, and I’d rather have the real talented, intelligent, COMPASSIONATE people that serve for the sake of serving in these positions than self serving money grubbing “best” people

• Anonymous

  When you’ve hit rock bottom,,, any movement is up…!

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Y3AXQVNDVKK5OL7F2JGONIRWMI Mainer50

  The scary part of your post is that you actually believe your own BS. Interesting how the TEA party can point fingers at others but when something lands on their own door stoop, then the rest of it has it all wrong….what makes you and the TEA party different from other radical political groups from the past? It’s a mistake to believe that one person is so perfect and that they have a magic wand to fix everything. WE the people have become too complacent and now too busy to point fingers, instead of digging in as our parents did and do something. We just want to sit back and let George do it. Robbing Peter to pay Paul, that mantra will live in infamy and forever. There is no more civic pride or honor anymore…we should have a wake and funeral to honor those morals that seem to be dead and gone. Common sense is another moral that has gone by the wayside and let greed take it’s place. Long live the Big Corporations and corporate welfare and the rich people that control everything!!!!!!

• Anonymous

  Number one…there is nothing in my post that said anything about the Tea Party. Number two…You assume that you know who belongs to the Tea Party and that they are radical.
  Number three…I believe in makin’ a livin’ the old hard way. But back to the subject at hand
  Answer this question friend….If Vermont can provide child services to 6000 children for $21million dollars, why is it that Maine provides the same services for 3000 children at a cost of $121million dollars…do the math. It is because of people like you railing against doing anything right in this state, with qualified people. If this state had smart people to bring good private sector jobs in, you wouldn’t be screaming about how deprived you were if you had a great paying job for the hard work you do, would ya now. So if you want Maine to stay dumbed down and our college kids to leave the state for another state where there are good jobs. Then keep doin what your doin. As as far as the Tea Party goes….get a life. You need to be more worried about some terrorist than people who care about this country. Just because you do not agree with someone
  in your mind they are a radical right wing nut.

• Anonymous

  What does LePage mean by “You try to get as much money as you possibly could for them.”? Didn’t he promise to start cutting government spending if elected? Why do LePage’s cronies deserve more money than the job paid under the Democrat regime? If he’s going to cut state spending, he should convince these people they can do more work with less money, like he expects the rest of the state to do.

• PBRman

  Does anyone else find it intriguing that: ProConservative, amconservative, conservativedad, EJParsons, Larry T Doughty, et al of LePage’s die-hard supporters haven’t commented here?

• oldgrump

  Reminds me of the story: What were the lobster’s last words? “Cool, a Jacuzzi”

• Anonymous

  First of all, I said that state employees are NOT paid as well as private employees. However, you are wrong about health insurance — the state 100% of the state employee health insurance. And confidential employees do not pay the full burden of their retirement. They pay 1.5% while regular state employees pay 7.65%. And, not all legislative employees are lawyers and very few (if any) are CPAs. Maybe you should do a little research.

• Anonymous

  I’m sure they have good reason not to be commenting about Mr. LePage…
  Mr. Doughty is probably saving the tax payers money as we speak….
  By the way PBR is good stuff..

• Anonymous

  Mr. LePage…
  You must of had a typo..

• Anonymous

  I bet there are a lot of very well qualified common sense Tea Party Animals who would take these jobs.

  Get your resumes in to the transition team Tea Partiers.

• Anonymous

  I would say that “civic duty” or its equivalent needs to be a component of serving in government effectively and, yes, that would mean taking a government position for less pay than a person would expect for a position of similar requirement and responsiblity in the private sector.

• Anonymous

  Total BS artist, I work for the state :D

• Anonymous

  I understand that lepage pandered to uneducated voters hell bent on a throw the bums out bandwagon. I predict his regime will be more of the same, and the Maine economy will not be better off under his policies.

  You are correct in that the government does not exist to enrich our lives! Sadly, voters seemed to think that voting for lepage would magically change the economy here, as if Maine were responsible for nafta, GATT, globalization, and the implosion of the us paper industry.

• Anonymous

  Correction… MODERATES can come together to keep congress somewhat at bay. We joined with the liberals to throw out the blatantly corrupt republicans in 2006 and 2008, and now we have come to correct the swing to the left that resulted.

  Crediting the conservatives with anything is absurd, republicans spend our tax dollars just as freely on warfare and handouts. Or did you forget about medicare part D under Bush?

• Anonymous

  :D , Retired. Never did see @25,000, would have been nice though.

• Tyke

  I never said that all legislative employees are CPAs and Lawyers (nice attempt at a strawman there), however they do represent a higher % of the employees than in the executive branch and many of the salaries (as well as the average) are higher because of that.

  The state used to pay 100% of the health insurance plan. That is no longer true.

  Employees are required to pay a % of their own personal health insurance costs (they pay more for family):

  For annual salary <= $30,000: 5%
  For salaries from $30,000 to $80,000: 10%
  For salaries over $80,000 : 15 %

  http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/5/title5sec285.html

  Maybe you should "do a little research" before projecting arrogance and superiority while "correcting" a true statement with your erroneous one?

• Anonymous

  Oh MY! The top 5 people at Dirigo Health make more than the Gov.! Kill that program and send them to the unemployment line! Usless program sucking up thousands of Maine dollars a year!

• Anonymous

  You are right, I apologize. I retired last year so I had forgotten about the changes to health insurance. It seems to me that there are fewer lawyers working for the legislature in the last decade or so. For instance, in the past, one had to be a lawyer to work for the Revisor’s office. They now hire non lawyers. Also, the AGs office does not pay their lawyers as much as the Legislature does. As for retirement, I think that all employees should pay the same rate. Plus, confidential employees receive income protection at a much higher rate (2/3 of their income) for free. In order for regular state employees to receive income protection, they must join the union and pay a fee out of each pay check. The amount that one can get is based on your monthly salary — I believe the most that can be collected is $1,900 but that may have changed in the last year or so.

• Anonymous

  What happened to helping the citizens of Maine? Why not do a little living like an everyday Mainer?
  See, Paul just hoped he could bring his fellow senior citizens to the capital for a party. We need young new thoughts, not all these retired old farts.

• Anonymous

  yeah, and there is no productivity in government, just waiting for retirement. No accountability until now I hope… look at the people patching the roads, what a poor job they do. Call down to Augusta and ask a complicated question like what does it take to run for State Representative. It takes 3 people and then you still do not get a real answer. Just a bunch of forms. You know, government is the biggest ponzi scheme and it is forced on us.

• Anonymous

  Wonder if Paul will be laughing in 6 months like he is in the photo above this box…

• Anonymous

  What have moderates accomplished except stand in the way of dem regressives and repub progress?

  Sure, there are many Republicans in the Hall of Shame: Snowe and Collins are cornerstones. Yet there remain sufficient Republicans who can be influenced to do the Right thing. Witness this week: we just saved the economy by enacting effective tax policy and beating back profligate spending policy. Can the Dems claim credit? Noooooooooooo! We won the battle of the phone lines. Hooray Tea Party!

  Pick the winning side: Vote Conservative!

• Anonymous

  Prediction: Obama will be a pail on the dungheap of history.

• Anonymous

  No lie. My assertion is a matter of fact.

  You are reading waaaaaay too much E J Dionne.

• Anonymous

  Nice name, tyke. Explains your rationale.

• Anonymous

  check your math.

• Anonymous

  divide 70,000 by .3
  That is the correct way of doing it.

• Anonymous

  What public service do you provide?

• Anonymous

  I don’t care if he’s laughing, crying, or skipping rope,,, just as long as he’s not like all of the other greedy corrupt politicians in Maine….!

• Anonymous

  I’ll do it for 55k

• Anonymous

  I agree, $70 is not that much, I made as much (before the recession). The reason we pay our public officials is not so much to attract talent, but to make sure that not-so-elite people can hold public office, its an assurance that we are not governed by the elite only. Money is not the only incentive for performance, and certainly not for public service; prestige, power and love of country attract talent also.

  Here is my point about LePage:
  1. bad timing – a lot of Mainers don’t make nearly that much and some areas are experiencing 12% unemployment
  2. it is what it is. did the governor not know the salary limits for his cabinet before now?
  3. will he apply the ‘larger salaries solves problems’ logic to eduction? health and human services? our first responders? (or just his cronies?)
  4. I’m surprised he did not vet potential cabinet members before now.

• Anonymous

  You didn’t respond to anything I say.

  You assertion isn’t fact. It’s a parroting of Fox News talking points.

• Anonymous

  Wow. Amazing math skills by some of your adversaries. I will heretofore boycott conversing with Jason on these pages if he actually believes that $1,000,000 reduced by 70% is $75,000.

• Anonymous

  Very good point, but I fear most posters are here for the hanging and they won’t settle for anything less.

  I thought BDN could spin a story but most of the liberal crowd posting here are light years ahead of anyone in that organization.

  I didn’t read anywhere in this story that raises were coming , just that LaPage was offering a little insight into why the posts weren’t filled yet.

• Anonymous

  A reasonable point, but he might have decided timing was important. He might have thought that b!atching a month or so ago would be useless. Waiting until now might have been intentional so that if he got in a big enough jam and needed a Republican legislature to modify the payscale law.

• Anonymous

  You always have the right answers…

• Anonymous

  Hey Paul, It’s called Public Service.

• Anonymous

  I suspected as much, I was hoping he/she would divulge that information but so far that hasn’t happened………..just waiting for the right time I guess.

• Anonymous

  Be a little gentle – there are a lot of unemployed political hacks on here and out there.

• Anonymous

  The ole’ crystal ball must be hot to the touch after that reading, be careful she may blow up in your face if you keep working it like that…lol

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1452684179 Jason Simonds

  I am going to challenge you here on a point you make, that is made in a lot of arguments: “You get what you pay for”.

  I do not believe this is an accurate statement and therefore is useless as a point in making an argument. In a fully reciprocal system where performance and reward are tightly connected this idiom holds true quite well as the proper forces are in place to balance the system. However, in a system whereby there is not a close connection between the two, the correcting forces do not apply.

  So any system where there is not a direct causal link between performance and reward can not be said to be worth what one pays for it. A very good example would be the State DOT. There is no performance criteria involved in thie pay scales. How ell they do anything has no effect on their pay scale, or their ability to keep their jobs, as evidenced by the deplorable inability to correctly fill a pot hole. Like wise there are many public sector jobs where performance is not taken into account when determining pay scales.

  As a result motivation, to work hard and and get the job done correctly, disappears and the customers does not get what they pay for.

  It is one of the key problems with our public sector “industry”. No accountability for the dollars being spent.

  And isn’t that one of Mr LePage’s battle cries? Accountability?

  It should be an interest couple of years as the will balances out with the reality of an entrenched public sector workforce.

  As for pay scales… they are determined by the attractiveness of a regions livability, proximity to the rest of the world, over all economic activity.. etc etc.. Maine is at the end of the transportation chain and in the far corner of our economic system. It is inefficient do do almost anything here that isn’t here to begin with.. IE if it doesn’t involve the resources that are here, no one is going to bring them here to setup shop.. it just doesn’t make good business sense.

  So pay scales here are what they are due to the nature of where we are.

  (edited for grammer)

• Anonymous

  They all tell me that…

• Anonymous

  Civil service is not crazy. We are asking young men to give their lives in two wars for less than what we pay cabinet members. They are not crazy.

• Anonymous

  Maybe they didn’t want to work with LePage?

• Anonymous

  Did Ann tell you that?…

• Anonymous

  Of the people by the people for the people, or of the elite, by the elite (for the elite?). It’s just more hypocrisy, don’t you think?

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QCC3ABRLTIU3EFA26HUIDQZTSM Chris

  I’ll split with you for $27,500 … and no tea partiers involved…heck-for that I’ll shovel the steps and most of the driveway,cut the grass,etc….seriously. Good thinking and best wishes. Good Post and Thanks(I’m serious about the offer)

• Anonymous

  Those Salaries are rediculous!

• Anonymous

  I agree with you, I just hope Gov. LePage remembers that logic when solving problems in education and health and human services. Ie, will he want to pay teachers more money as well? (Somehow I doubt this incentive program will extend to all levels of state employees).

• Anonymous

  Most state jobs pay less than private sector jobs of similar qualification.

• Anonymous

  Why do you talk about your mama like that?

• Anonymous

  I thought you would like this for Christmas

  http://cgi.ebay.com/Kraft-Kool-Aid-Man-Vintage-Figurine-Toy-/310279537788?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item483e1a047c

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QCC3ABRLTIU3EFA26HUIDQZTSM Chris

  Really..STG…Did you really expect anything different…A lot of talk and blathering-no action. Building a prison ..from what I can see a f ew of his hires could move right in.

• Anonymous

  Here is where I get my inspiration for posting

  http://www.tfhp.org/

• Anonymous

  I suspect he won’t extend “that logic” very far “downward”. He wants to have some talent at the top so that when the Great Ship State of Maine finally crashes, there will be minimal casualties.

• Anonymous

  Hey – I get my hats there too!

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QCC3ABRLTIU3EFA26HUIDQZTSM Chris

  Hello and Merry Christmas to all- I enjoy reading the comments and participating from time to time- A suggestion would be is to edit your own comments and shorten them as best you can-if you have a valid point to make you can probably state it in 4 or 5 sentences. Just a suggestion.

• Anonymous

  Omg! Yes, that does seem quite evident many times….

• Anonymous

  Amen!!

• Anonymous

  Absolutely…and the ones who are just in it for the money, are not the ones you would ideally want to lead.

• Anonymous

  Yes, have you noticed!!

• Anonymous

  These people make really inaccurate assertions. And also….Obama still actually does poll well with his base (even if they are disappointed with some of his policies lately.)

• Anonymous

  And hello and Merry Christmas to you. Always good to hear from you. Hoping the year ahead will be a good one for you .

• Anonymous

  :) it made me laugh

• Anonymous

  Wow, I thought Mr. new smart man gov. was going to cut cost. It appears he wants to pay more but the law prevents it. Good Law!!! come on Gov to be. Put your words into action. Pehaps you spoke to soon about all the ways you are going to cut waste etc. I haven,t heard anythind yet about how its going to be done. Not easy is it? It appears your off to a poor start. Can’t even hire a staff. I suppose things that get cut will be like Mardens, Minimum wages, no benifits, poor looking stores, not enough help etc. Huh, someone forgot there are state laws to follow. Try changing these laws, it will not be as easy as Mardens.

• Anonymous

  Please read the article on the today’s BDN that provides census data showing Mainers are underpaid across the board. The poor dears who serve in the cabinet are not so different then, than the people they serve.

  “Mainers continue to earn significantly less than their New England neighbors and face child poverty rates that are among the highest in the Northeast, according to figures released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau.”

  http://www.bangordailynews.com/story/Statewide/Maine-last-in-earnings-in-Northeast,161711

• Anonymous

  Definitions of elitism:

  the attitude that society should be governed by an elite group of individuals
  wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

• Anonymous

  Funny he didn’t include that in his campaign material.

• Anonymous

  According to LePage, if we just pay the people in August more money, end of problem!

• Anonymous

  Besides, most people making 6 figures are in a place in their careers whereby they can take a hiatus for the sake of public service. The prestige that would bring to someone’s firm/company is tremendous. You can’t pay for that kind of advertising!

• Anonymous

  Actually, there are management styles that create work place environments that empower employees to innovate and communicate, thus creating reduced spending and increased efficiency. Since LePage is a manager from the private sector, he should understand that.

• Anonymous

  You’re right. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with him and his policies, but why exaggerate and distort the reality of the situation? There are people screaming about the DREAM act for example and call the left radicals for supporting it, but they forget (or lie/ignore) that it was crafted by John McCain and Lindsay Graham with input and support from Bush.

• Anonymous

  Bush did not ‘fail to curtail spending’. That is the biggest white wash I have ever heard!

  Bush *squandered* a balanced budget handed to him by Clinton.

• Anonymous

  Being a yes man is not exactly screaming ‘I am an independent thinker’.

• Anonymous

  According to Gov. LePage’s logic, we should give the folks at Dirigo a raise if we want to see improvements.

• Anonymous

  It’s time for the governor-elect to his money where his mouth is….Why don’t he make his salary and the rest the same as the starting wage at Mardin’s…also no food stamps or heating oil..just a bus ticket to Mass…the nerve of these people

• Anonymous

  Let’s give our teachers a raise first.

• Anonymous

  After a while it gets ludicrous. I am getting to the point that I
  don’t even read a lot of the posts on the letters one. It goes beyond
  anything worthwhile. What can you learn from distortions, over and
  over…. I do like to read the editorials and some of the rest though.

• Tyke

  Two replies basically saying:

  Oh quick look over there!!! Trying to change the subject.

  … because they have absolutely nothing to refute what I have said.

  Thanks for reinforcing my points!!!

• Anonymous

  I don’t need to ask him. We need to spend exceptional money to get the right people for the exceptionally challenging jobs. Six figure salaries for commissioners aren’t the budget busters. It’s all the middle-and-up five figure salaries for the rank and file.

• http://www.facebook.com/people/Nadine-Lewis/1502462668 Nadine Lewis

  I am glad that they are backing out now, instead of taking the post and then revealing how greedy they are. Let them live like the rest of us here in Maine, in poverty or near poverty….maybe that will wake them up to the realities of living in Maine!!

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_WUXQMOMFW26EODLA7I3WZLSNPM Jeff C

  Isnt it interesting that a report just comes naming Maine’s Median income around 46,000 but these people want 100′s of thousands to sit in an office and decide the rest of our future….wow, i should have gone to college for Political Science cause these people have it locked. Not only can they break the law regularly and get it covered up, but they can actually sit in those office with s–t eating grins and watch as the most of the state flirts below the poverty line, or worse.

• Anonymous

  As one of the uneducated members of the throw the bums out bandwagon. There is an old adage “all politics is local”. What in your mind is acceptable about a $1billion dollar structural deficit, about 10% of state revenue going to the state retirement system soon to be 20%, representing billions. What is acceptable about Federal restrictions choking our fishing industry, our mills closing, and our industry going overseas. Who in this state stopped this from happening. It’s all Washington’s fault, it’s everyone else’s fault. Remember we vote for the representatives who go to Washington, What have they done to stop this. Under the Democrats our state has become dead last in terms of business environment. Number 48 in regulatory burden on business. So why don’t you relax, give it a chance and instead of prejudging, wait until you have some facts to base your case on. As far u as I am concerned under the Democrats the state has been poorly managed and the waste of taxpayer monies unacceptable. If you think everything is so rosy, maybe you need to move to Massachusetts where they just love Democrats. They aren’t all bad, I like the blue dogs. One thing you need to remember is that 80% of Mainers voted for someone other than a Democrat. So you are actually defending the 20% who did. You have no argument that supports the status quo, because most Mainers are on the throw the bums out bandwagon.

• Anonymous

  Exactly what I was thinking. He ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility and the first thing he wants to do is raise salaries for government leadership? Fat cats getting fatter while whining and crying about how it’s only fair. And what a crappy way to motivate the people that do agree to work for the administration. Well, we couldn’t afford the best, so we hired you.

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1063165669 Jill Fletcher

  Okay…. so do bear with me here. Then they need to go make that in the private sector with 10% unemployment across the board. So, 55k a year is being paid in the private sector? WHERE? Not here in Maine! Pointing to NY doesn’t count you know *flatly*

  So, the song an dance you wish me to buy is “This”?

  1. They get Health care they don’t have to pay into.

  2. They get meals covered

  3. The get PAID Mileage, and PAID drive time. And some even State vehicles?

  A $55,000 annual salary in 2010 is:

  # holidays # working days hourly rate
  6 255 $26.96 per hour
  7 254 $27.07 per hour
  8 253 $27.17 per hour
  9 252 $27.28 per hour
  10 251 $27.39 per hour
  11 250 $27.50 per hour
  12 249 $27.61 per hour
  13 248 $27.72 per hour
  14 247 $27.83 per hour

  Now, the monthly is… $4,583.33 per month. The daily rate is $220.00.

  I’m supposed to believe that someone is having trouble living on $220.00 a day with paid time and drive mileage and free health care? Someone can’t live comfortably on that?

  Also please note that 55,000 is around 9000 more than the majority of Mainer’s make.

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1063165669 Jill Fletcher

  Mine is Blue, yours must be green. You ask a very fair minded question I suppose…

  >>>Do you really want billion dollar budgets to be managed by someone with the skill set that will agree to work for a salary below $76,000 per year<<<

  Yes, absolutely. I mean how come you have to have 200+ a day to do a good job? Seriously?

• Anonymous

  I wouldn’t work for $55K a year. I’m more qualified than that.

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1063165669 Jill Fletcher

  Thank you for pointing out that they do pay into health insurance. It’s still little and I believe that they get this too “with their salary. So add the following to whatever the yearly is….

  $12,713/year

  $38/day housing, or mileage and tolls in lieu of housing (at rate of $0.36/mile up to $38/day) plus $32/day for meals. Per diem limits are set by statute.

  And according to the Heritage Policy:

  “In fact, in 2008, total compensation (wages plus benefits) for the average Maine state worker was $52,789 while total compensation for the average private sector worker was $44,444″

  http://www.sunjournal.com/node/802610

• Anonymous

  Wrong! All State employees pay a huge percentage for family care and at least a percentage for personal health care. I have family care and it cost over 5K a year and my deductibles and co pays.
  Get your facts straight, sorry! Facts and right wing=oxymoron

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1452684179 Jason Simonds

  What… no rebuttal?

• Anonymous

  The Maine Heritage Lying Center adds in the Employee contributions to health care and retirement so they can double count the amounts. This is a B .S. method of calculation and is intended to be a slanted, prejudiced, complete sack of *^%$, and succeeds in all of the goals. The only thing it fails at is telling the truth.

  If you can’t do math, The Employee 7% contribution for retirement is counted again when the total cost of retirement is added to salary giving a false 7% raise to the total. The employees $5,000.00 a year contribution to health care is then also counted when adding the cost of health care adding a false $5K to each of those salaries.
  All retirement funds are taxed as income when they come in, before going to the retirement fund. Then they are taxed again as income when they are paid out. The same money is taxed twice. Can I expect help from the Tea Potty for this gross over taxation?

• Tyke

  Do you have any other, new non sequiturs? This one was old before you were born and it’s getting boring.

• Anonymous

  First of all, I find it offensive that you presume something about me that you know nothing about. Secondly, as a former state employee (I retired last year), I paid 40%of the cost for my son’s health insurance. Paying 40% is a heck of a lot better than paying 100%. Plus, I always considered our health insurance plan so much better than what most people had. We are paying more now, however, it is still better than most. So, I was grateful for the state employees health plan. But, I of set that with my paycheck being smaller than if I had been in private business. And, the continuation of my health insurance after retirement helped to keep me in state government. I know I could have made more money on the outside, but after a certain amount of time in state government, I made the decision to stay for the retiree health insurance benefit. This is a choice I made. I have always felt that state employees get the short end of the stick because so many think we have it made in the shade. However, usually they have no idea what they are talking about. And, for Kevin Raye to state that state government employees are well paid, shows a lack of knowledge on his part. And, I again say that maybe Senator Raye should look at the salaries of the legislative staff. These salaries are not posted anywhere for anyone to see. It is a closed society in the Legislature.

• Anonymous

  Ds = gov’t regulations + unions = higher costs = incentive for businesses to move to areas of lower cost

  What has Maine received in return? Well, an improved environment, for one thing. And who can say that’s bad? It’s a balance thing. We’ve laid the groundwork for a potentially thriving tourist industry. Until we can accept that having clean air and water, and gorgeous vistas is an acceptable substitute for median levels of income, there will probably be some discontent.

• Anonymous

  It’s called competition for skills. You obviously have no understanding of human motivation. Doctors and Lawyers do not sacrifice personally, go to school for several years, and incur thousands in debt just to get out and practice for $70k per year just for the motivation of “do a good job”.

  The same is true of any skill set. There may be a sense of personal satisfaction, but compensation is the true motivator.

  I think really what you are saying is : “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” I think we all know how that ends up.

• Anonymous

  Apples and Oranges

• Anonymous

  We need more moderates in politics, this endless fight from the extremes is what is killing our country.

  The republican party does itself no favors by closing ranks into an ever shrinking group of ‘true believers’.

• Anonymous

  what is acceptable about shoveling more money to the politicians who are pledging to reduce spending?

  If they have our best interests at heart, they would serve our state for the salary we currently offer.

• Anonymous

  The people in the cabinet were not elected. A good economist is normally not a politician.
  Human services commissioner, Transportation, etc. they are supposed to be experts in the field of whichever department they head. That’s the point here. You look at any other state and you will find that Maine probably attracts fewer qualified cabinet officers than most.

• Anonymous

  You’re right, they served their country. LePage went to Canada, n’cest pas?

• Anonymous

  Yeah he also fled to England and then staged protests against his own nation.

  Oops – my mistake. That was Bill Clinton.

• Anonymous

  Probably should take the pay they earn as private citizens and redistribute to be fair. How much does Obama make, or his tax cheat Secreatry of Treasury, Tim Gietner. Hilary Clinton had to return stolen US property after she and Bill left the Whitehouse. And again, can you point out where in the article it says that LePage directly complained to the reporter about his salary?

• Anonymous

  The article says nothing about anyone asking for more pay. That seems to be the focus of a lot of posters. That it is somehow assummed that more pay was asked for, or will be asked for. Im not seeing that reported in the article. I see an article saying that there is trouble attracting people to a lower paying state job and that the posters are complaining about how much those jobs pay, or that they shouldnt pay anymore than a person makes at McDonalds and things like this.

  I agree, public service shouldnt be a way to enrich yourself. I disagree with the direction many posters are taking with this issue. Putting a partisan spin on things.

• Anonymous

  I love the deflection game. I say something about a Republican, then you say something about a Democratic, we go one for hours, saying nothing relevant other than to think how bright we are.

  b.o.r.i.n.g.

• Anonymous

  Why even bring up the whole “draft dodging” issue if not for “deflection”.

  h.y.p.o.c.r.a.t.e

• Anonymous

  Just a matter of style over content, if you are going to try to be like me and use fun devices like over punctuating words for emphasis, you might consider a d.i.c.t.i.o.n.a.r.y.

  What is a hypo-crate anyway, a wooden box where you keep your hypos???
  ‘
  Hypocrite. I think that’s what you meant to call me.

• Anonymous

  Truer words were never spoken. (ditto to the dem’s progressive wing). Thank you for your sane response.

• Anonymous

  Wow – you must be very popular.

  Thanks for making my point – nice deflection.

  b.i.g. h.y.p.o.c.r.i.t.e.

• Anonymous

  “Underpaid” is a sensational, inappropriate term, not used by the article. It is a judgmental term, though obviously it might be valid in some instances, and anywhere in the world. A more accurate term to use would be that Maine has an “underperforming” economy. You can’t squeeze wine from a rock.

• Anonymous

  it’s so funny how you just seem to want to be me.

  you use my d.e.v.i.c.e.s. in your comments

  you use my words in your comments

  But that’s okay (young grasshopper) you can ask for my help anytime. I know not everyone had an easy time in the 8th grade.

• Anonymous

  You again are very correct, but I disagree with the wine from a rock comparison in that Mainers sell themselves and the State short by assuming a submissive inferiority complex towards the world and our own economy. I am not accusing you of this way of thinking, I am just personally optimistic about some of the emerging technologies coming out of Maine. We have a lot to offer the world, but we need to have our heads up to take advantage and transition to the new economy. If we are all ‘oh woe is Maine’ we are going to miss the boat.

  And I agree with you about paying executives the going rate is a good investment. But I will add that many nonprofit organizations have Board and Executive Board positions whereby the board members pay handsomely for the privilege of serving their community. (not the other way around)!

  Given the recent failure of Wall Street due to greed and mismanagement, I am not sure the purely capitalistic approach to filling cabinet positions is the way to go. Public service is different, I feel that is consistent with the ideals of the founding fathers; serving the country was never meant to be a means to wealth.

  But, since I am a capitalist at heart, and if we are to pay these big boys like big boys, then no cabinet member should receive any compensation until the accounts are in the black. I was commission based for years, and if we did not make book, we did not get paid. No whining about why or why not, that’ s just ‘life in the big city’.

• Anonymous

  To be you I would have to remove that part of my brain associated with intelligence and reason.

• Anonymous

  STG, you are clearly a refined, intelligent person, and I agree with most of what you are saying. Some of our problem does seem to have something to do with attitude. I sometimes wonder what happened. For example, 150 or so years ago, Maine had a thriving shipbuilding industry from southern Maine to Bangor, maybe further. Some of these were large ships and some were engaging in commerce around the globe. We were once involved in big things with a global outlook. What happened? If we did it once, we can do it again.

  I’m not sure I understand quite what you mean by saying that no Commissioners should receive compensation before the “accounts are in the black”. That’s pretty tough, isn’t it? Maine has to balance its budget by law – is that what you mean?

• Anonymous

  Re: the commissioner pay, you caught me, I don’t seriously think we should start a movement towards zero pay for state executives. I was, though, speaking to those commenters who are praising corporate compensation packages for political appointees: if you want to talk capitalism and incentive based compensation, there is nothing more straight forward than commission.

  Re: what happened to Maine. I think if we want to invest it should be in education. Do you know that the National Guard has a program called ‘project readiness’ whereby they encourage development & education from early childhood through completion of HS. Our conservative friends think that’s social engineering, wasteful, and liberal. But why is the military championing education? Because they realized that most of the population isn’t educated enough, even for the army! We know our ranking is slipping compared to other nations. We need to shore up education and teach entrepreneurism in public schools.

  nice talking with you, thank you for the conversation.

• Anonymous

  You know, STG, there was a time when the University of Maine, as I understand it, appointed its Presidents from Mainers. These were often men who had worked their way up the faculty ladder and were basically married to the University, as it were. I think you might agree that this is is the kind of person (now including women) we need in state government – someone devoted to Maine, where $$ is not the primary issue. However, there is a question how far we can afford to discount for lack of capability.

  Yes, education is important. We cannot take our place in the modern world being worm-diggers and dump-pickers.

• Phil St.Onge

  Might it be that the local school boards are overpaying their school superintendents rather than the state paying too little? If people were to analyze the pay of superintendents in the state and factor in the overly generous fringe benefit packages, they would be horrified.