Tax carbon emissions
Climate change is real. We watch the images from Houston and Florida, and our hearts go out to the people displaced (or worse) by the storms. We write checks to relief organizations, if we can, but unless we work to reduce carbon emissions, the storms will get worse.
It sounds dire, but there is something we can do. Educate ourselves on the carbon fee and dividend. Then contact Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King, and tell them we want them to introduce a bill to create a carbon fee and dividend in the United States.
Fees would be collected on fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal) at their source. Producers would pass these increased costs to the consumer, so the price of fossil fuels would increase. The fees collected would be distributed equally to all Americans. That is, every legal adult resident would get one share. It is calculated that 60 percent to 70 percent of Americans, low- and moderate-income people, would get more back in dividends than they would pay out in increased costs. Only those with large carbon footprints would see a net increase. It is a revenue-neutral idea that incentivizes individuals to use alternative energy sources, researchers to develop renewables, and businesses to power their factories, offices and fleets with non-fossil fuels.
It is a fair, market-based solution to climate change. But we have no time to lose. We must push our representatives to act. The stakes are no less than the future of our planet. Contact your legislators now.
Gerry Gross
Member
Citizens Climate Lobby
Bangor chapter
Bangor
Support ranked-choice voting
I helped collect signatures to get ranked-choice voting in place for Maine voters, and I can testify that I didn’t have to do much explaining — this was a bipartisan change that virtually all my midcoast neighbors knew was for the best.
Now I hear that some legislators want to question it, and play political games to keep it from being implemented. Among other things, they say that it violates the Maine Constitution’s plurality provision, which means the winner just has to have more votes than anyone else, even it is less than 50 percent, for general elections for governor, state House and state Senate. We have had too many “minority” governors lately — in fact, almost all of those in the past 20 years. In fact, the Constitution was changed in 1880 to allow this plurality system to be implemented.
Now we have a system that tries to get us back to a fairer system, and the majority of Maine voters want to see reason return to the voting system. Already, the crowd who have declared for the 2018 governor’s election is huge and varied. Many voters will be shut out by the primary system.
If ranked-choice voting is in place for the next governor’s race, I am confident that we will see a reasonable candidate emerge, who the whole state can support. Please contact your Augusta representatives and tell them to get behind implementation of ranked-choice voting. Any who obstruct it will be obstructing the improvement of our democracy.
Karen Gleeson
Northport
Expand Medicaid
What do Govs. John Kasich of Ohio, Rick Scott of Florida, Chris Christie of New Jersey and Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas have in common?
They are all Republicans, they are all fiscal conservatives, and they all supported Medicaid expansion in their states to provide more health insurance coverage.
They acted in the interests of their states. They did not treat expansion of Medicaid as a partisan matter. They have found that adopting Medicaid expansion has strengthened the economies of their states.
Instead of leaving federal dollars already paid by taxpayers in their states on the table, their states have added health insurance coverage for millions of otherwise uninsured people. This reduced the fiscal burden on medical providers, thereby benefiting everyone.
Sadly, Maine’s governor has postured to make this common-sense step appear to be a partisan matter. While strong bipartisan majorities in both the Maine House and Senate approved Medicaid expansion, Gov. Paul LePage’s vetoes have cost Mainers millions of dollars, weakened our rural hospitals and left 70,000 of our neighbors without health coverage.
As federal taxpayers, we have already paid over 90 percent of these costs, but all the benefits go to 31 other states, such as those led by Kasich, Scott, Christie and Hutchinson. Maine’s approach is fiscal folly.
As Maine voters, we can take charge ourselves on Nov. 7 by approving the Medicaid expansion referendum that will be on the ballot.
Alfred Judd
Surry