If Jeffery Hanley of Pittston wins the Maine House of Representatives’ District 87 seat, the first thing he will do is nothing.

Anything else would be rash, the Gardiner-raised Republican said. “I’m as green as grass.”

But even after he learns his way around, the Maine National Guard veteran has no plans to propose any new laws. Government should do no more than it has to, he said.

“My philosophy is, we need government. We just don’t need too much of it ... I think over the last generations, we’ve slowly crept to (the idea that) government solves all problems, and government cannot solve all problems.”

“Everything you want, you have to pay for,” he said. “You can only tax people so much, and tax businesses. If you’re going to have jobs here, you can’t discourage people who would come here and put people to work.”

Hanley had no criticism of the job that Democrat Timothy Marks has done in the House, in a seat now redistricted as District 87.

“The gentleman that’s there is fine. But everyone should have a little bit of competition,” Hanley said.

While Hanley is not seeking to add to state laws, he would like to roll some back, specifically rules and regulations that he said are hindering businesses’ attempts to start up in Maine, he said. “We need to make the state business-friendly.”

He heard from one man who wanted to sell milk on a small scale, and had to go through multiple state inspections. And in Hanley’s own experience, he and his wife dropped trying to sell bread, also on a small scale, because that, too, was going to require inspections and other steps for the state to allow it.

“Those are the little things that bite people, and imagine if that was a large business. It discourages them,” he said.

The money that the state and towns put into education leaves Maine when students graduate and then get jobs out-of-state, Hanley said.

“We’re the oldest state in the nation, and the reason is because there’s no work here. And if you don’t have work, that means you don’t have income. You don’t have (a) tax base. We need to have your sons and daughters stay here and have families here and build their homes here.”

Maine should be encouraging manufacturing growth, in wood pellets and other industries, he said. Wood pellets are a good example of a business where all the money stays in Maine, he said.

Hanley said fellow Republican and Gov. Paul LePage has done a very good job his first term, including on pension and hospital issues.

“He’s had to make some tough decisions, some tough stands to force the budget to be held. I agree with that. Sometimes you need a leader that’s a little bit coarse.”

He would like to see property taxes go down.

“I don’t have a magic bullet for that,” he said. Higher state aid for education, the biggest chunk of property taxes, would only be moving the burden from a local tax to a state one, Hanley said.

“It’s coming out of one pocket or the other .... I like things at the local level.

“I would always be moving away from state and federal issues and let towns try to do these things. I know you can’t put that genie back in the bottle overnight. It would take decades probably to work toward those things.”

Things happening slowly can be the best way for changes to come about, he said, adding that he laughs when he hears people use the word “gridlock” in politics.

“If you think about what’s the opposite of gridlock, would it be pretty near dictatorship? Gridlock is good, because it makes bad bills fail. It might even make good bills fail, but a really good bill, sooner or later, will pass.

“So gridlock is a nice filtering process,” Hanley continued. “It makes things slow down. Imagine if you had a completely Republican system and every bill passed. Would you like that? Or same thing with the Democrats. Sometimes gridlock isn’t a bad thing. It was designed into our system.”

On marijuana, Hanley said he would not support legalization.

“I see the culture of it, and it’s a gateway drug. And I know the argument is, we already have alcohol. But do you really want to put something else out there? And my answer is no.”

He also said no when asked if he had any plans to bring back a proposed Wiscasset bypass.

“This horse has been beat for four decades, and it hasn’t gone anywhere. So I guess I’m going to take the saddle off this horse and leave it alone.”

Hanley is a retired pipe fitter and welder, and is semi-retired as an electrician. He also owns Blue Ice Self Storage in Pittston.