Dear Editor:

In 2011, the Maine Legislature passed a bill overwriting constitutional bond ratification rules requiring state fiscal information be included on the bond ballot. The Boothbay ballot stated town fiscal information. State information was missing despite a $100 million transportation bond.

The Maine Legislature has granted itself jurisdiction over our public educational system. By 2020, it will be required that the student complete training in a state approved career or serve in a war zone to receive a high school diploma. However, the Maine Constitution is not taught anywhere in our public education system.

In the mid-1970s, the Legislature deemed that centrally managing the economy is an essential government to be done by public private relationships, changing the first function of government from protecting the people to the concentration and redistribution of capital. DOT policy is an example of the new primary role of government.

The funding for transportation bonds is distributed on a first come, first serve basis. Safety and transportation needs are described as influential but requirement is nebulously stated as “betterment for the transportation system.” Emphasis is given to the amount of money the applicant brings to the table sending communities with private developer funds to the front of the line, prioritized over communities with severe safety and traffic needs.

The state fiscal information is critical to the decision-making process as well as being constitutionally required. The loans for the transportation bond can be recalled at any time.

While the public is forbidden from politicking at the voting location, the selectmen politicized on the ballot by stating their recommendations.

Statutory law is the law unless successfully challenged in court. The absence of the Maine Constitution in public education furthers the unlikelihood that the public will never hold the state accountable to the Maine Constitution so that the Maine Legislature can continue to be a law onto itself. To legally challenge the constitutionality of a law, one must have standing. This may be such a case. If citizens do not challenge unconstitutional actions by our Legislature, our Constitution is transformed absent the will of the people.

Susan Mackenzie Andersen

East Boothbay