Dear Editor:

When is a State of the State speech for Maine and when is it prepared by outside interests like Americans For Prosperity? Maine has led the nation in many ways and yet the speech and budget we received is from a cookie cutter production with policies approved by ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council). It contains many of the same tunes we have heard before and that were in other 2015 state of the state speeches.

It was once said, “Sell all that you have, give the money to the poor and follow me.” Maine’s speech was different. Instead it said: give all of your money to the wealthy and I will lead you to prosperity. The unanswered question is — what is prosperity and who is on the receiving end?

The simplest prosperity definition is “a flourishing, or thriving condition, in financial respects; good fortune.” Maine’s proposed budget directly rewards the wealthy and takes money from the middle and lower income families to do that. Maybe we missed something in the definition.

Prosperity focuses on financial wealth, but also includes happiness and good health. There were no proposed items in the budget that raised the minimum wage, or provided livable incomes to the majority in Maine, and there was no mention of Medicaid access for the denied 70,000 Mainers. What did the governor mean in his speech and in his budget?

We know the sponsors of these budgets want to privatize education, prisons, and other government activities, transferring taxpayer dollars to corporations. We see that in education budget reductions and tax dollars going to for-profit charter schools at $2,000 more per student. So how is the elimination of income tax, transferring the tax burden to middle and lower income homeowners leading us to prosperity? What prosperity comes from a two year spending plan? Who is the “we” for making hard decisions and who winds up in prosperity?

Twenty states started 2015 with raises in minimum wage and nine more will soon follow. Tennessee is the first of three GOP states preparing to extend Medicaid access while we receive a budget that offers zero prosperity for the majority of people.

Jarryl Larson

Edgecomb