Dear Editor:

 

I had the great privilege of collaborating with then Attorney General Janet Mills on a number of projects intended to protect Mainers from fraud and identity theft, and colleagues from all around the country admired her integrity, compassion and dedication. Governor Mills was innovative and tireless in her efforts to protect Mainers, even to the point of helping recover some stolen funds and bringing perpetrators to justice.

 

While she served as AG, and during the time that then-Governor LePage had prohibited first responders from having access to life-saving Narcan protection, AG Mills used funds recovered in a successful lawsuit she had managed for the state to buy a supply of the vital treatments and she personally delivered them to firehouses and police stations all around Maine, thereby saving countless lives in the process.

 

Maine has undergone an astonishing economic recovery since Mills became governor, including three years of credit rating improvements over the low points during the previous administration, fully funding the rainy day fund for the first time in decades, and protecting the state against the worst impacts of the pandemic, supply chain issues, and the inflationary pressures felt by every state in the nation and every nation in the world.

 

Governor Mills knows that the best way to protect the rights of parents and students in Maine's K-12 school system is to ensure local control, through locally elected school boards, and so she managed to fully fund the state's share of local education for the first time ever - and thereby helped reduce pressure on property taxes which had been out of control during the LePage years.

 

There's a new era of bipartisanship and collaboration in Maine, and the impacts have been extraordinary. There are lots of folks all over the country who, thanks to Governor Mills, hope that once again, "as Maine goes, so goes the nation."

 

Rich Livingston

 

Bremen