Dear Editor:

I am happy to report and grateful to Rep. Stephanie Hawke for her generosity in sitting down with me for an hour and discussing my concerns.  

Yet, I am still even more deeply concerned about Rep. Hawke’s agenda of bolstering business by running to the government to tip the scales in their favor or creating more tax loopholes for business owners. There are troubling questions posed by Rep. Hawke’s business centric views and ideas that are of concern to wage earners and taxpayers.

The question is this: when businesses must rely on government welfare to exist, should not taxpaying wage earners also derive a direct benefit?  Why should wage earners and consumers be asked to give up their rights and protections for the sole benefit of the business owner?

If businesses are that hard up that they must rely on government welfare, maybe there is a deeper problem with the economy in general. Perhaps businesses, especially small businesses, are caught in the same downward spiral with wage earners in the race to the bottom. I would suggest that what businesses need are more customers with ready cash to buy their products and services. More business friendly tax loopholes and favors are not the solution; they are the problem.

Perhaps tough love for businesses is a better answer to this problem than business friendly government welfare. What we need to do is get the working poor off of the welfare roles by increasing the minimum wage. We can also increase employment by giving the unemployed jobs fixing our crumbling infrastructure. A rising tide raises all boats. These actions would inject money into the economy and help worthy businesses thrive.

The Maine People’s Alliance is mounting an effort to increase the minimum wage. If you would like to join in this effort to help businesses and workers get off of government welfare, sign up for the Fair Wage Summit this Saturday in Augusta at the MPA’s website, www.mainepeoplesalliance.org.