Monthly Archives: May 2017

Don’t be silly, let’s get things done in Augusta

Tuesday’s advisory opinion by Maine’s top justices that, effectively, ranked-choice voting was unconstitutional brought several reactions. Some people offered “told you so.” Others cheered the ruling on policy grounds. Some of the proposal’s proponents accepted the decision and declared a movement for a constitutional amendment. And, yes, we saw some provocative political statements trying to make […]

Miss USA got it right, health care is a privilege

Well, the Miss USA pageant has done it again. There hasn’t been this much controversy about a pick since Donald Trump owned the organization. Last Sunday evening — Mother’s Day! — saw Kara McCullough win the title of “Miss USA.” A black woman, she was born in Italy, where her father was stationed with the […]

Want a government program to work? Be prepared to pay for it.

This just in: if you don’t adequately fund a program, it is not going to work. And in other news, water remains wet and Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. Chevy Chase made that last line famous on the first season of “Saturday Night Live,” and with good reason. It lampoons the breathless media coverage […]

Can we repeal the law of unintended consequences?

You know what would make policymaking much easier? Repealing the law of unintended consequences. For example, the proponents of last year’s Question 2 — the bill which hiked Maine’s top tax rate to one of the highest in the country at over 10 percent — advertised it would raise an additional $157 million for education. […]