NEWS: Poliquin: Maine is broke after decades of mismanagement in Augusta

As originally published by WCSH (see video)

Bruce Poliquin has owned or worked for a variety of businesses, and now wants to run the biggest business in Maine-state government. Poliquin is one of seven republicans battling for the party’s nomination for Governor in the June 8th primary.

Poliquin leaves no doubt about what he thinks of Maine state government. He says the state is “broke”, because of the “gross mismanagement we’ve had decade after decade in Augusta.”

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Poliquin told a small group of potential supporters in Rockland that the next Governor of Maine needs to be a business person, who has the management experience to fix the state’s financial mess. He claims he has a particular blend of management and financial experience that no other candidate has, and that it is the kind of experience that’s necessary.

Poliquin says the state needs to significantly cut spending, reduce regulation on business and then reduce taxes in order to stimulate business growth and new jobs. He does not give a lot of specifics about where or how much should be cut—saying the state needs a complete audit first.

He does say Medicaid and some other social service benefits need to be reduced to the same level as other states. But it is the issues of alleged overspending and overregulating that he says need changing the most.

“The state has been so mismanaged for so many years,” says Poliquin, “that we’ve created one of the worst business climates in the country. What decisions are made in Augusta have a direct impact on the private sector, and we’ve so created such a complicated and expensive place to do business that our private sector has been shrinking. And we tax it to death to pay for a growing public sector. It needs to be the other way around.”