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Showing posts with the label government transparency

How Maine Statutory Law Evolved Under LePage: Part One

This post was recently selected for the front page of Tremr ,  an international blogger platform GOVERNOR LEPAGE: TEA PARTY CORPORATIST Governor LePage rose to power with the support of Maine's Tea party movement in the 2010 elections. LePage's campaign message decreed that it is not the role of government to create jobs, but to support private sector job creation. Paul LePage campaigned on lower taxes and fewer regulations, routing out special interests and purging the state's welfare system of waste and fraud. His crowning Job creation bill was enacted in December 2017. The Major Business Headquarters Expansion Act extended Maine's corporate welfare far beyond the geographical borders which define our state sovereignty, an act intended to position Maine advantageously in the global corporate world order. The Major Business Headquarters Expansion Act lives up to Paul LePage's description as a "transformational"act, and yet it was enacted in rem

Maine Legislatuer's Intentional Lack of Transparency Meets the Gruber Model

TWEET THIS: http://goo.gl/Dyh8Ql CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF MAINE 2013 ARRANGEMENT Article X. Additional Provisions. Section 3.  Laws now in force continue until repealed.   All laws now in force in this State, and not repugnant to this Constitution , shall remain, and be in force, until altered or repealed by the Legislature, or shall expire by their own limitation. ( emphasis mine ) In 2013 when the Maine legislature amended the bond ratification process. the bill that was passed and signed into law by Governor LePage  it was written in such away as to do away with  ALL compliance with the constitution at the voting booth: Article IX. General Provisions. Section 14.  Authority and procedure for issuance of bonds.   ........ Whenever ratification by the electors is essential to the validity of bonds to be issued on behalf of the State, the question submitted to the electors shall be accompanied by a statement setting forth the total amount of bonds of the State

Maine passes Government Transparency Bill After Receiving Low National Grade For Corruption Risk

Tweet This http://goo.gl/mhpgyp While I was researching the University of M, I came across a thesis written by Shelby K Lane: State-Level Government: An Evaluation of Maine's Conflict of Interest Laws and Amendments to Improve Transparency Through Financial Disclosure The paper is dated 5/1/2013 . It became the basis for a bill passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Lepage on 7/3/2013 Co-incidentally during 7/2013   I was researching the statute for the Department of Economic and Community Development , which led to further questions about the Maine Technology Institute. During the process, I contacted the State Ombudsman, Brenda Kielty, at the Attorney General's Office where there is a published introduction promoting government transparency . I suggested that if the government really wants to be transparent and keep things honest they should have the database online and allow the public to search the database themselves and create their own repo

The Curious Repeal of TITLE 13-A: MAINE BUSINESS CORPORATION ACT

I was recently browsing the internet when I came upon a list of Maine statutes, which included TITLE 13-A: MAINE BUSINESS CORPORATION ACT I was most surprised when I clicked on the link to find that the act has been repealed in its entirety with no further information - such as a replacement for the act and the date that it was repealed. Most links to the Act found on the Internet report only this meager information. This appears to leave Maine incorporated business without a rule of law to govern them and yet I cannot find any news written about this mysterious occurrence. A search on Maine Biz comes up with nothing. Is not this business news? Does it not create major business uncertainty in Maine when the entire act that governs Maine business incorporation repealed? The only timeline I have been able to locate is this cache page on Google which says all data was extracted in February of this year. Was it extracted by Google? -or another party? What is going on and why am