Preserving The American Political Philosophy

Maine Web News- The Candidates Discuss MPERS Lepage promises to honor promises to state employees pension funds and suggests changing the system for future employees. Lepage says he will have to talk to the legislature, but does not explain why- which is because contractual terms of agreement have been embedded into the Maine State constitution since 1997. For a candidate who is running on a platform that includes respecting the constitution, I find this failure to mention the constitutional mandate which clearly impacts the unfunded liability problem disappointing. Both Kevin Scott and Moody articulate the solution better than LePage, who suggest the same ideas, but not as forcefully. All agree that the problem must be "isolated" to quote Kevin Scott, meaning that future employees must be hired on a different set of terms. Moody addresses the issue of risky investment choices made by the managers of the MPERS fund more forcefully than the others and he brings up a c...

It has come to my attention, through that grapevine known as "the internet", that under discussion in the Maine state legislature is the creation  of a legal business entity that is a hybrid between the non-profit and "low profit" organizations. I have not yet been able to locate any specifics about the bill as it would stand in Maine. In North Carolina, it includes small manufacturers, but the usual definition of an LC3 is just a manipulation of the non-profit category so that investors can make a profit. Here is a defintion from The Non-Profit Law Blog "The low-profit, limited liability company, or L3C, is a hybrid of a nonprofit and for-profit organization. More specifically, it is a new type of limited liability company (LLC) designed to attract private investments and philanthropic capital in ventures designed to provide a social benefit. Unlike a standard LLC, the L3C has an explicit primary charitable mission and only a secondary profit concern. But unli...

TWEET THIS  http://goo.gl/otcDDo Introduction: Below is a post formerly published on the former Augusta Insider. It concerns relatively recent Maine Legislation . The summary in the legislation states "This bill is modeled on statutes in Arkansas, Iowa, Michigan, Montana and Utah. It authorizes the establishment of the Maine Fund of Funds within the Small Enterprise Growth Board for the purpose of increasing the availability of venture capital to the Maine economy. " The legislation does not provide the specific statutes of the states that are used as a model for this investment scheme. I looked up the constitutions of Iowa and Arkansas to see what their statutes say about the creation of corporations. Iowa's constitution is very strict about prohibiting the creation of corporations by special acts of legislation, while Arkansas's allows for more latitude than the Maine State constitution. There are several states that use the same language prohibiting the form...

Tweet This:  http://goo.gl/79QPct In a recent debate between gubernatorial candidates Elliot Cutler and Paul LePage, Cutler states that he would transfer the licensing and responsibilities of the LURC (regulating land use) to The Department of Environmental Protection. However in l egislation passed around 2009 - - The Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Economic and Community Development were merged into a single agency called " The Office Of Innovation " which is part of the unconstitutional expansion into state capitalism which has been radically advanced in Maine over the last fifteen years - with out any notice from Maine’s main stream media. - Or for that matter from any of our current candidates for the office of Governor. Cutler speaks as though the Maine Department of Environmental Protection is still an independent agency-, which it is not - and LePage does not call him out on it. Are the candidates unaware of the legislation combi...

The Tea Party Movement in Maine is often described in terms of its “radical fringe” which is depicted as a gun-toting crowd. Although I support the right to bear arms, I have never held a gun and yet, based on the general Tea Party Platform, which primarily targets welfare reform as the means by which the size of government should be reduced, I find myself in small company in suggesting a different set of government agencies that deserve to be examined in consideration of reducing the size of government. I have written frequently about state capitalism in Maine and its unconstitutional foundation. The Maine Arts Commission works in conjunction with state capitalism and is a more highly visible player within “the creative economy” The Maine Arts Commission recently sent a survey, which included its long and short-term vision for arts and culture in Maine. I selected the “other” category in order to describe my interest in arts and culture as a private economy arts related business. In...

As some who might read this may know, the journalist and author, Colin Woodard , is a relative of mine. Colin wrote an article, Brewing Up A Storm, on the Republican Party's new platform for the September 2010 Downeast Magazine. I posed the following comment in repsonse. Defining Terms If the term centrist is supposed to mean a point in between the small size of government favored by our founding fathers and those who believe in a larger government providing certain entitlements for the people, then it raises the question why the term ”centrist” applies to the entrenched political system in this state, which has collectively advanced state capitalism over the past fifteen years, including this year’s recent passage of LD1, which unconstitutionally charters a mutual funds investment corporation .LD1 was sponsored by none other than Peter Mills, who is calling those who want to return to the state and federal constitution “far right extremist”. In the creation of investment corpora...

The Email from The Maine Arts Commission says it all: The Maine Arts Commission Presents Arts in Crisis: A Kennedy Center Initiative There are only 70 seats left for this free event, sign up today. Michael M. Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, will visit Portland, ME, on July 1 as part of “Arts in Crisis: A Kennedy Center Initiative,” an arts management symposium. Kaiser will provide counsel and encouragement to nonprofit arts organizations in need. Kaiser will be at the Portland Museum of Art between 9:15 and 11:30 am on July 1 for this invaluable symposium where he will provide counsel and encouragement to nonprofit arts organizations in need. During this free symposium Kaiser will address the key challenges facing nonprofit arts organizations through such areas as fundraising, building more effective boards of trustees, budgeting and marketing. Tickets for this event are free and must be reserved online at http://artcrisis.eventbrite.com. Sea...