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RE Scott Lansley's article in the Sun Journal- Dig A Little Deeper!

The latest in my letter writing binge !  Dear Mr. Lansley, I read your article in the Sun Journal , It may hurt, but it's time to suck it up and deal. As suggested, I am sending you my own thoughts on the matter, and I am not going to mince my words. Since you are a former member of the legislature, you may have helped to create what I see as the source of Maine's economic problems, which is it's government manipulated economy, which has grown to the scale of a full fledged corporate state without anybody saying BOO about it, despite the blatant unconstitutionality of the current entrenched economic system. This system has been constructed by the legislature over the course of at least thirty years. It is designed to "benefit " the "targeted sector"- those businesses that will fulfill the ideological vision of a small elite sector of Maine, which is marketed as "socially beneficial" as a form of self-justification. The legislature seeks

Transparency and the Quasi-Public Corporation.

TWEET THIS ! http://goo.gl/YgfpJ1 I have been again looking  for information on the amount of taxpayer money invested in government chartered private non-profit organizations, such as the SEGF (since 2014 known as The Maine Venture Fund), and once again I have come up with nothing. These organizations are so dispersed and intertwined with one another that even if one can find mention of an occasional sum of money invested it is as if finding one little piece of a jig saw puzzle. A few years ago I read The Non-Profit Economy by Burton Weisbrod . Weisbrod discussed three distinct economic sectors- government, private and non-profit. but I do not recall a mention of non-profit corporations which are charted by government legislatures. However there was a lengthy discussion about  entities that have a for-profit part and a non-profit part, with instances found where all expenses would be allocated to the for-profit part of the entity, thereby reducing the tax burden of the for-pro

Can De-constructing Maine's Corporate Welfare System Cover Maine's DHHS Budget Deficit ?

I have my head in the sand working our redesigning our website- which now comes up three times on the first page of a google search of "ceramic birds" with similar results for other related terms (thanks to my own SEO efforts) . We are getting a lot of phone calls as a result and so the need to get this job completed is all the more important. As long as my energy is focused there, I am not wanting to change that. I feel a bit remis about not attending to this blog but the vise versa is true when my attention is focused here. However- when I recieved an email with this report   from Sam Adolpsen of The Maine Heritage Society about the DHHS deficit in which he advocates cutting welfare and "progressive special interests" . I responded with the following: Dear Mr Adolphsen, Is "Progressive Special Interests" equitable with corporate welfare? How about eliminating the 10% annual investment in the government chartered Small Enterprise Growth Fund, which m

Constitutional Questions in theNews

I've been busy redesigning the website for andersenstudio.com , our family business and so I have long been putting off writing a post that compares the original version of Maine's Pine Tree Zone, passed in 2004, amid protests that it would be expanded statewide, to the transformed version , expanded statewide with "little fanfare" in 2009, while the public was focused on the last election season.  This projectedpost will also provide a comparison to Cain's "empowerment zones" which has already been  repackaged as "opportunity zones" and which sounds like the original version of the Pine Tree Zone, except that the the Pine tree Zone was then targeted at areas of "low income and high unemployment", while Cain talks in terms of "inner cities". Being that I still need to keep my focus where it is, that is left brewing on the back burner and in the meantime I am posting some issues that impact preserving the American political

Hermain Cain, The United States Constitution, and The Elephant's New Clothes.

It seems that racial politics has descended like a fog over the national mind set with few willing to take to task the policies of the Republicans black candidate, Herman Cain. Meanwhile the left up the ante with pretenses that portray the right but are even more blatantly ugly expression of racism than giving a pass to Cain on his policies and his response to a character challenge which would never be granted by the right to a white candidate. I thank John K W for being the lone voice in the over crowed scene willing to say that the emperor has no clothes. John's view is well researched and based in true constitutional conservatism and so with John's permission, I am re-posting this comment found on As Maine Goes, with a few minor edits of parts that do not pertain to a more general audience. These are questions and arguments that should be part of our national debate: Does Herman Cain propose to have the federal government enter a State, declare a geographical area

Herman Cain's Empowerment Zones and the United States Constitution

Quote of The Day: Herman Cain’s “opportunity zones” would have the federal government granting preferential regulations of commerce among the States which would violate our founding father’s very intentions expressed in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 6 of our Constitution which states: No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear or pay Duties in another. John W K

Tech Maine Closes as The Maine Institute of Technology Thrives

Recently in the news is the closure of TechMaine Tech Maine lobbied back in 1998 to bring about the legislative charter of the Maine Technology Institute , a non-profit corporation,which channels funds from the taxpayers and other funds available to non-profits to private sector technology companies. I am not sure why the legislature had to create the L3C to enable small businesses like MOO Milk to get in on foundation money while the same legislature created a non profit corporation to channel tax payer and non-profit funding to private high-tech companies. MTI's recent annual repor t shows that it is abundantly financed, and while participating in and lending "support" to the legislaures "targeted sector" and supported network, TechMaine,is not included among those receiving benefits from MTI. One wonders why MTI  does not  give needed support to the lobbying group that contributed so much to it's birth. Speculations arise of political in fighting am