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Poll results

Sponsored by: OTELCO, a fiber internet provider

In last week's State of the State address, Gov. Janet Mills called for returning $411 million from Maine's projected budget surplus to roughly 800,000 taxpayers. She also proposed several measures to bolster the state's economy and workforce.

The proposals include covering tuition costs for two years at Maine community colleges and ensuring statewide access to high-speed internet by 2024.

Do you support the plan by Gov. Mills to make use of Maine's projected budget surplus?
Yes (44%, 171 VOTES)
No (56%, 216 VOTES)
Poll Description

Sponsored by: OTELCO, a fiber internet provider

In last week's State of the State address, Gov. Janet Mills called for returning $411 million from Maine's projected budget surplus to roughly 800,000 taxpayers. She also proposed several measures to bolster the state's economy and workforce.

The proposals include covering tuition costs for two years at Maine community colleges and ensuring statewide access to high-speed internet by 2024.

  • 387 Votes
  • 11 Comments
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11 Comments

  • February 16, 2022

    A budget surplus comes from over-taxing our working citizens. Will the person who paid $1,000 in taxes receive the same amount as the person who paid $10,000? Is that fair and equitable? Give the entire amount back to the taxpayers in the proportion they paid! Gov. Mills is closer to Marie Antoinette (let them eat cake) than Robinhood (who stole from a government that was overtaxing its citizens).

  • Janet Wilson
    February 15, 2022

    I am against free tuition to Maine's community colleges. First, the main reason we have surplus funds right now is the influx of federal funds during COVID. What will we do when this money is gone? Raise taxes, of course. Also, as soon as community colleges are "free", we will start to see their cost rise dramatically, just as other colleges and universities saw their costs go up exponentially when federal grants and loans became readily available. The only ones who will be better off for this are community colleges and those who work there.

  • February 15, 2022

    The governor gave a campaign speech. We have this surplus due to all of the money Maine got from the federal government from the HUGE spending bills and not because she is such a great states person or business person. This was evidenced with all of the mandates and shut downs that should have stopped long ago. The whole state should have already had access to the internet! If they don't give some back to the taxpayers it will get wasted like so many of our tax dollars. We need to stop paying more and more to able bodied Mainers from cradle to grave. Get them to work. Then we would have more money for roads & bridges (which have been neglected horribly), and taking better care of our elderly and veterans. The money will be wasted on blue ribbon committees to study this and that to come up with solutions we can already solve. I would rather it go into my pocket than some research group that could tell me what I already know.

  • Andy Ford
    February 14, 2022

    At least $50 million should be used to help fund Land for Maine's Future and another $50 million should be used to help restore the ecology of our rivers.

  • Martin Grohman Grohman
    February 14, 2022

    I agree with others that feel we should invest the money. It is a generational chance to make a change in Maine in energy that would reduce costs over time many many times more than a one time $500 check.