BUCKSPORT, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage held his latest town hall meeting here Tuesday evening before a largely supportive crowd at Bucksport Middle School.
The governor took note of the recent announcements that one paper mill is being closed and a second will be auctioned off.
"This year alone, you have felt that pain, with losing a big mill here in town," the governor tells the crowd, referring to the shutdown in Dec. 2014 of the Verso paper mill in Bucksport, which is to be torn down for scrap.
The governor predicted more mills and other industrial plants will close if the state fails to lower its energy costs.
He pointed to the announcement Tuesday by Expera that it is closing the Old Town mill.
"So, where are they going?" he says. "Where are they from? They're from Wisconsin. We're 14 percent higher. Right here, we're 14 percent higher than Wisconsin is today."
The governor also talked about his proposals to lower the income tax and reform welfare. He was asked about the Common Core standard adopted by Maine in 2011 for English and math.
"I think it's a bad deal," LePage says. "I think proficiency-based education is OK. But, what they're doing and how it's being devised in the state of Maine is totally wrong."
The governor says he objects to both the federal and state government's role in supporting Common Core, saying education should be a purely local function.
And the governor drew applause when he paraphrased the Maine Constitution, saying the funding of schools should be left entirely to Maine cities and towns. The actual language is this: "A general diffusion of the advantages of education being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people; to promote this important object, the Legislature are authorized, and it shall be their duty to require, the several towns to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the support and maintenance of public schools."
