On June 13, Cape residents will decide whether they favor Mike Mowles or Jennifer Duddy to run as the Republican candidate for state representative against Democrat Cynthia Dill in November’s election. House seat 121, representing Cape Elizabeth, is now held by Democrat Connie Goldman, who is not running for reelection for personal reasons.

Duddy has lived in Cape Elizabeth for seven years. She’s served as an assistant Attorney General prosecuting child support enforcement and child protection cases. She’s also worked as an elder abuse attorney at Legal Services for the Elderly in Portland.

She lives with her husband Michael and two sons, Sam and Ben.

If elected, what is your top priority at the State House? Is there a particular issue you would work towards reforming?

Duddy: If elected, my top priority is to lower Maine’s highest in the nation tax burden. Maine’s high taxes are suffocating Maine people and contributing to Maine’s unfriendly business climate.

The only way to address Maine’s tax problem is to control spending. In the past 10 years, Maine state government has doubled spending from $3 billion to $6 billion in the face of a flat increase in population and a mere 25 percent rate of inflation. Maine’s largest industry, the Department of Health and Human Services, consumes 23.8 percent of the state’s budget, or over $1 billion per year, yet there is no accountability for how this money is spent. We need to create tools for evaluating the efficiency of all state government programs, including the Department of Health and Human Services. We also must reform the Dirigo Health program, and consider legislation that will require government to spend taxpayer’s money at a rate the taxpayers can afford.

What should Maine do about the Dirigo Health program at this point?

Duddy: Maine should reform the Dirigo Health insurance plan. The Dirigo program is a failed experiment in which the state has spent more than $20 million to insure less than 2,000 people who were not previously insured. Maine currently has the second most expensive health insurance in the country. The Dirigo program is draining money from other programs and standing in the way of real efforts to make health insurance more affordable for Maine people. We need to consider a range of market based reforms including: repealing the savings offset payment (Dirigo tax), eliminating community rating laws, eliminating guaranteed issue laws, creating a high risk pool to ensure coverage for the very sick, and allowing Maine people to purchase insurance from other states. I do not support the concept of a single-payer system in which the state would be the sole provider of health insurance.

How would you improve the climate for small businesses in Maine?

Duddy: For many years, Maine has ranked near the bottom in surveys of small business. Today Maine’s small business survival index ranks as the 49th worst in the country. Maine is losing jobs and investment to other states for many reasons, including high state and local taxes, high health insurance costs, burdensome regulations and licensing requirements and a lack of stability and predictability regarding regulations and fees. Maine should create a partnership with business to develop a pro-growth business policy that will bring high quality jobs to Maine. We can start by controlling government spending, lowering taxes, and reforming Maine’s Dirigo Health program. We can and must create regulations and licensing requirements that are environmentally responsible, stable, predictable and fair.

Do you favor the citizen initiative, the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights?

Duddy: I support reasonable controls on government spending, which can be achieved in several ways. Ideally, our elected officials would make the hard decisions necessary to control spending, so that legislation like the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights would not be necessary. But for many years, our elected officials in Augusta have spent money and raised taxes faster than the taxpayers’ ability to pay. Mainers are now the highest taxed people in the nation, and the state is heavily in debt. The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights is a reasonable, understandable option for controlling spending and growth of taxes at all levels of government. The proposal puts taxes in the hands of the taxpayers of Maine by limiting increases in state and local government spending to the rate of inflation plus population growth and requiring voter approval for all tax and fee increases. In November, Maine voters will decide if the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights is the right solution for Maine. If it passes, I will work within its limits as a legislator. If it fails, I will work to keep spending within limits that Maine people can afford.

How would you reform taxes in Maine?

Duddy: See my answer to the first question.

What is your position on Lynn Bromley’s controversial bill to limit retroactive citizen referenda?

Duddy: I do not support Lynn Bromley’s bill because it deprives citizens of their traditional right to organize referenda on issues important to their communities. The average Maine citizen is not willing to give up this basic right for the sake of so-called affordable housing, smart growth, or any other type of development. The way to improve Maine’s economic climate for developers, along with other businesses, is to reduce Maine’s tax burden, lower health insurance costs, and cut out needless regulations. On the other hand, developers who follow all of the local rules are entitled to predictability and stability. Municipalities, within their home rule authority, should determine time limits, rather than have them imposed by the state.

What is your position on the bill recently passed mandating the state to cover 45 percent of health care costs for retired firefighters and police not yet eligible for Medicare?

Duddy: L.D. 1021 provides local firefighters and police who retire early with the Cadillac of health insurance benefits, which Maine taxpayers will pay for. The same benefit is not available to other public employees and citizens in the private sector cannot expect a comparable benefit. Firefighters and law enforcement employees need to be treated fairly and with respect. However, we need to acknowledge the limits of our state and town resources. Maine is the highest taxed state in the nation, and we are heavily in debt. The state already owes $3 billion dollars to the Maine State Retirement System, $1.2 billion to the Maine Employees Insurance Fund, and $300 million in MaineCare payments to Maine’s hospitals for treating our neediest residents. In my view, a better approach would have been to provide for a more modest benefit, or, better yet, reform Dirigo and the current health insurance laws to make affordable health insurance available to everyone.

Is regionalization a good idea? If so, what services should be regionalized?

Duddy: Regionalization imposed or directed from Augusta, whether it pertains to hospitals, municipal services, or schools is not a good idea. However, state government should not serve as an impediment to regionalization that occurs from the ground up. As a state representative, I would work to make sure the efforts of local communities to implement regionalization where it makes sense are facilitated and encouraged.

Why should people vote for you?

Duddy: The people of Cape Elizabeth deserve a strong voice in Augusta. My commitment to public service has been demonstrated through my work as an assistant attorney general, prosecuting child protection and child support enforcement and my work helping seniors at Legal Services for the Elderly. I am running for state representative because I want Maine to be a place where our children can afford to live and find competitive jobs someday. I am a proud Maine native with a deep sense of loyalty and commitment to this state. I believe we need new leadership in Augusta to ensure that businesses thrive in Maine, and our children receive the best possible education. I will work hard with fairness and integrity to serve the people of Cape Elizabeth.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Duddy: I am concerned that the state funding formula for education does not provide equitable financial support to the Town of Cape Elizabeth. Continually raising property taxes in Cape Elizabeth is not a desirable solution, because, contrary to popular belief, we have a large population of residents, including seniors, on modest or fixed incomes who may be forced to move out of the area if their property taxes are increased. We need to have fiscal accountability in Augusta, and a smaller more efficient state government that can adequately support the education needs of our towns.

Mike Mowles

Mike Mowles has been a resident of Cape Elizabeth for six years. He and his wife Lisa, an ed-tech at Pond Cove Elementary School, have four children, Meghan, Michael, Katie and Brian, all students in the Cape school system. Mowles has served as a Cape Elizabeth town councilor since 2003. He works as vice president for the Cape Mortgage Company on Ocean House Road and has a background in engineering.

If elected, what is your top priority at the State House? Is there a particular issue you would work towards reforming?

Mowles: My top priority at the State House is property tax relief for Cape Elizabeth. I will work diligently to reform the Department of Health and Human Services to make it more efficient and save tax dollars. I will submit legislation to take those tax savings from DHHS and apply them to fund 55 percent of education costs and 100 percent of special education costs now, which will bring real property tax relief to Cape Elizabeth’s taxpayers. I will introduce legislation to make health insurance affordable for more Maine families by repealing over-burdensome regulations and open up competition in the health insurance industry.

What should the state do about the Dirigo Health program at this point?

Mowles: The current Dirigo Health program is too expensive for both the insured and the taxpayer. We need to reform health care regulations, to lower insurance premiums for all Mainers through increased competition in the insurance market. We should establish a high-risk pool to care for the chronically ill, which lowers the cost to insure everyone else. We should repeal the Dirigo tax on health insurance. The state must pay the $300 million it owes Maine’s hospitals. After reducing the cost of health insurance to all Mainers we should put Dirigo back out to bid for a lower cost provider.

How would you improve the climate for small businesses in Maine?

Mowles: To improve Maine’s business climate, I would eliminate Maine’s business equipment and personal property tax because it discourages businesses from investing in new equipment. I would cap spending in Augusta so businesses have a more reliable tax climate and a robust state economy. Red tape and overreaching regulation must be curtailed to make Maine a business-friendly state. I will work to reform our health insurance regulations to reduce the cost to businesses of providing health insurance to their employees. Only then can we effectively attract small and large national businesses to relocate to Maine and provide jobs.

Do you favor the citizen initiative, the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights? Why or why not?

Mowles: Yes, because I believe Maine’s taxpayers need to take back control of spending in Augusta and while the TABOR proposal accomplishes that, it also includes the safety valve of a local taxpayer override in case circumstances warrant it. While I have been on the Cape Elizabeth Town Council we have been very fiscally responsible with our taxpayers’ money, TABOR continues that effort. Since Cape Elizabeth’s residents have consistently and overwhelmingly financially supported their school system, both in the classroom and at the ballot box, I do not believe TABOR necessarily harms our school system or property values.

How would you reform taxes in Maine?

Mowles: I would cap spending in Augusta. There is already enough money in the state budget to meet our needs if it was allocated wisely. I would repeal the business equipment tax to encourage businesses to invest in Maine. I would cut the state gas tax. I would fund 55 percent of education and 100 percent of special education now to provide property tax relief. I would pay for this by: reforming the Department of Health and Human Services and the recently expanded Medicaid enrollment eligibility, and I would promote tourism, high tech jobs and more manufacturing jobs to increase tax revenues.

What is your position on Lynn Bromley’s controversial bill to limit retroactive citizen referenda?

Mowles: Lynn Bromley’s bill LD 1481 was bad legislation. The bill favored land developers by only giving 75 days from an approved land use permit for a citizen-initiated referendum to overturn it. Bromley’s bill would force municipalities to hold expensive referendum elections more often, and out of sync with regularly scheduled elections, to meet that 75-day provision. The proposed merits of this bill are insufficient to warrant an infringement on the Maine tradition of municipal home rule and the right of our citizens to provide input on the character of their community through the citizen-initiated referendum process.

What is your position on the bill recently passed mandating the state to cover 45 percent of health care costs for retired firefighters and police not yet eligible for Medicare?

Mowles: I agree that we should take care of those individuals who have worked so hard for so long for relatively low pay to protect us when they are most vulnerable. The health insurance reforms that I will support in Augusta to reduce the cost of health insurance here in Maine, will also reduce the cost of funding the new legislation passed in LD 1021 to help our retired firefighters and police.

Is regionalization a good idea? If so, what services should be regionalized?

Mowles: Regionalization is a great idea when judiciously applied. The Cape Elizabeth Town Council already regionalizes our waste disposal through RWS and our purchasing power by making collective bids for supplies and fire and police equipment with our surrounding communities. The state has mandated that we regionalize our 911 answering system, however I do not favor regionalizing our dispatchers or our fire or police departments because their local knowledge and level of customer service is too important to the safety of our community to lose. Likewise, I see no real advantage to Cape Elizabeth to regionalize our already excellent school district.

Why should people vote for you?

Mowles: Serving as a Cape Elizabeth Town Councilor has been a special honor. I really care about Cape Elizabeth and the state of Maine. As a local businessman and parent, I am accessible to Cape’s residents, I listen to their concerns and I take action on their behalf. As the state representative from Cape Elizabeth, I will work diligently in Augusta to advance the priorities of Cape Elizabeth’s residents. I will lower your property taxes, make health insurance more affordable and promote good paying jobs by making Maine more business friendly. I have the experience required to get the job done.

Is there anything else you want to add?

Mowles: I know what needs to be done in Augusta and I have the experience to make change a reality in Augusta. I have served on the Cape Elizabeth Town Council and the Cumberland County Budget Advisory Committee since 2003. I have served as the chairman of the Cape Elizabeth Town Republican Committee for the past four years and two years ago I was the Republican nominee for this House seat and just missed taking the majority in a close race. I know what is required to win this race in November so I can continue to work hard for the residents of Cape Elizabeth.

Jennifer DuddyMike Mowles