Roger J. Katz

Republican

Candidate’s Links:

Office Sought: Senator – District 15
Age: 67
Occupation: Attorney
Education: Cony High School; Harvard College; Boston University School of Law
Family: Married – wife, Birdie; Children – Jonathan & Shari
Hometown: Augusta

Political experience

From 2006 until 2010 I served as Mayor of Augusta. During those years, I focused on the fiscal health of the city as well as efforts to invigorate the riverfront and downtown. I am proud of the progress we made.

I have now served three terms in the State Senate. During those six years I have served on the Appropriations Committee and chaired the Government Oversight Committee, working to balance state budgets, investigate the scandal at the Maine Turnpike Authority, and trying to be a voice for civility, moderation, and good government. Although I am proud to be a Republican, I have not been afraid to be critical of the chief executive when I felt it was called for and have been willing to work with Republicans and Democrats alike to pass a good public policy. I feel proud every single day I walk into the Statehouse.

Why are you running for office?

While growing up in Augusta, my dad served in the State Senate. Politics and public policy were a constant source of discussion around the dinner table. I was taught that giving back to your community, performing some kind of public service and “being in the arena” was part of being a good citizen. Some of my friends coach Little League. Some volunteer at the local food kitchen. Some do work for the church or synagogue. For me, my way of giving back has been through elected office. Working with others, I actually get a chance to help make life a little better both for those in my community and around the state. I was lucky enough to raise my own family here and I want others to have the same opportunity. We have the most beautiful state in the country and some of the hardest workers, and yet economic prosperity alludes many of us. I am dedicated to helping try to figure out how to turn that around.

• Income Tax: Gov. LePage would like to lower Maine’s income tax rate and eventually eliminate it, by increasing the state’s sales tax and expanding it across a broader range of goods and services. Do you support this proposal?
  • Other

    I strongly support the idea of reducing the income tax by increasing and broadening the sales tax. We have a 19th-century manufacturing tax structure in a 21st century service economy. Our high income tax is a disincentive to capital investment in our state – there’s just no question about it. Increasing and broadening the sales tax would help “export” more of the tax burden to other state visitors – allowing for a reduction of income taxes for Maine residents. However, I do not support eliminating the income tax entirely. We could not do so without drastic spending cuts and our ability to invest wisely in public services would be severely impacted. I believe in the ”three legged stool” approach the taxation – sales, income, and property taxes about evenly balanced. Elimination of the income tax would inevitably lead to increased property taxes—just the wrong way to go in my view.

• Background Checks: Do you support background checks for privately sold firearms in Maine?
  • Other

    I am proud to support the Second Amendment. And, I believe in gun safety. And so, the reasonable strengthening of the background checks’ law is good policy. We can all agree we need to do everything we can to keep firearms out of the hand of convicted felons and people suffering from mental illness. We need to acknowledge that we aren’t doing a great job accomplishing that right now. Yes, we require a background check when someone buys a gun from a registered dealer. On the other hand, we allow background – check free sales at gun shows or though Uncle Henry’s. We can’t have it both ways. Either eliminate background checks all together or have them apply to all transfers. Will that solve all our problems? Absolutely not. But there is no question that it will save some lives, and that is worth the additional inconvenience this will cause, in my view.

• Minimum Wage: In light of the ballot question facing voters this fall, do you support raising the state’s minimum wage from $7.50 to $12 an hour by 2020?
  • Other

    I believe that we should increase Maine’s minimum wage, but the proposal to go to $12 an hour is too much too soon.

    I wish Congress would increase the federal minimum wage, but they just don’t seem to have the will to do so.

    Many Maine small businesses already operate on the margin, and would have little choice but to either reduce their workforce or choose not to expand if this passes. For me, a moderate increase to $10 per hour would be more wise. In addition, a little known portion of the referendum eliminate the so-called “tip offset” which affects thousands of waitstaff in all our towns. Requiring restaurants to pay servers the $12 an hour will increased menu prices, and ultimately lead to the end of tipping and fewer jobs. I don’t know a single server who thinks this is a good idea.

• Marijuana: Do you support legalization of marijuana for recreational use?
  • No

    I will vote no on the legalization of recreational marijuana question. Although there are legitimate arguments on both sides, at this time, I think the more prudent course for Maine is to show some patience and wait. Washington State, Colorado, and the District of Columbia have all recently legalized recreational use. Let’s see how this major change works for them before we make this important decision. Will legalization lead to increased use by minors? Will increased marijuana use cause more impaired driving on public highway—how do we even measure “impaired driving” for marijuana use? Is it possible to regulate edibles so that there is proper quality control and these products do not get into the hands of young children? Will legalization lead to experimentation with other more dangerous drugs? I don’t pretend to know the answers, but let’s watch and see. I see no harm in waiting.

• Addiction/Overdoses: Do you believe the state is doing enough in response to the rise in heroin/opiate addiction and overdoses? If not, what else should be done?
  • We are clearly not doing enough as a state to deal with our opioid crisis. I suspect every single one of us knows someone who is been affected by addiction. I particularly feel badly for those who became hooked through no fault of their own after taking legitimately prescribed painkillers. Most tragic is the military veteran who returns to his or her hometown scarred physically or emotionally – or both, and cannot free themselves from the curse of addiction. For me, this has to be public-health priority number one. There are still barriers to treatment: We still have an embarrassingly low number of detox beds in the state and treatment options for those without insurance is largely nonexistent. We also need to do much, much more to inform and educate both young and old alike– about the dangers of getting hooked. On the law enforcement side, we’ve added additional drug enforcement agents and need to add more. We also need to continue looking at our criminal laws – so that we have swift and severe penalties for drug traffickers but we aren’t making felons out of people who are addicted. Additionally, we need to make more use of pretrial diversion and deferred disposition programs.