Radio Address: Prosperity for Maine

January 8, 2011

(MP3 Audio)

Good Morning. This is Governor Paul LePage. I would like to use my first weekly radio address to talk about the number one priority of my administration ? prosperity for Maine.

As I discussed in my inaugural address, Maine is the hardest place in the country to start and grow a business.

We earn just 80% of the national per capital income and we are failing to make the investments needed to grow our tax base.

Only the private sector can create the jobs and investment we need to move Maine forward. Profit is not a dirty word. In fact it is the direct and indirect solution to all of our challenges.

Our entrepreneurs need a fair chance to succeed. Otherwise, we diminish the incentive that leads to investment, innovation and job growth.

If we just move Maine to the middle of the regulatory and business climate pack, we give people willing to invest in Maine an equal opportunity to create jobs and build our tax base.

If we continue to be in the business climate basement, our kids will continue to have to look outside of our borders for opportunity and advancement.

We need a vibrant, successful private sector to drive our public sectors and non-profits. Without profit, we do not have economic activity, we do not have income and we do not have a tax base. Profit pays the bills for every sector of society.

When business owners are successful, others will follow. That is the nature of a free market. When profit seeking firms compete, we get lower prices and more choices as consumers and taxpayers.

Every private or public sector job, every program, every non-profit, every state service and every advancement in society started because someone took a nickel worth of input and turned it into a dime of output. It is a trend that has to continue.

I ran for Governor because I know how to run a business and create jobs. As I pick my team to lead Maine, I am looking for the same expertise. We need people who will help us grow the economy and work in partnership with Maine?s private sector.

I will spend every day of the next four years working to make Maine a better place for ALL of our sons and daughters to find work, to start businesses and to stay here to start families of their own.

Thank you and enjoy your weekend.