Friday the State of Maine joined countless friends, families, communities, states and countries across the world in mourning the loss of an individual who had COVID-19. A sad day. A sad week.

I’m Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

In the past several weeks, in the face of this unprecedented challenge, Maine people have stood together.

We faced these times as we always have - with courage, compassion and commonsense, with generosity and patience, with hearts open to one another.

In this moment of grief in our state, we stand side by side still.

One author said that her mother taught her never to look away from another person’s pain.

She said, never look down. Never pretend not to see hurt. Look people in the eye, even when their pain is overwhelming. And find people who can look you in the eye when pain overwhelms you.

We all need to know we’re not alone - especially when we are hurting.

To the family grieving the loss of someone they loved - I know you are hurting, but you are not alone. I hope you hear me when we say we are all family. And we stand by your side.

To the people of Maine – this news will no doubt worry many of you. I can’t say that we won’t suffer more losses before this is over, but know that we will get through this as Mainers, looking each other and looking the world in the eye – together, no matter the distance between us now.

We do need to maintain our distance.

That’s why, based on guidance from the Federal CDC and the State CDC, I have required that all non-essential businesses and operations in Maine close their physical locations to the public, meaning that those who allow customer, vendor or other in-person contact can no longer do so.

I have strongly recommended that all essential businesses like grocery stores immediately reduce congestion in their stores by, you know,

• For big box stores limiting customers to no more than 100 people at a time;
• Issuing curbside pick-up and delivery services;
• Staggering their hours for shoppers of a certain age;
• Closing fitting rooms – this is no time to go out and buy a dress;
• Cautioning customers against handling merchandise that they are not buying;
• Marking six-foot measurements by the cashier stations and reminding people to remain six feet apart;
• Staggering break times for employees and requiring frequent hand-washing;
• And regularly sanitizing high-touch areas, like shopping carts.

Please, go to these stores only when you need to. Just because a store is allowed to be open doesn’t mean it’s safe to go there. Go with a list, touch only the things you are buying, and don’t bring your entire family with you or friends.

Above all, stay away from other people. Stay home and leave home only when absolutely necessary. Take walks and exercise, buy things like groceries, go to work if your job is essential and if you can’t work remotely – but stay six feet away from other people – stay home as much as humanly possible.

Don’t take chances. And if you come from another state, you should self-isolate for 14 days, please. If you’re coming back from Florida, driving up from New York or Boston to a summer home, self-isolate for 14 days.

The life you save may be your own. It may be your child’s. It may be your neighbor’s or your parent’s or grandparent’s. But it will save a life.

Things will get worse before they get better. But they will get better if we all pull together and do what we have to do right now. And it means staying home. We will get through this because we stand together. We will get through this because we are Maine.

On the mantle in my room there is a quote from Emily Dickinson - I think about it every day:

        “Hope is thing with feathers
        That perches in the soul
        And sings the tune without the words
        And never stops…at all.”

Today we are feeling grief. But today — and every day — we also know hope.

I hope that God blesses every one of you and yours and keeps you all safe.

And God bless the State of Maine.

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

Hi, this is Governor Janet Mills.

You know my parents used to tell me that we cannot control everything that happens to us, but what we can control – and what we must control – is how we react to what happens to us.

I know you are concerned, even scared, about your health and that of your loved ones. I know you are thinking about where your next pay check will come from, or your next bag of groceries.

I know that anxiety and concern for the unknown fill the air right now.

When your child or grandchild tells you that they are scared, tell them: it’s okay to be scared.

Anxiety is normal. The future is uncertain.

But remind them always: we have each other. We are all family.

Tell them we have been here before, in one way or another. We fought wars together. We survived blizzards, ice storms, attacks on our nation.

We have risen to the challenges of our times before and we are rising to the challenges before us now.

I want to assure you that medical professionals and Maine CDC experts are working around the clock to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus and to keep you all healthy and safe.

My Administration has worked with the Legislature, we’re working with Maine’s Congressional Delegation, with other governors and businesses and health care providers, to support small businesses, their employees, and those who are self-employed who been impacted by the coronavirus.

I am proud of that work, but what I am even prouder of is what I see in communities across Maine:

I see businesses that are partnering with local nonprofits to make lunches and dinners for those in need.

I see teachers conducting classes online and school staff delivering homework packets and meals to children at home.

I see fitness instructors offering online classes to keep people active, and parishes live-streaming faith services and hosting online prayer gatherings.

I see Maine people simply reaching out to one another to ask “How are you, how can I help?”

Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers, said, “When I was young and I would see scary things on the news, my mother would say, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

Maine people are helpers, and they are everywhere.

They are our doctors, nurses, EMS, firefighters, police officers, grocery store clerks, gas station attendants, child care workers, government employees.

They are you, they are your neighbor, they are your loved ones.

They are Maine people.

While I know times are difficult and uncertain, let us remember what we can control, what we can do, not just what we cannot. Remember what we can control — ourselves, our love for another, and our love for this shared state we are so lucky to call home.

Today we go outside and enjoy the state parks, go to a beach, climb a mountain — whether it’s Bald or Battie or Bradbury — enjoy the outdoors, keeping your social (physical) distance.

Today, we keep our distance from one another so that tomorrow we can come together again.

When people look back on us years from now, they will say that Maine did sacrifice but Maine stood strong. They will say:

• Maine people were tough,
• Maine people hung together.
• Maine provided the helpers.
• Maine people survived, and
• Maine rose again better than ever.

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

God bless you and yours, and God bless the State of Maine

Good morning, this is Governor Janet Mills.

By now I am sure you have heard of the coronavirus, which is sometimes referred to as COVID-19. The Maine CDC, the Centers for Disease Control, reports that the risk to Maine residents remains low, but that doesn’t mean we’re not preparing.

The Maine CDC began working on our preparedness and our response efforts last year, and now with federal officials informing us that this virus is likely to spread further in the United States, we have scaled up our efforts.

We are:

• adjusting our emergency response protocols;
• communicating frequently with public health and medical professionals, with our hospital systems, school officials, EMS providers, county governments, Tribal governments, and many others to make sure they all have the most up to date information and resources
• ensuring that potential cases are rapidly identified and investigated and that isolation procedures are in place, if and when needed;
• updating our lab equipment to allow us to test for the coronavirus here in Maine as soon as this very weekend and engaging public health nurses as part of  our emergency response, among other measures.

I also convened the Coronavirus Response Team. Under the leadership of the Maine CDC and Doctor Nirav Shah, all departments in my administration are reviewing our State Government readiness plans and coordinating with local agencies, with health authorities, and others to respond to the potential spread of the coronavirus. Our State agency leaders continue to be in constant contact with each other regarding preparedness for any potential coronavirus cases in our State.

So, what can you do? The Maine CDC urges all of us to take precautions and follow the federal guidelines from the U.S. CDC. That means whether you’ve been traveling or not taking the following steps to make sure you and your family are safe:

• First, wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not available, use alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
• Second, avoid shaking hands as a greeting. That’s tough for somebody like me, I meet a lot of people, but now I’m just saying, “You know what, the CDC has advised us not to shake hands, so with all due respect, I’m not going to be shaking hands.”
• Thirdly, avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Fourth, avoid close contact with anybody who’s sick.
• Fifth, stay home if you are sick. Now that’s not always easy, but please for the sake of the safety of your community and your friends, stay home if you are sick. Also, cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.
• And finally, clean and disinfect frequently the things you touch — the surfaces and objects that we all handle every day, your cellphone, your computer, your door handles — disinfect them with disinfecting wipes and then throw the wipes away.

Take these simple, important steps to help protect you, your family, your neighbors, and your co-workers from both the coronavirus and the common flu at the same time.

So, this virus is a quickly evolving situation and I am recording this radio address Friday afternoon so it’s possible by the time you hear my voice, there could be new developments. I encourage you to stay-up-to-date by seeking information from credible sources, the Maine CDC being one of them, and the U.S. CDC. On their websites, they keep posting updates every couple of hours and that’s the most important source of information for all of us.

If you are considering travel, I urge you to visit the U.S. CDC’s travel guidance on their website at CDC.GOV. That’s C-D-C.GOV. And if you’ve recently traveled to Italy, South Korea, China or Iran, please stay at home and avoid social contact for 14 days. It’s really important.

If you have symptoms, cough or fever, or shortness of breath, call the doctor’s office. Do not go to the emergency room or to the local clinic but call first. Tell them what your symptoms are, and they’ll help you.

You know, preparing with facts and science and proven public health measures, and commonsense precautions — these are the best measures we can take to protect both the people we serve at work and our friends and families at home and protecting all the people of Maine.

This is Governor Janet Mills, wishing you good health and thank you for listening.

One summer, a five-year-old boy woke up slowly with a headache and surrounded by white coats and scared faces. As Dr. Tony Owens describes it, “I was only 5 and don’t remember anyone telling me I had polio, and not sure at that age it would have meant much to me anyway. As a parent and grandparent now myself, I can only imagine the terror that must have stricken my mom and dad.”

Tony Owens spent weeks in a children’s hospital and fortunately, he made a full recovery. By the next summer, a polio vaccine was developed that would eliminate the deadly disease worldwide, or nearly eliminate it.

Vaccines save lives, but only if people get vaccinated. Vaccines are one of the best tools we have to safeguard our children, protect our own health and the health of everyone around us, but a referendum on Maine’s ballot March 3rd would restore, what I consider, dangerous vaccine exemptions against the advice of every major medical provider in Maine.

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

I know you heard about this recently from me, but I wanted to talk to you about it again because I think it is so important.

Our state has had a vaccination opt-out rate that is about three times higher than the national average for kids starting kindergarten. Our state ranks seventh in the country for the rate of non-medical opt-outs among school age children. This is dangerous to kids who have immunity problems and health issues who can’t be vaccinated but who become ill because of someone else who is not vaccinated.

Last year alone, schools in Lincoln, York, and Cumberland counties experienced dangerous whooping cough outbreaks.

As Governor, I am charged with protecting the health and safety of all Maine people, and amidst these outbreaks it has become painfully clear that Maine laws have not adequately protected the health of Maine people.

During that last legislative session, I signed a bill to remove the non-medical exemptions from our vaccination laws so as to better protect the health and welfare of all Maine people, especially young children – something that four other states, Mississippi, New York, West Virginia and California – have all done recently.

The new law leaves medical exemptions up to medical professionals while ensuring that medically vulnerable children can attend school safely. All Maine children, regardless of insurance status, can receive vaccines at no cost through the Maine Immunization Program ( ImmunizeME.org).

Those are the facts.

Some people opposed to this new law though have succeeded in putting a referendum question on the ballot in the hopes of overturning the law.

I think that their campaign is masquerading itself as opposition to “Big Pharma,” but, really, pharmaceutical companies hardly benefit at all from producing these vaccines, as the newspapers recently reported. And in trying to target so-called Big Pharma, whom nobody likes, this campaign is purposefully trying to conflate vaccinations I think with other issues like the opioid epidemic when these issues are very different.

Don’t buy it.

As parents I think we have the right to choose whether or not to vaccinate our children, but none of us has the right to put the health of somebody else’s child at risk, especially those kids who are medically vulnerable and just want to go to school safely.

Yes on 1 puts the health of all of our children at risk. You don’t have to take my word for it though.

Nearly sixty major health care providers across Maine, including the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital, have encouraged us to vote No on 1 because they know the measure is dangerous.

Children are especially vulnerable to deadly diseases like measles, mumps, polio, chickenpox, whooping cough – all these diseases are preventable by the immunity created in schools and public spaces when all people are vaccinated.

As the American Academy of Pediatrics says, ensuring that everyone who can get vaccinated does get vaccinated is important because it protects the most vulnerable members of our communities – infants, pregnant women and other people whose immune systems cannot combat certain harmful or deadly infections or who just aren't eligible to receive certain vaccines medically.

Let’s listen to the doctors. Let’s not go back to a time when polio was so commonplace.

Join me in protecting our children.

I urge you to vote No on 1 on March 3rd.

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

One summer, a five-year-old boy woke up slowly with a headache and surrounded by white coats and scared faces. As Dr. Tony Owens describes it, “I was only 5 and don’t remember anyone telling me I had polio, and not sure at that age it would have meant much to me anyway. As a parent and grandparent now myself, I can only imagine the terror that must have stricken my mom and dad.”

Tony Owens spent weeks in a children’s hospital and fortunately, he made a full recovery. By the next summer, a polio vaccine was developed that would eliminate the deadly disease worldwide, or nearly eliminate it.

Vaccines save lives, but only if people get vaccinated. Vaccines are one of the best tools we have to safeguard our children, protect our own health and the health of everyone around us, but a referendum on Maine’s ballot March 3rd would restore, what I consider, dangerous vaccine exemptions against the advice of every major medical provider in Maine.

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

I know you heard about this recently from me, but I wanted to talk to you about it again because I think it is so important.

Our state has had a vaccination opt-out rate that is about three times higher than the national average for kids starting kindergarten. Our state ranks seventh in the country for the rate of non-medical opt-outs among school age children. This is dangerous to kids who have immunity problems and health issues who can’t be vaccinated but who become ill because of someone else who is not vaccinated.

Last year alone, schools in Lincoln, York, and Cumberland counties experienced dangerous whooping cough outbreaks.

As Governor, I am charged with protecting the health and safety of all Maine people, and amidst these outbreaks it has become painfully clear that Maine laws have not adequately protected the health of Maine people.

During that last legislative session, I signed a bill to remove the non-medical exemptions from our vaccination laws so as to better protect the health and welfare of all Maine people, especially young children – something that four other states, Mississippi, Washington, New York, West Virginia – have all done recently.

The new law leaves medical exemptions up to medical professionals while ensuring that medically vulnerable children can attend school safely. All Maine children, regardless of insurance status, can receive vaccines at no cost through the Maine Immunization Program ( ImmunizeME.org).

Those are the facts.

Some people opposed to this new law though have succeeded in putting a referendum question on the ballot in the hopes of overturning the law.

I think that their campaign is masquerading itself as opposition to “Big Pharma,” but, really, pharmaceutical companies hardly benefit at all from producing these vaccines, as the newspapers recently reported. And in trying to target so-called Big Pharma, whom nobody likes, this campaign is purposefully trying to conflate vaccinations I think with other issues like the opioid epidemic when these issues are very different.

Don’t buy it.

As parents I think we have the right to choose whether or not to vaccinate our children, but none of us has the right to put the health of somebody else’s child at risk, especially those kids who are medically vulnerable and just want to go to school safely.

Yes on 1 puts the health of all of our children at risk. You don’t have to take my word for it though.

Nearly sixty major health care providers across Maine, including the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital, have encouraged us to vote No on 1 because they know the measure is dangerous.

Children are especially vulnerable to deadly diseases like measles, mumps, polio, chickenpox, whooping cough – all these diseases are preventable by the immunity created in schools and public spaces when all people are vaccinated.

As the American Academy of Pediatrics says, ensuring that everyone who can get vaccinated does get vaccinated is important because it protects the most vulnerable members of our communities – infants, pregnant women and other people whose immune systems cannot combat certain harmful or deadly infections or who just aren't eligible to receive certain vaccines medically.

Let’s listen to the doctors. Let’s not go back to a time when polio was so commonplace.

Join me in protecting our children.

I urge you to vote No on 1 on March 3rd.

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

A home is more than brick and beams and wood and maybe a barn and a little yard. Home is where my husband, Stan, and I raised five daughters. Where we sat at the kitchen table paying bills and helping with homework. It’s where we slept safely every night.

But for thousands of Maine families, a safe and affordable home is out of reach. 

Good morning, this is Janet Mills, governor of the great state of Maine and thank you for listening. 

Our state has one of the least affordable housing markets in the nation. In 2018, the average Maine renter’s wage was $11.44 per hour, while the hourly wage needed to rent a two-bedroom apartment was $18.73 an hour –ninth-highest in the nation. 

The waiting list for affordable housing has risen to more than 32,000 households. Over 20,000Maine households are on wait lists for federal rental assistance. 

And yet, for all of that, Maine is only producing 250 new affordable homes each year. 

Families that don’t qualify for affordable housing, or don’t have access to it, are paying outrageous rent prices. More than 35,000 renters in our state pay more than half of their incomes for rent and utilities. 

How do we expect to keep young families here, or to attract young families here, if there is no affordable place for them to live?

Last legislative session, Representative Ryan Fecteau — with cosponsors from both houses and both parties — introduced legislation to address this housing shortage. 

LD 1645 provides a refundable tax credit, similar to the Maine Historic Tax Credit, to create an additional 1,000 affordable homes over the next eight years, more than doubling our current production rate.  

At least 30 percent of the funding will go towards housing for seniors, 20 percent towards homes in rural communities, and 10 percent to renovating rural apartments.  

This investment will also trigger matching federal funds to stimulate job growth and economic activity in the construction, engineering and design sectors.

Three weeks ago, in my State of the State, I told the Legislature, “send this bill to my desk and I’ll sign it.”

Well, thanks to the bipartisan work of the Legislature, this week I did sign it.

You know they say home is where the heart is.

I believe the goal of ensuring that Maine people have a safe place to rest their head at night, a place where they can take care of their family, get ready for work and live with dignity and comfort is at the heart of this Administration.  

I was proud to sign this bill into law, and I hope it will allow us to say to thousands more Mainers, “Welcome Home”.

This is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

A year ago, I presented my Administration’s first biennial budget. That budget was based on HOPE – health, opportunity, prosperity, and education.

The Legislature then debated that proposal, negotiated some compromises and then they enacted – respectfully and in timely fashion – a balanced budget, with two-thirds bipartisan support, without raising any taxes.

Since that time, we’ve been very fortunate. Our economy has remained strong, with continued growth and record low unemployment. The economic forecast and the revenue projections are positive, with more than half of projected revenue being one-time funds, but a forecast that permits us now to identify specific needs to present to the Legislature in the form of a supplemental budget.

Good morning. I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

The supplemental budget I proposed this week reflects three bipartisan priorities:

1. Setting aside money in the State’s Rainy Day Fund to protect us against an economic downturn;
2. Strengthening those services that protect the health, safety and well-being of Maine families;
3. Addressing our critical workforce needs and responding to the immediate needs of the educational and business communities.

In this budget I propose that we build on our state’s record-high Rainy Day Fund by setting aside another $20 million dollars of that projected surplus in savings. If that’s approved, the Budget Stabilization Fund will have grown by $50 million since I took office. That’s important savings for a Rainy Day.

Government is also about keeping people safe and protecting children and families so the supplemental requests 20 additional positions so we can respond to reports of child abuse or neglect, and it eliminates the current Section 29 waitlist for people with developmental disabilities while we work to improve services for all people with disabilities.

The budget also funds 14 new patrol officers and sergeants at the Maine State Police. The fact is, the number of state police patrol officers has not changed since the 1970’s, while traffic, technology and population have all grown. There are simply too few troopers to respond to car crashes, lost children and crime scenes.

The budget also invests in expanding Maine’s workforce to respond to the demands of the present and the needs of the future. So, it:

• funds short-term training programs through Maine’s community colleges; the Maine Apprenticeship Program; and Adult Education;
• invests in critical capital equipment like computers and forklifts for the career and technical education centers so that they can succeed in training our students in jobs that pay good wages. You know those CTEs haven’t had substantial funding for equipment since 1998. It’s time to get with the program;
• and the budget raises the state’s share of public education to nearly 52 percent for pre-K through 12 — that’s a two percent increase since I took office. And it makes whole our higher education institutions in the second year of the biennium.

I am also presenting a bond package to the Legislature, and asking them to let you, the voters, decide on $100 million in borrowing for transportation to fix the potholes and $15 million to bring high-speed internet to your towns.

This supplemental budget is balanced. It does not create new programs. It takes care that one-time monies are used for one time needs and that we fulfill our obligation within existing programs to take care of our schools, child welfare and public safety needs.

As the Legislature puts their own fingerprints on this document, I hope that they do so with caution, balancing the health and safety of Maine families and our workforce needs with the long-term health of the state.

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

A little more than a month ago, the residents of a city in central China began getting terribly sick with a virus that no one had seen before. As that virus spread, one of the first things that public health officials did was begin to work on a vaccine because vaccines save lives.

They are one of the best tools to safeguard our health, protect the health of those around us, friends and loved ones and children.

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

You know a century ago, as Maine celebrated its 100th birthday, influenza – the flu – posed a serious threat to our people and took thousands of lives. Globally, between 50 million and 100 million people (3 percent to 5 percent of the entire population) died from the flu between 1918 and 1920.

I don’t want that to happen again.

A hundred years later, the flu is still a public health concern, but thanks to vaccines, we are much safer than we used to be – if you get vaccinated.

Decades of scientific research prove that vaccines not only work but that they are safe.

Unfortunately, our state has had a vaccination opt-out rate that is three times higher than the national average for kids entering kindergarten. Our state ranks seventh in the country for the rate of non-medical opt-outs among school age children.

So last year alone, schools in Lincoln, York, and Cumberland counties experienced dangerous whooping cough outbreaks.

I supported Maine’s vaccination laws and, like every other Mainer, I also highly value personal choice. But, as your Governor, I am charged with protecting the health and safety of all Maine people, and amidst these outbreaks it has become painfully clear that Maine laws have not adequately protected the health of Maine people.

Last year I signed a bill to remove the non-medical exemptions from vaccination laws in order to better protect the health and welfare of people, especially young children, across our state – and this is something that four other states, including Mississippi, have done.

People opposed to this new law, however, have succeed in putting a referendum question on the ballot in March in the hopes of overturning the law.

Their campaign is masquerading itself as opposition to “Big Pharma,” but, really, pharmaceutical companies hardly benefit at all from producing vaccines, as the Bangor Daily News recently reported. And in trying to target so-called Big Pharma, whom nobody really likes, their campaign is purposefully trying to conflate vaccinations with other issues like the opioid epidemic when these issues are distinctly different.

Don’t buy it.

Vaccines work, but to make them more effective, people need to be vaccinated, especially children.

As the American Academy of Pediatrics notes, ensuring that everyone who can get vaccinated does get vaccinated “is important because it uniquely protects the most vulnerable members of our communities, including infants, pregnant women and other individuals whose immune systems cannot combat certain harmful or deadly infections or who aren't eligible to receive certain vaccines.”

Let’s not go back to a time when viruses like pertussis, the measles, mumps, or rubella were commonplace. 

Let’s protect our children. Let’s protect the future.

I urge Maine people to vote No on 1 March 3rd.

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

In my first State of the State address as Governor this week, I told the people of Maine, you watching in homes, businesses and shops across the state and listening this morning, that our economy is on a solid footing and it is growing.

• Revenues are up, our gross domestic product is up, housing starts, construction, auto sales are all up and the state budget continues to have a healthy surplus.
• The private sector created 5,300 new jobs this past year.
• My Administration helped 800 people with disabilities find and keep jobs.
• Our unemployment rate went down, we paid off the $80 million debt for the Riverview Psychiatric Center and we stopped the bleeding of interest payments to the federal
• My Administration added $30 million to the Budget Stabilization Fund, for a total of $237 million – and I am proposing to add another $20 million more.
• And, on a bipartisan basis, we provided $75 million in property tax relief for Maine people — just look in your mailbox, about 300,000 of you should receive a $104 check.

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

While all this is progress, it is also important to address the challenges that still loom large over our economy. We are not taking anything for granted and we look at the future with cautious optimism.

Our State’s ten-year economic development plan says if we want to strengthen our economy, we have to enhance critical infrastructure, including broadband, particularly in rural Maine.

We all know the problems with internet – slow internet and no internet. This company, DesignLab, for instance, a marketing and design firm in Millinocket, used to upload their video files on a hard drive, drive to the Medway gas station, and ask a bus driver to deliver the files to a video editor in Presque.

Internet speeds were dismal for them, and it severely limited their productivity. But now, with broadband in Millinocket, they are succeeding.

You know, as one small businessperson put it to me the other day, “You want to grow the economy?” she said, “Give us better internet.”

It is time for us to listen. High-speed internet is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity.

Increasing access to high speed internet will allow our businesses to expand and allow people across the state to connect with schools, with health care providers and with markets around the country and around the world.

I am proposing that the Legislature fund $15 million this year to expand broadband for Maine people and Maine businesses. We just can’t afford to wait any longer.

More than 100 communities across Maine have worked with their local hospitals, schools, businesses and providers to identify how they can bring better internet to their towns. They are ready to go for broadband – the only thing they are waiting for now is funding.

Some state funding, along with private and federal investments, can bring internet to the most rural communities Maine, and this initial investment of state funds is long-overdue and very important.

Please join me in asking your state representatives and your state senators in the Legislature to support investments in broadband.

It’s an investment in our economy and in your success.

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

Campaigning across the state in 2018, I met so many people worried that they’ll never be able to afford health care. 

Small business owners bracing for unpredictable hikes in costs for the health insurance their employees all need to stay healthy and stay working.

Seniors who are rationing prescription drug medications – or worse, going without because of the high costs. 

From Abbot to York to Baileyville and Winslow and every town in between, the most common thing keeping Maine people up at night is the cost of health care.

Good morning. I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

I remembered these people when, on my first day in office over a year ago, we expanded MaineCare by Executive Order. More than 57,000 people now have accessed life-saving health care coverage. 

I remembered them when last session we enacted LD 1 to protect coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions and ensure that Maine people have necessary mental health, pediatric care, maternal care and substance use disorder treatment. 

I remembered them when we enacted a comprehensive prescription drug package to make prescription drugs more affordable and when we restored the Maine Drugs for the Elderly Program that serves 1,800 more seniors in the biennial budget.

While we have made substantial progress in expanding access to health care, our health insurance system is still confusing, difficult to use, and so expensive. 

Thousands of Maine people who do have health insurance are falling through the cracks every day just trying to navigate the system. Not only that, but then they got to afford the health care they need to live, work and raise their families in Maine. 

Maine’s small businesses and self-employed people are struggling to cope with ever-increasing costs to provide health care coverage. 

For these reasons, I have introduced legislation, sponsored by Senate President Troy Jackson and Speaker Sara Gideon, to improve health insurance for Maine people and small businesses – all without any state tax dollars. 

This bill is called the “Made for Maine Health Coverage Act” because it sets Maine-specific deductibles and copays, it offers a Maine solution for small businesses, and it creates a Marketplace designed to best meet the needs of Maine people.

Among other things, the bill requires health plans to cover the first primary care visit and behavioral health visit each year for free – with no deductible, no co-pay, and no out-of-pocket costs. The second and third primary care or behavioral health visits could have a co-pay, but the deductibles would not apply.

This bill will also allow Maine people to shop for and compare plans by creating “clear choice designs” — health plans with the same deductibles, copays and out-of-pocket limits for the most commonly used services.

Maine’s small group market has seen increasing premiums and decreasing enrollment, making it very difficult for small businesses to offer coverage to their employees.

Our bill will pool insurance plans and premiums for individuals and small businesses, creating a combined, larger and more stable pool of enrollees to stem increasing costs. 

The bill will also extend reinsurance for the first time to small businesses – that’s the program that helps insurers cover the patients who need the most expensive treatments –  to lower their premiums. It’s funded by the federal government and by current fees in Maine’s reinsurance program. 

These two provisions of the Made for Maine Health Coverage Act will take effect only if we determine that they will in fact stabilize and reduce small businesses’ monthly premiums. 

The bill will also move Maine toward a State-Based Marketplace. That means Maine will conduct its own education, in-person consumer assistance, and outreach on coverage – putting us in the driver’s seat when it comes to helping Maine people learn about options and sign up for health care.

This move is more important than ever before, with legal and political challenges every day to the Affordable Care Act and to the health care that thousands of Maine people rely on. 

While MaineCare expansion, LD1 and the prescription drug reform package have helped thousands of Maine people by giving them access to health care and strengthening their health care protections, the Made for Maine Coverage Act is another important step forward in improving Maine’s health care system for our people and for our small businesses — all without any state tax dollars.

We are anticipating bipartisan support for this bill and I look forward to hearing from you and to working with the Legislature to enact it.

I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

Commemorating a new day, at the beginning of a new year and a new decade, I stood the other day on a hilltop of a popular hiking spot and I surveyed the Atlantic Ocean to the east — I could almost see the Appalachian Trail far to the west and the lights of the cities to the south — and I thought about the past and the future of our great state.

You know, taking stock of the past at the turn of the year often lets us see the future more clearly.

Good morning, I am Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

I recall vividly, a year ago, standing before the people of Maine and becoming your 75th Governor. I talked then about our history, about “the unsung” people of Maine as poet Wes McNair called them, and about health care, the opioid epidemic, climate change, education and the economy.

That same week, by executive order, Maine expanded Medicaid. Now, more than 56,000 people have accessed life-saving health care coverage.

Then with the passage of LD 1, we made sure that Maine people would not lose their health insurance due to pre-existing conditions and that their families would have necessary mental health, pediatric care, substance abuse treatment and the like. And we began the hard work of reducing health insurance costs for small businesses and self-employed individuals.

We commenced a battle to undo the ravages of the terrible opioid epidemic, providing life-saving naloxone across the state, creating more recovery centers, providing medication assisted treatment, beefing up prevention efforts and training dozens of recovery coaches to turn people’s lives around.

We issued the long-delayed voter-approved housing bonds to build 200 new homes and weatherize another 100 for seniors.

We revived the Children’s Cabinet and the public health nursing program, we hired dozens of child protection workers, beefed up prenatal care and commenced a Safe Sleep campaign to prevent the needless deaths of so many infants.

In June I signed a budget that had broad bipartisan support in the legislature — one that was negotiated and debated with civility and collaboration. That budget provided property tax relief — sent money back to the taxpayers — and it invested another $115 million in pre-K-12 public education and adult ed and it set us on the path to a $40,000 minimum teacher salary.

Working with the legislature, we enacted significant measures to tackle the high cost of prescription drugs. We passed groundbreaking legislation to require dangerous people to relinquish their firearms and we created incentives for residential and community solar projects, for offshore wind, for heat pumps and for the purchase of electric vehicles and charging stations through nontax dollars.

We created the bipartisan Maine Climate Council and Maine joined the US Climate Alliance.

In September I stood before the United Nations and represented you and told the delegates of 193 countries about the things our state is doing to combat climate change.

In November we announced a ten-year economic development plan — the first in decades — that’ll stimulate growth and personal income and workforce availability in the coming years, with results that are concrete and measurable.

So today I want to give thanks to the thousands of people across Maine who offered their help — citizens, businesses and legislators from every corner of the state — who gave us their suggestions about the economy, health care, public safety, taxation, climate change and children’s issues; who told us they want to see the state move forward with a civil tone and in a spirit of cooperation to become a place of innovation and excellence.

I especially thank the fifteen people who stepped up to serve in the new cabinet — including three people who served in the previous administration, four veterans, eight women and seven men. Perhaps the most qualified cabinet in recent history.

A year ago, I invited the people of Maine to “rise before the dawn — like the new mist over the Sandy River — and seek adventure, with hope in our hearts and love in our soul for the brand-new day.”

Today, in this new year, a year later, in our bicentennial year, in a brand-new decade, I want to thank you for the privilege of being your Governor, and I invite the people of Maine again to join me in an adventure of change, progress and prosperity.

This is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening and I wish each of you the healthiest, safest and happiest year ahead.