WHEREAS, Maine law states that an employer may not discriminate between employees in the same establishment on the basis of sex by paying wages to any employee in any occupation in this State at a rate less than the rate at which the employer pays any employee of the opposite sex for comparable work on jobs that have comparable requirements relating to skill, effort and responsibility; and

WHEREAS, wage inequality remains an ongoing issue though requirements regarding equal pay have been part of Maine law since 1949; and

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills, and thank you for listening.

Just across from the Maine State House is the Blaine House – where I spend most of my weekdays. It has been home to every Governor of Maine since Carl Milliken and his family moved in back in January 1920.

The Blaine House grounds have also long been home to a big old maple tree in the front yard. It’s a tree that Maine’s governors have tapped each spring for sap that can be boiled into delicious maple syrup.

That’s just what I did this past Tuesday, with the help of the Maine Maple Producers Association, I was proud to carry on this sweet tradition and tap the Blaine House Maple Tree and kick off Maine’s maple season.

Maine is home to 450 producers who are licensed to sell maple products and who produce more than 575,000 gallons of syrup every year. That makes our state the third largest producer of maple syrup in the country. Somerset County alone actually produces more maple syrup than any other county in the United States.

That’s also where the Passamaquoddy have 40,000 acres of land in Somerset and Franklin County, where they run 14,000 taps and have a very vigorous and robust maple syrup industry.

Producing and selling maple syrup generates more than $55 million in economic activity a year and supports more than 800 full-time and part-time jobs every year. If you’ve ever been to a sap house, you know how hard and fast those people work.

So, just two weekends from now – March 23rd and 24th – sugar shacks across the state will open their doors for one of my favorite Maine traditions: the 41st annual Maine Maple Sunday weekend.

During Maine Maple Sunday weekend, you can visit your local sugar shack for events like boiling demonstrations, sugar woods tours, live music, horse-drawn hayrides, pancake breakfasts, maple donuts, maple ice cream, maple salsa, maple whoopie pies and plenty of maple products to sample and share.

Whether you prefer dark and rich or pale gold and other delicious flavors, there’s a syrup for everyone’s taste. 

I hope you’ll join me in visiting one of our extraordinary sugarhouses later this month during Maine Maple Sunday weekend. A full list of the Maine Maple Producers can be found online at MaineMapleProducers.com. That’s MaineMapleProducers.com

Since 2015, Maple Syrup has been Maine’s “official state sweetener.” Whether you use your Maine maple syrup on pancakes or waffles, on carrots or Brussel sprouts, or on traditional maple snow candy – Maine maple syrup always makes life a little bit sweeter.

This is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening, and don’t forget to turn your clock ahead this weekend also.

WHEREAS, damage to underground facilities, such as pipes, mains, cables or conduits, can result in dangerous or costly leaks, fires, explosions and injuries, environmental mishaps, and the disruption of vital utility services, even though this damage and its consequences are often preventable; and

WHEREAS, all individuals, entities, corporations, and government bodies planning to dig, blast, or demolish need to first determine the location of underground utilities; and

WHEREAS, Senior Games are an integral part of communities throughout Maine and the United States that offer Olympic-style multi-sport competitions for adults aged 45 and up and engage over 100,000 people nationally each year; and

WHEREAS, the Maine Senior Games were first established in 1986, and today, the organization offers 20 competitive sports to both men and women with events throughout the state; and

WHEREAS, the American Red Cross aspires to turn compassion into action, and Mainers – American Red Cross volunteers – help each other when we are in need; and

WHEREAS, in supporting the American Red Cross, Maine people have helped our neighbors get back on their feet after devastating mass casualty events, record-breaking storms and home fires; and

In January, two very powerful storms brought rain, wind, and flooding that ravaged our state, damaged coastal communities and working waterfronts, and altered the very landscape of our iconic coast.

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

We saw storms that swept fish houses into the sea and kicked pilings out from once-sturdy piers and broke dunes and breakwaters and chewed up roads and seawalls, sometimes wiped storekeepers dry of stock, and changed the very landscape of our coast.

Because of all that, this week, I wrote to President Biden to formally request a Major Disaster Declaration to help Maine’s eight coastal counties recover from the back-to-back storms of January. Most of the estimated $70 million in public infrastructure damage was in Washington, Hancock, Waldo, Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahoc, Cumberland, and York counties. Our coastal counties.

If President Biden approves my request, we can use federal funding to repair the damaged roads and bridges, as well as public infrastructure, such as public buildings in those hard-hit counties.

In addition to public assistance, I’ve asked for help for individual families and telling the president that hundreds of people in our marine and aquaculture industries are now fighting to sustain their family businesses because they depend so much on working waterfronts, some of which were destroyed in the storms. 

Our thriving marine economy is at risk unless we receive every federal resource that is available to support the full recovery of our communities.

While we await the president’s response to my request, some technical and financial assistance is available now, and you can view that on our flood relief website at maine.gov/flood. 

My Administration will continue to do everything we can to support the recovery of our coastal communities and the industries and families that rely on them.

In addition to requesting a Major Disaster Declaration, we have introduced a bill, LD 2030, to streamline the permitting of certain activities under the Natural Resources Protection Act to make it easier for Maine communities to rebuild their waterfronts. 

We have proposed emergency legislation also for $50 million in state funds for the Maine Infrastructure Adaptation Fund to rebuild waterfront infrastructure, starting as soon as that bill is passed. 

We’re making $2 million in Land for Maine’s Future grants available for working waterfront projects that preserve access to commercial fishing. 

And, we are making $300,000 in federal grants available for coastal infrastructure projects to make our communities more resilient to climate change. 

As someone with deep roots in Stonington, where my ancestors fished for a living, I know how important our coastal communities are to our economy, to our culture, to our very identity as a people and as a state.

And I will continue to do all I can to support people whose livelihoods depend on working waterfronts. We will recover from these devastating storms, and we will build more resilient communities that can withstand whatever storms may come. 

We will rebuild the broken roads, wharves, and bridges and fortify our state against the ravages of unpredictable storms and the predictability of climate change.

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening. 

WHEREAS, Maine's agricultural community is a cornerstone of our great state and provides numerous benefits to Maine's residents and visitors; and

WHEREAS, Maine's agricultural sector fuels the state's economy, contributing more than $3.6 billion annually, and employing tens of thousands of people with over 1 million acres in agricultural use; and

WHEREAS, the State of Maine has long been a haven for writers, musicians, painters, sculptors, poets, dancers, folk artists, culinary artists, and creative thinkers of all kinds; and

WHEREAS, Maine enjoys a worldwide reputation for the quality, quantity, and variety of its cultural community; and

WHEREAS, Maine features a broad and significant array of historic and architecturally significant structures; and

WHEREAS, women of every race, ethnicity, class, religion, and age have made historic contributions to the growth and strength of our state and our nation in countless recorded and unrecorded ways; and

WHEREAS, women have played and continue to play critical economic, cultural, and social roles in every sphere of life by constituting a significant portion of the labor force both inside and outside of the home; and