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, on July 26, 1819, the citizens of Maine voted decisively in support of Maine separating from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and becoming an independent state; and

WHEREAS, the United States Congress received Maine’s petition for statehood and voted affirmatively to accept Maine as the 23rd State of the United States; and

WHEREAS, U.S. Secretary of State James Monroe notified Maine that it would formally and legally be an independent state beginning on March 15, 1820; and

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 a part of Maine law since 1949; and

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

You know, located just across from the Maine State House, the Blaine House – where I spend most of my weekdays – 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 large old maple tree in the front yard, a tree that Maine’s governors have tapped each spring for sap that can be boiled into delicious maple syrup.

This past Monday, with the help of Maine Maple Producers Association President Lyle Merrifield and with students from Westbrook’s Congin Elementary School watching, I was proud to once again tap the Blaine House maple tree and kick off Maine’s maple season.

Maine is home to 520 producers licensed to sell maple products 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. Producing and selling maple syrup generates more than $55.6 million in economic activity and supports more than 800 full-time and part-time jobs every year. And 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 25th and 26th – sugar shacks across our state will open their doors for one of my favorite Maine traditions: the 40^th annual Maine Maple Sunday weekend.

This year, more than 100 locations across Maine will host Maple Sunday Weekend events showcasing a wide variety of syrups and sweets. Maple producers across our state will host free family events where visitors learn all about maple syrup and how it’s made.

Events this year include boiling demonstrations, sugar woods tours, live music, horse-drawn hayrides, maple products for sale – not to mention pancake breakfasts, maple donuts, and plenty of maple products to sample.

Whether you prefer dark and rich or pale gold and delicate 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 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.

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 the life by constituting a significant portion of the labor force both inside and outside of the home; and

Every day, I hear about workforce challenges and needs from all across the state.

We all know that Maine desperately needs more electricians, plumbers, welders, and other skilled workers as well as teachers, and law enforcement, and firefighters, and so much more – and health care workers.

But this week, I announced that my administration is investing in four of our Career and Technical Education Centers to help prepare students for lifelong, rewarding careers in the trades.

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

I have always been a strong believer in the power of Career and Technical Education – or CTE, for short. These programs equip Maine high school students with the skills and hands-on experiences to prepare them for good-paying jobs.

That’s why when I was Attorney General, I funded new plumbing programs at four different schools using settlement funds from a settlement with Bath Fitter corporation.

Maine’s 27 CTE regions and centers – which can be accessed by all Maine high school students– enroll more than 9,800 students in 85 different programs ranging from plumbing and welding to early childhood education and health care. 

Students in these programs can earn industry accreditation, and/or college credits while earning their high school diploma, preparing them to graduate already ready enter the workforce or move on to higher education.

But despite the transformative role that CTE programs can play in the lives of Maine’s young people, and in building a skilled workforce to strengthen our economy, for decades our state has not done nearly enough to invest in modernizing or expanding this effective model of education – including investing in equipment.

We see the effects of that today, as Maine faces a severe shortage of workers and skilled tradespeople. 

So, two years ago I proposed to invest $20 million from my Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan – that is federal funds – into Maine’s CTEs to enhance and expand programs and to upgrade equipment and facilities so more young people can benefit from these programs.

On Monday, I announced that my administration is awarding $15 million of those funds to four different Maine CTEs so they can expand real-word programs for Maine students in plumbing, electrical, building construction, culinary, hospitality, welding, emergency medical techs and other health care occupations, and much more.

For instance, this investment will allow the Biddeford Regional Center of Technology to build a two-story addition to the existing high school to expand its plumbing and EMT programs, and to create new programs in culinary arts and hospitality and athletic training.

These funds will also enable Northern Penobscot Tech Region III in Lincoln, Maine to build an addition in order to add five welding booth ventilators, ten welding booths, and ten welders.

Region 9 School of Applied Technology in Mexico will be able to expand and enhance its CTE facilities – including new classroom space for its welding program, constructing a new greenhouse, a store, outdoor kitchen, and classroom for its culinary arts program.

And this investment will allow Oxford Hills Technical School in Norway to construct a new free-standing building to expand their plumbing, electrician, and building construction training programs.

On Monday, I visited Oxford Hills Technical School, where I met a young man named Conner Cram, a third-year student in the school’s plumbing program. In addition to his time in the classroom, Conner is gaining real-world experience, working with a local plumber while going to school. When Conner graduates, he’ll have the training and experience necessary to enter the workforce right away. The investment I announced this week will give more Maine students the opportunity to have this valuable training and experience.

Since I took office, CTE enrollment has grown by nearly 11 percent, with an almost 300 percent increase in the exploratory programs that allow freshmen and sophomores to a number of different CTE programs. Exposing students to career opportunities at an early age is important, so I’ve included $500,000 in my biennial budget to fund CTE programming for middle school students as well.

CTE programs work. Let’s continue to invest in them, and in our students, and in strengthening our workforce.

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

WHEREAS, colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States among men and women combined; and

WHEREAS, colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in Maine; and

WHEREAS, one in twenty men and one in twenty-four women will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer in their lifetimes; and

WHEREAS, there are now more than one million survivors of colorectal cancer in the United States; and

WHEREAS, the speaking of French is an expression and affirmation of a people's cultural identity; and

WHEREAS, the State of Maine is named after the Province of Maine in France, and the towns of Paris and Calais owe their names to the capital city of France and the French port city of Calais, respectively; and

WHEREAS, more than one third of the population of Maine is of French and Canadian descent and Franco-Americans in Maine have contributed much to the beauty and quality of this State; and

This week, I signed a bipartisan supplemental budget into law. That budget provides meaningful help to Maine nursing facilities, Maine’s hospitals, small businesses, and others in need of immediate relief.

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

Every other year, the Governor and the Legislature craft a budget that will guide our state over the following two fiscal years. Our current biennial – or two-year – budget ends on June 30, the last day of the state’s 2023 Fiscal Year.

But the biennial state budget, like any good plan, requires occasional fine tuning as circumstances change. That’s where the so-called “supplemental budget” comes in. This supplemental budget takes any surplus revenues – as we have this year, generated from strong economy and prudent fiscal management – and puts those funds to use for Maine people.

This year, it involves investments like $25 million in state and federal funds for long-term care and nursing facilities to make sure older Mainers are taken care of. And another $25 million to support Maine hospitals as they continue to recover from the extraordinary costs of the pandemic.

The supplemental budget also extends an initiative from my Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan to help small lower the cost of health insurance for employees. After all, small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and we need to help them survive and grow.

The supplemental budget also includes a one-time payment averaging $175, the equivalent of one-percent cost-of-living adjustment, for 37,600 retired state employees and retired teachers, helping them deal with increased costs.

And the supplemental budget includes $50,000 for the Maine Milk Commission to assess the cost of milk production, and $10 million to go toward the dredging of Portland Harbor.

Finally, the supplemental budget authorizes the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services to increase the rate of pay for those attorneys who are rostered from $80 per hour to $150 per hour as part of a larger effort to attract more attorneys to represent indigent people in criminal and child protection cases.

I am grateful to this Legislature for its strong bipartisan approval of this emergency supplemental budget.

As I’ve said before, my guiding belief as Governor is that the foundation of our economy is our people.

This supplemental budget, just enacted, makes meaningful investments in Maine people and Maine businesses – and it does this while maintaining a balanced budget, as the Maine State Constitution requires.

In the weeks and months ahead, I look forward to working with the Legislature to craft a new two-year budget, a biennial budget, for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 that improves the lives and livelihoods of Maine people.

Last month, I offered a balanced budget proposal that will do just that, by investing directly in education, housing, healthcare, roads and bridges, and giving money back to the towns and cities and to the property taxpayers without raising income taxes or sales taxes, and without touching our record-high savings, or Rainy Day Fund.

I am confident that this administration and this legislature can and will enact a balanced, bipartisan budget that is truly worthy of the people of Maine.

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

WHEREAS, invasive species can have a devastating impact on Maine’s natural environment, including bodies of water, forests, and vegetation, and also pose risks to human health and infrastructure; and

WHEREAS, state agencies, lake associations, land trusts, and soil and water conservation districts are dedicated to managing invasive species populations in order to prevent and lessen their impact on Maine’s people, small businesses and natural resource based-economy; and