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

This week, we bring 2021 to a close.

Well there’s a lot to celebrate about the end of 2021.

It’s been a hard year in many ways, but Maine people are resilient, and we’ve achieved a lot this year actually despite the challenges.

Unemployment is down; our Gross Domestic Product is up; our tourism and hospitality industries reported some of their best summers ever. Real estate sales are up. People are moving here. We have one of the lowest crime rates in the country. People are coming here because we are one of the safest states in the nation.

And we’re fighting to keep it that way. We’re fighting this pandemic with all we’ve got to make sure Maine people are safe, including the many children who are still too young to get vaccinated.

In the last year, more than a million people have gotten fully vaccinated from COVID-19 here in Maine. And it’s thanks to them that Maine has among the lowest death rates from COVID-19, despite having a much older population than other states. 

At the same time that we’ve been fighting the pandemic, we also brought Republicans, Democrats and Independents together and passed a bipartisan budget that fully funded public education for the first time ever. We made historic investments in our health care system, helping the front-line heroes who cared for the rest of us. And that’s why now we are able to raise reimbursements rates and give direct care workers at nursing homes and elsewhere a much-needed pay raise. 

We also restored revenue sharing, which is how the state gives money back to towns and cities so they don’t have to raise your property taxes. And we worked together to give back money to Maine people who worked during the pandemic - direct hazard payments of $285 a piece to more than half a million people - you may have gotten your check in the mail recently. And our state budget set aside millions of dollars in savings, bringing our Rainy Day Fund to its highest level ever.

And after President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law, allocating federal stimulus funds to the State, we worked with the Legislature to enact the Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan. With those funds, we’ve already begun rolling out more than $300 million to train people for new jobs; to make housing, health care, and child care more affordable, more available; to help small businesses; and to help keep our economy strong.

We also continued to fight climate change. We installed thousands of high-efficiency heat pumps and hundreds of electric vehicle charging stations, cutting energy costs for Maine families with weatherization and cutting dangerous carbon emissions. We have increased solar power by more than four-fold since 2019 and we’ve created new, good-paying clean energy jobs. And we funded the Land for Maine’s Future for the first time in the budget, so we can protect our working woods and waterways.

And thanks to our good fiscal management and careful allocation of federal and state pandemic relief, we are expecting a surplus of about $822 million over the next two years – that’s an increase of almost 10 percent over projections. 

Still, inflation driven by the pandemic and supply chain issues is hurting us. The price of heating oil, gas, electricity and groceries is hitting people’s pocketbooks right now at a particularly hard time of year. And that bothers me just like it bothers you.

I think we should give money back to people. That’s why, in the New Year, I’ll be proposing a supplemental budget to the Legislature that gives money back to you.

I’ll be listening to Democrats, Republicans and Independents on the best way to do that, and we will get to work soon.

In 2022, I’m going to be focused on our economy, on our climate, on our kids, on keeping people safe and on the health and welfare of all Maine people.

We’ve always faced challenges together, with the grit and determination that has made us who we are – one community of hardworking people taking care of each other every day, every year. 

With that spirit, I’m excited about the potential that 2022 holds for our great state.

I am so proud of the people of Maine. And so proud to be your Governor.  Happy New Year, Maine!

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

The holiday season is a time of joy and happiness and hope. And these are the things I wish for all of you.

This weekend, many families across the State will gather with a few loved ones, friends or neighbors. But sadly, some families won’t be so lucky. Hundreds of people right now are fighting for their lives in hospitals across our state.

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

Fighting right alongside those Mainers in the hospital are our heroic health care workers. Health care workers are the heart of our response to COVID-19. They’ve shown up on the frontlines for almost two years now to save the lives of Maine people, all the while sometimes enduring risks to their own health and the added pressure and stress of the job. While their work is meaningful beyond words, I want them to know how grateful we all are for everything they are doing.

So to all health care workers across the State of Maine – whether you are in a hospital right now, at a doctor’s office, in a nursing or assisted living facility, a vaccination site, in a counselor’s or therapist’s office, in someone’s home, or in the back of an ambulance, please know, from the bottom of my heart, that Maine is grateful for your service. You are the heart of Maine.

I also ask all Maine people this holiday season to join with me in thanking our health care workers, those who are bearing the greatest burden of this current COVID-19 surge.

Really, the best way to thank our health care workers, the best way to help relieve the burden on their shoulders is to heed their advice: get vaccinated. Get vaccinated so you can stay out of the hospital and so we can make room for others who are patiently waiting for medical care not related to COVID. Please. 

You remember, it was only through vaccination that we got through the ravages of polio years ago. It was only through mass vaccination that we rid the world of the deadly smallpox virus. And it is only through vaccination that we will rid ourselves of the coronavirus.

In addition to getting vaccinated, please keep your holiday gatherings small and safe, get tested before getting together if you can, and take precautions to keep yourselves and friends and loved ones healthy. This is just commonsense steps like wearing a mask, washing hands, and staying socially distant to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

So from my family to yours, I wish you a holiday of hope, happiness and good health. Please stay safe this holiday season. And please, thank a health care worker – those people who are spending these holidays taking care of our most vulnerable citizens.

And if you are so inclined, please say a prayer for the sixty or so people right now who are breathing only with the help of a machine in our intensive care units. And say a prayer for the ten children who have been hospitalized just this month with COVID, eight of them in the hospital right now as I speak. Four of these youngsters are fighting for dear life in pediatric critical care units. Most of those kids were just too young to get vaccinated. They are depending on you.

If you’re lucky enough to be eligible for this lifesaving medicine, please think of them. Please get vaccinated. The life you save may be your own. Or it may be a small child’s.

Your neighbors and your neighbors’ children are counting on you to keep them safe.

This is Governor Janet Mills. Please have a safe and happy holiday and thank you for listening.

This last month has seen a sustained surge of COVID-19 in Maine, driven by the Delta variant still, and made much worse by the number of people still not vaccinated.

With more people gathering indoors this holiday season in crowded places, risking more illness and hospitalizations, our health care system is just about at full capacity.

This is very similar to what’s happening in our neighboring states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Vermont as well.

To help with hospital capacity, I activated the Maine National Guard and deployed them around the state to help our hospitals and nursing homes treat people with COVID-19 and other serious medical conditions.

I also asked the federal government to send skilled health care professionals to Maine to support our overwhelmed health care workers.  

The federal government quickly said yes.

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

One federal COVID-19 response team has already arrived in Maine. Starting last weekend, and running through Thursday, December 23rd, fifteen Federal clinicians, physicians, nurses, and paramedics from the U.S. Department of Health federal National Disaster Medical System, are supplementing existing staff at Maine Medical Center.

We’ve asked for more support as well. And more federal support may also be heading to Maine in the coming weeks and days. 

My Administration has also applied for federal ambulances and ambulance crews to transport patients among eight Maine hospitals and make sure they get to the facility that best meets their health care needs.

I am hoping that the combination of Federal help and National Guard support, along with additional actions by my Administration, will alleviate some of the strain on our health care system and will ensure critical care for those who need it, but hey we need your help too.

As I mentioned, most of the people in the hospital in Maine with COVID-19, particularly those in critical care, are not vaccinated. Ultimately, the best and most effective way to relieve the burden on our heroic health care workers is to heed their advice: get vaccinated.

To find a vaccination site visit maine.gov/covid19/vaccines or call the Community Vaccination Line at 1-888-445-4111.

I join Governor Sununu of New Hampshire, Governor Baker of Massachusetts, Governor Scott of Vermont in saying this virus doesn’t care who you are, where you are from, whether you are young or old, rich or poor, Democrat, Green or Republican, it’s a threat to all of us. 

It’s so important to get vaccinated, and to take precautions to protect all of us. That means also mask wearing and hand washing. And if you’re thinking of having a holiday gathering, it also means reconsidering that, keep it small, keep it safe. 

This holiday season give the gift of health. Get vaccinated. The life you save may be your own. Or it may be a small child who cannot get vaccinated herself, but who depends on everyone else in her community to get vaccinated to keep her safe. 

There’s simply no downside. 

Get vaccinated as soon as possible. It’s free, it’s effective, and it’s important.

We want you around next year for the holiday season too.

This is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.