Many of us read the appalling saga of our friend Dennis Bailey’s struggle to stay alive while fighting COVID-19 recently. For his sake and for the sake of all of us we’ve been praying for an effective vaccine that’ll let us all get back to work, back to school, and back to business.

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills.

While we got news recently that one vaccine candidate is showing some promise in early trials, the fact is, even when a vaccine is approved, it’ll be many months before it is fully distributed and administered. In the meantime, this deadly virus remains among us and threatens our families, our communities, our health care system and our economy.

We can’t let down our guard now. There is no fairy tale ending to this nightmare yet — and we all have to do our part to stay safe.

The simplest thing we can do is the most effective tool we’ve had for months: wearing a face covering.

COVID-19 as you know is an airborne virus that spreads among people who are in close contact with one another, through respiratory droplets expelled when a person coughs, sneezes, sings, talks, or even breathes. 

Wearing a face covering is one of the most significant, effective, and easiest ways to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

In light of the significant increase in cases and in hospitalizations and positivity rates in our state, I signed an Executive Order last week requiring Maine people to wear a face covering in public settings, including indoor settings. 

Previously, we required face coverings when physical distancing was “difficult to maintain” – well, that was confusing. Now, we have a bright line that says if you are in a public setting, wear a face covering.

Of course, if you’re hiking alone on the Appalachian Trail or hunting in the woods, you don’t need to wear a face covering if there’s no one else around — that’s just common sense —  but, if you are asking yourself the question whether you should wear a face covering, the answer is likely yes. Go ahead and do it, what’s the harm.

We wear face coverings to protect ourselves. We wear them to protect people we don’t even know — the people we meet on the street; the folks who work in the corner restaurant, the store or the packing plant; the nurses, doctors and CNAs who care for the sick and put themselves at risk; the combat veteran who deserves to live the remainder of their heroic life with health and happiness, not to be left to die from a painful contagion alone and separated from family and friends. 

We can stem the tide of this virus, we can save lives, keep our economy moving, and keep schools and businesses open, but it takes a team effort.

All of us worked together last spring and summer and fall and ensured that we could leave our homes safely and get back to something of what life used to be like. This winter, let’s stay vigilant, let’s stay smart.  

Wear a face covering indoors and outdoors. Use hand sanitizer. Stay six feet apart. Wash your hands frequently. Stay home if you feel sick. Avoid travel.

This is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

Keep the faith and please stay safe.

With a deadly virus raging across our state and across our nation, we cannot also forget the effects of this pandemic on our economy and on the long-term health and safety of our communities. 

These effects include the need to expand our workforce and to pave the way for good paying jobs for young people in new industries.

We cannot forget the other major looming threat to our economy and to our health — climate change.  The impacts of which we see on ocean temperatures, air quality, and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events. 

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

Back in the fall of 1970, 11-year-old Suzanne Clune wrote a letter to her United States Senator.

She wrote about the Little Androscoggin River, a once pristine tributary where deer could see their reflection and where spring pine and chokeberry blossoms “filled the air with the sweetest smell on earth,” but that was before toxic chemicals polluted the waters.

“Now in any season,” Suzanne wrote to Senator Edmund Muskie, "you can smell the most sickening smell on earth, a stench that left frogs 'gasping for air.’ I am sick of the river like this,” she said. “Please do something about it.” And she signed her letter, “One who loves Maine.”

Suzanne’s letter helped motivate Senator Muskie during his career-long fight for clean air and clean water. Today, as a result of his actions, our rivers — the Androscoggin, Kennebec and the Penobscot Rivers, among others, are restored. We now fish, boat and swim there.

I am grateful that Suzanne did not wait to act.

Today the threat of climate change jeopardizes not only Maine’s natural resources but our state’s economy and social wellbeing as well.

With this crisis on our doorstep, like Suzanne Clune, we cannot afford to wait.

We must act now to honor the legacy of Maine’s environmental stewards who bequeathed this precious place to us; to preserve our state for our children and grandchildren to enjoy as we do; and build a thriving economy with opportunities for growth far into the future.

So earlier this week, the Maine Climate Council released its four year climate action plan called Maine Won’t Wait. It calls for decisive action on the climate crisis in our state.

Based on the findings of that report, I propose that we more than double the number of Maine’s clean energy and energy efficiency jobs by 2030. These 30,000 jobs or more will save money for Maine families, make us more efficient, and fight climate change while providing new opportunities to Maine working men and women and advancing long-term prosperity for our state.

I will seek partnerships with federal officials, state lawmakers, local leaders, businesses and nonprofits to reach the climate targets and the measurable outcomes described in this plan.

Eleven-year old Suzanne Clune’s letter to Senator Muskie fifty years ago was a call to action of that era. 

Let this plan be our call to action once again to protect the natural beauty of our state; to improve the lives of our families and the livelihoods of our people; and to ward off future natural disasters and economic crises. Because, like Suzanne, we too are "ones who love Maine” and we must do our best to preserve and protect it.

This is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

This past Thursday evening, Jewish families across the state of Maine and elsewhere lit the first candle on the menorah in celebration of the first night of Hanukkah. The candle a symbol of light and resilience.

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

During this challenging year, in the dark of a Maine winter and in the middle of a devastating pandemic, the lighting of each candle on the menorah I think provides more light in the world, even symbolically, and the hope and anticipation that tomorrow will be warmer and brighter than today. 

As the days grow colder and the nights longer, this symbol of light through darkness connects all of us through love, faith and family, reminding us that we are all in this together. 

I treasure the light of the moon and stars, of friends, and children and grandchildren, the beacons who guide me through the toughest times.  People who comfort rather than compete. Words that do not disparage. Nurses and doctors caring for the desperately ill. Front line workers and first responders working through the night to keep others safe at the risk of their own wellbeing. Neighbors helping other neighbors, unquestioningly. 

These are lights of their own making. A light that exists in the hearts of people.

While our celebrations may look different this holiday season 2020 – they may be smaller, virtual, even telephonic – long distance – these holidays remain as meaningful and spiritual as they did through other, darker times – through wars, depressions, storms and hardship. 

In fact, during this most difficult year, holidays may take on even more significance and meaning, allowing us to stay close and connected to loved ones in new and different ways in an otherwise isolating time.

And now, as in times past, we will keep the faith in our communities and in ourselves alive. We are Americans. We are Maine Strong. And we will get through this together.

No matter how or what you celebrate this year, I wish you a season filled with peace and joy, and a new year filled with love and light.

Please stay healthy and stay safe.

And may you enjoy the true light – the radiance – of friends, neighbors and family in your hearts for as long as you may live.

You have my love and appreciation today and every day.

This is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

We are working around the clock to get as many people vaccinated against COVID-19 as quickly as possible.

Right now, more than 387,000 people in Maine have gotten their first dose of the vaccine – almost 29 percent of our total population, almost 18 percent fully vaccinated. Two out of three Maine residents 60 and older are now protected with at least one dose. And Maine is among the top states in the nation in percentage of population fully vaccinated.

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

As we make progress with vaccines, and as more appointments become available and with an increase in supply in the coming weeks, it is appropriate to accelerate our vaccination timeline and make more people eligible.

This past week, Maine people age 50 and older became eligible. And in just a few weeks — on April 19^th — all Maine residents age 16 and older will be eligible for the vaccine.

While this is good news, Maine people should keep in mind that, even when they do become eligible, it might still take some time to get an appointment.

Whether you are eligible or not, you may pre-register on Maine CDC’s new pre-registration website atVaccinateME.Maine.gov.

By pre-registering, you’ll be notified about vaccine appointment options when it’s your turn.

Many vaccination sites let you pre-register with them directly too. If this is an option at the site you want to choose, you can sign up both through the vaccination site and through VaccinateME.Maine.gov.

As we expand eligibility, we are also expanding our ability to deliver shots.

We stood up large-scale vaccination sites – in Portland, Sanford, and Auburn — and they are prepared to expand their capacity to get shots into arms with the increase in the supply of vaccine we expect from the Federal government.

We expanded vaccines and vaccinations in rural and hard-to-reach communities and for Maine people who are homebound as well. Independent pharmacies and EMTS are visiting independent senior living communities to vaccinate residents on-site, and public health nurses are holding clinics throughout the state for at-risk people who cannot easily travel to large community vaccination clinics.

This week we also took the first step in our Moving Maine Forward Plan to protect public health and support Maine’s economy during the busy spring and summer tourism season.

Starting March 26^th, capacity for indoor gatherings — that is for theatres, restaurants and churches and other spaces — was increased to 50 percent. Capacity for outdoor gatherings was increased to 75 percent. Maine bars and tasting rooms were also allowed to reopen, with public health/safety precautions.

With more than a quarter of all Maine people having received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, we are making pretty good progress. But we have got to keep our foot on the gas and get more people vaccinated.

This is a race between vaccines and variants, and we don’t want the variants to invade our state and make people sick and put them in the hospital as has happened in other states.

Got to keep our foot on the gas, keep people getting vaccinated, keep people alive and healthy, and get back to normal sooner.

Summer is fast approaching and the finish line is on the horizon.

I urge all Maine people to keep doing the basic things that keep us healthy. Get a vaccine if you’re eligible. Please, don’t hesitate. It is safe. 

Together, we will get through this and get our state and our economy back on track.

In the meantime, please keep the faith and stay safe.

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

More than 440,000 Maine people have now received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine — nearly a third of our entire population, with nearly 21 percent being fully vaccinated. 59 percent of Maine people 50 years old and older have received their first dose, with nearly 36 percent fully vaccinated.

I want to thank everyone who’s gotten vaccinated for taking this important step to protect themselves, their loved ones and our communities.

With the Federal government significantly increasing our supply of vaccines, we can now accelerate our timeframe.

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

Starting Wednesday, April 7^th, all Maine residents age 16 and older will be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine. Of course only the Pfizer vaccine has been tested for individuals ages 16 and 17, and consent from a parent or legal guardian is required for that age group. But everyone else will be able to be vaccinated at any of the nearly two hundred vaccination sites across the state.

We should celebrate this progress. But to be clear, it will still take time to get appointments and to get shots into arms.

Some vaccine sites will accept appointments for eligible residents immediately, while others are staffing up and preparing to offer appointments in the coming days. Your continued patience is important.

To help make vaccines more accessible for everybody as we expand eligibility, we are allocating vaccines to providers in rural and hard to reach communities and we are continuing to expand the number of large-scale vaccination sites. 

Our Department of Health and Human Services is allocating doses also to cancer centers and dialysis centers, to Federally Qualified Health Centers, and to other providers to prioritize people who are at higher risk from COVID-19, including people with underlying medical conditions or older Maine people, or those who live in marginalized or medically underserved places in Maine.

So far, Maine is doing pretty well getting shots into arms. Right now, we are 4th best in the nation for the percentage of population with at least one dose of a vaccine, and 7th best in the nation for the percentage of population fully vaccinated.

And despite having the oldest population of any state in the nation, older people being more at risk of serious illness or death, Maine has the third lowest number of COVID-19 cases and the fourth lowest number of COVID-19 deaths per capita in the whole country, according to the US CDC. 

We’re doing well, but the pandemic is not over.

For more than a year now Maine people have cared for one another with compassion and courage, rising to the challenges of our time.

We are still in a race of the vaccinations v. the variants. And the variants are here – they are here in western Maine, they are here in southern Maine, they are spreading to every region of the state. And we see the devastating consequences in other states like Florida and Michigan. And they are more transmissible, these variants, and more dangerous. So, please, please get vaccinated and stick with the precautions that have kept us safe so far. It’s your turn. If you haven’t been vaccinated, make an appointment now. 

Keep your distance from others outside your immediate family. Remind everyone to wash their hands and wear a face covering.

Doing so will help us all stay healthy, get our economy back on track and get back to normal sooner.

For information on where to get a vaccine or pre-register to know when appointments are available, or get help traveling to and from a vaccine appointment, visit: maine.gov/covid19/vaccines. If you do not have a computer or access to the internet, call our Community Vaccination Line at 1-888-445-4111.

Again, that is 1-888-445-4111.

Together, we will get through this and get our state back on track.

For those of you celebrating Easter this Sunday, Happy Easter to you all. For those who celebrate Passover, Happy Passover to you. And for everyone, happy spring.

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

Our teams at the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, the Maine CDC, and health care providers and volunteers around the state have been working 24/7 to get shots in arms to protect all of you from the COVID-19 virus. As a result, Maine ranks among the top states in the country for getting shots into arms.

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

As of this date, almost 500,000 people have received their first shot of vaccine – more than 42 percent of Maine people age 16 and up, with more than 30 percent being fully vaccinated.

This is really good news and we should all celebrate, but of course the pandemic is not yet over. We are still in a race of vaccinations versus the variants. Look what’s going on in some other states where the variants are taking over. We’ve got to get everybody vaccinated as soon as possible. Those variants are here in Maine – they are in southern Maine, in western Maine, they are spreading to every region of the state. And they are more transmissible and more dangerous versions of this horrible virus.

So when President Biden committed to deploying federal resources to help states getting shots into arms, we took him up on his offer. This week we worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to create a groundbreaking mobile vaccination unit that will reach rural and underserved communities across Maine.

The mobile vaccination unit, only the second of its kind in New England, will begin providing COVID-19 vaccines to Maine people starting Monday, April 12 at the Oxford Casino in Oxford.

The mobile vaccination unit will then go to Windham, Biddeford, Fryeburg, Turner, Waterville, Old Town, Milbridge, Calais, Madawaska and Auburn over the next two months. And they will be vaccinating at least 250 people each day with the one-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

Information on scheduling appointments at the mobile vaccination unit will become available on our state vaccination website maine.gov/covid19/vaccines. Look for that in the next few days.

Maine has worked hard to stand up large-scale vaccination sites and provide vaccine to independent health care providers and to Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) in underserved areas, dispatching public health nurses to clinics throughout the state to meet the needs of at-risk Maine people who can’t easily travel to large-scale community vaccination clinics, and providing in-home vaccination to homebound people.

This mobile vaccination clinic is one more important tool for our state as we work to get shots into arms as fast as we can.

The clinic will complement our existing vaccination efforts very well and it will allow people in underserved communities to more easily get the vaccine so as to protect their health and their loved ones and family members and help us to win the fight against COVID-19.

I am very grateful to President Biden for his commitment to partnering with states to get people vaccinated and I’m grateful to FEMA for their outstanding work to deliver on that promise.

So to all Maine people ages 16 and up who are now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine — please don’t wait to schedule your appointment. The vaccine — whether you get Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson and Johnson — is safe, effective, and it is saving lives. All of these vaccines have been through rigorous trials, approved by the FDA.

For information on where to get a vaccine visit maine.gov/covid19/vaccines. If you don’t have access to a computer or the internet, you can call our Community Vaccination Line at 1-888-445-4111.

That is 1-888-445-4111. And most health care facilities also have a referral for vaccination appointments.

Please keep the faith and stay safe. We will get through this together.

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

Seventeen years ago Maine people overwhelmingly voted to require the State to fund 55 percent of the cost of public education. This week, at long last, we proposed fulfilling that commitment.

Guess what? Funding education will go to two places — your kid’s classroom and your pocketbook, by helping hold down property taxes that are dedicated to local education. 

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

My administration has three strategies to spur economic recovery in the short- term and strengthen our economy in the long-term.

I announced the first strategy last week — our Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan, the proposal to invest more than $1 billion in discretionary Federal relief funds under the American Rescue Plan Act. That plan supports Maine small businesses and heritage industries, it encourages new businesses and job creation, and it invests in essential and human infrastructure like broadband, affordable housing, and childcare to keep and attract young families here in Maine.

I announced the second strategy last week as well — an economic bond proposal aimed at rebuilding Maine’s transportation system – you know our roads and bridges — and conserving our land and working waterfronts.

And I announced our third strategy – our “Part Two” budget proposal this week. The “Part Two” budget builds on the earlier “Part One” biennial budget that I signed into law in March which maintained current services and provided stability to Maine people during the pandemic.

This “Part Two” Budget fully funds education for the first time in history, it gives money back to property taxpayers, and it saves a record amount for a Rainy Day.

The budget also: 

• expands access to routine dental care for low-income Maine people;
• supports hospitals, nursing, and residential care facilities who have been on the front lines of the pandemic;
• incorporates the rate increases for various MaineCare providers as recommended by an objective, comprehensive evaluation initiated by DHHS.
• increases the Maine State Grant scholarship Program to help students with college tuition;
• increases tax relief for low-income and middle-income people hard hit by the pandemic; and
• protects our drinking water by cleaning up those so called “forever chemicals” known as PFAS.

Every person in our state should be able to send their kid to a good school, regardless of their zip code; to be able to save for the future instead of just scraping by; to be able to go to the doctor or dentist when necessary; to be able to drink clean, unpolluted water and breathe clean air; and to live in a home that is affordable and not be faced with a high property tax bill driven by inflated values.

I look forward to working with the Legislature to enact, as swiftly as possible, these three strategies — the Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan, the bond proposal, and the “Part Two” budget — to continue Maine’s economic recovery from the pandemic and to chart long-term growth for all of our communities.

This is Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

Maine’s farmers are near and dear to my heart and to my administration. You know, my grandfather was a potato farmer in Aroostook County, and he worked in the woods in the winters. 

Like most Mainers, I know, and appreciate, the hard work of our farmers and I value a little dirt under the fingernails.

I know you do too.

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

This week I toured Maine Grains. It’s a gristmill opened in 2012 in a former county jail in Skowhegan, Maine. Maine Grains provides bakers, brewers, chefs, and families with locally-sourced, fresh-milled organic grains.

By sourcing grain from local farms, by milling it locally, and by partnering with local food ventures, Maine Grains is supporting the health and livelihood of farmers, it’s creating jobs, it’s improving land use, and it’s providing healthy food while serving as a successful model for thriving local economies. 

This year has been pretty tough on our agricultural community — our farmers and food processors like Maine Grains and so many in-between — but I am proud of the ways they have responded to serve the people of Maine.

Maine is home to 7,600 farms of all sizes, scales, and agricultural practices.

Before the pandemic, the agricultural community’s inadequate and aging infrastructure hindered the growth of our local food economy. Refrigeration, freezers, lack of processing plants, all of that added up.

And the pandemic only made it worse for folks when market and supply chain disruptions forced producers and processors and businesses to adapt rapidly to access different markets and distribution channels. 

In response to a recent survey, Maine farmers and food processors described these infrastructure needs. They told us that storage and processing and packaging capacity are in need.

In my Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan, I propose investing $20 million of federal funds in Maine farms and processors to help them upgrade their infrastructure.

Immediate investments in Maine’s farms and food processors will support the growth and long-term sustainability of our farms and farm families, it’ll increase the supply of locally grown food, and increase Maine’s agricultural exports, boosting our economy all around. 

When we grow and raise our own healthy food, in our fields and waters, and sell it through our own shops to our neighbors and friends well, that’s a recipe for a healthy people and a healthy economy.

Our farming industry is at the heart of not only my history – it’s at the heart of our state. Federal funds from the Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan are our chance to ensure that our farms can grow food that is processed and distributed here in Maine to supply local businesses and feed families, all of which is critical to our economy.

I look forward to working with the Legislature to help Maine’s farmers and food processors through the Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan and to continue Maine’s economic recovery from the pandemic and chart long-term growth for all of our communities.

This Governor Janet Mills. Thank you for listening.

This Memorial Day weekend, we pause to remember the challenges our state and our nation have overcome in the past and reflect on the challenges we are overcoming today with courage as one people. 

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

These last fifteen months have been an extraordinarily difficult time for our country and for our state. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought pain, illness, unemployment, financial hardship, death and loss to many families. 

As we reflect upon these hardships, Memorial Day also causes us to remember all that we have endured, fought for and survived throughout our history. “Still,” as Maya Angelou would say, “we rise.”

Memorial Day brings respect and a sense of history as we honor those who perished to preserve our country and to protect our freedoms. When I think of those who served their country, I think of the courage they showed in the toughest of times.

Forty-six years ago was the end of the Vietnam War which sent 48,000 Maine men and women to that far-off battleground and took the lives of more than 340 people from Maine.

Sixty-eight years we ago saw the end of the Korean conflict, “the forgotten war” so called, which took the lives of more than 33,000 Americans, including at least 244 Maine soldiers.

Seventy-six years ago this month was V-E Day, the fall of the Third Reich, and, later that year, the end of the Second World War, in which 80,000 Maine people served and more than 2,000 lost their lives.

Those Mainers – and many more – served and fought with determination and great hope for our collective future. A determination and hope that I respect and hold today. 

Still, we rise.

Over the past fifteen months we’ve faced an enemy that is real, deadly but unseen, as sure a killer as any enemy we have fought in our history.

We fought this foe as a nation and as a state, not with soldiers huddled in bunkers but with social distancing, not with torpedoes but with face coverings. These have been our strange and novel armaments, our only sure ammunition against this deadly enemy. Still, we rise. We are winning this war too.

More than 70 percent of Maine people eligible have now had at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. More than half of all our people, including children not yet eligible, are fully vaccinated. Something to celebrate today. Our rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to fall. That is nation-leading progress and it is because of you, the people of Maine.

You have rolled up your sleeves to protect yourselves and the people whose names you may not even know — the people you meet on the street; people who work in the restaurant, the packing plant or the store; the nurses, doctors and folks who care for the sick; and the veteran who deserves to live the remainder of his or her heroic life with health and happiness, not to be felled by a painful contagion far from family and friends.

Boy we have faced great odds this last year, as generations of Americans have before us. Still, we rise.

We have the same hope and the same faith in the future, the same commitment to community that drove our predecessors not only to serve and survive against all odds, but to rise again, a unified people, a unified nation. 

The hope of our past and the renewed faith in our future are with us this Memorial Day weekend.

As we gather together with friends and family for the first time in such a long time, putting isolation and fear behind us, let us celebrate and show our great love for our state and our nation and for all of those who have endured so much and lost so much.

Let us honor with reverence all those who have faithfully served our state and our nation in the Armed Forces and those who gave, as President Lincoln said, ‘the last full measure of devotion’.  Still, we have not only endured, we have survived, and still we rise.

To all those who have served and to all those who continue to serve our country: our hearts are with you this Memorial Day, 2021.

God bless you. God bless the State of Maine.

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

By keeping our rates of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths down and keeping our rate of vaccinations up, we have maintained our reputation nationally as the safest state in the country and we’ve set ourselves up for a successful summer tourism season.

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

We have worked very hard over the last fifteen months to get the COVID-19 virus under control so that it is safe for everyone to return to work. Now, vaccines are widely available at more than 250 locations across the state.

And so are jobs. Employers across the state are looking to staff up for the busy summer months in particular, which means there are opportunities for everyone to work, earn a living and contribute to our state’s economic recovery. 

And the Maine Department of Labor is ready to help you.

You can find thousands of available jobs, including remote work, on the Maine Job Link at Joblink.Maine.Gov.

You can obtain counseling from a Career Center to develop your plan for getting back to work or getting the training you need for a new career. And you can obtain child care with the help of new federal funds.

Career Centers also offer virtual job fairs to connect you with employers who are looking to hire someone like you. Less than a week away on June 10^th from 2-4 p.m., Maine CareerCenters are hosting a virtual job fair featuring the Maine Registered Apprenticeship Program and many employers, for example.

More information about all of these resources can be found at Maine.Gov/Labor.

More importantly, if you’re on unemployment, you can also go back to work with substantial part time hours and still keep the $300 a week federal stipend throughout this summer.

The Department of Labor has a calculator online available on their Unemployment Insurance website where you calculate how many hours a week a person can work and still collect partial benefits and the $300 stipend. It’s a win win. I encourage you to check it out.

And keep in mind that work search requirements are tightened, meaning if you are getting unemployment benefits, you are required to actively look for work and to accept positions for which you are qualified.

If you are unemployed and you are offered a job you are qualified for and you turn it down to stay on unemployment benefits, you risk losing those very benefits.

Please do your part. Let’s get Maine back to work, we’re ready.

To succeed this summer, we need everyone working towards the same goal: getting our state and our lives back to normal.

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.