Friday morning, we toured the New Balance factory in Norridgewock which has found increased profitability as the only domestic shoe manufacturer by keeping teams of skilled workers busy assembling custom shoe orders.
Friday afternoon, we visited the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan, heard presentations from Spurwink’s providers of children’s mental health services and education and from Glenn Cummings on Goodwill-Hinckley’s new alternative school, the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences which we later toured.
We also heard a panel discussion with representatives from Healthy Maine partner Greater Somerset Public Health Collaborative and from the Pickup Community Supported Agriculture project and the Somerset Grist Mill, an adaptive reuse of the former Somerset County jail.
Friday, the Governor also released his budget proposal which, among many other reductions, calls for eliminating state revenue sharing with municipalities. Should this part of the Governor’s budget proposal prevail, Maine Center for Economic Policy estimates the tax shifts to local property taxpayers as follows: Bar Harbor: -$422,179; Southwest Harbor: -$163,809; Cranberry Isles: -$7,708; Mount Desert: -$101,151
At the request of several constituents, this weekend I have worked on submitting bills expressing support for Maine fisheries and habitat, to allow more efficient use of nursing services between assisted living facilities, and to protect a few local property owners whose titles might otherwise be in doubt due to a local non-profit’s lapse in corporate authority.