Hello, this is Senator Jeff Timberlake of Androscoggin County. I’m glad to join you for this week’s Republican Radio Address now that the 132nd Maine Legislature is about to get underway.
Every election cycle brings change; and a big one is Republicans picked up two additional seats in the Maine Senate with another race still pending a recount. That’s on top of Republicans gaining seven seats in the House, although that could change too through recounts.
For me personally, it will again be an honor to represent District 17 in the Maine Senate. This will be my fourth and final term in the Senate when I take the oath of office next month; and I’m looking forward to working on issues we couldn’t finish in the 131st Legislature and some new ones that have come up recently.
I, along with 185 others who were elected earlier this month, will be sworn in on Wednesday, December 4th. That means it is time for us as a Legislature to get back to work for the people of Maine.
We have many things to address in the upcoming Legislature. A major issue that arose during the 131st Legislature was the rampant, out of control increases in property taxes for many homeowners. In fact, these increases are forcing some people from homes they have lived in for decades; and Democrats removed the property tax limitation that had been in place since 2005.
With the highest property tax burden in the nation, we need to reverse this to keep municipal budgets in check and families in their homes.
Another issue that has been plaguing many families across our state is our energy costs, which is the sixth highest in the nation. This is a problem that also hurts economic development because high power costs discourage businesses from coming to Maine.
Another issue near and dear to my heart is child welfare. More children with Office of Child and Family Services involvement have died over the past four years than in the previous eight combined. Yes, leadership of both OCFS and its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, have changed; but we must keep up the pressure of making serious cultural and structural changes to bring accountability and transparency to those agencies.
In fact, an audit conducted by the federal government said OCFS failed to follow proper procedure in 94% of the child abuse and neglect cases they reviewed. You heard that right – a 94% failure rate.
Another very important topic arose earlier this year when legislative Democrats passed LD 2238, the 72-hour waiting period for firearm purchases. This goes completely against our Second Amendment rights as well as our longstanding cultural tradition of hunting here in Maine. Now that we have at least two more Republican Senate members, I will be submitting a bill to repeal that law, which passed the Maine Senate by only one vote in April.
Related to firearm use is a change in how the University of Maine System manages thousands of acres under its stewardship. After consulting with legal counsel, UMaine put a blanket ban on all hunting because of its ban of weapons on university grounds.
This reversed decades of wildlife management practices on nearly 15,000 acres that were used for hunting purposes for years. That is something we’ll have to look at in the upcoming Legislature.
And, of course, the biggest topic of all – the biennial budget. In a radio address I gave before the 131st Legislature began in 2022, I warned that we had to look closely at our spending because inflation was still rampant and inflating our revenue. There was a potential for a slowdown to occur; and I said at the time that we needed to be mindful of it as we worked on the next budget.
What happened instead? Democrats in the Legislature passed majority budgets all on their own to the tune of $10.5 billion and now our budget forecasters announced we are looking at a billion-dollar deficit next year.
Democrats own it. They still have the majority – barely. So now they’ll have to fix it, too. While I am committed to working with both sides of the aisle to find solutions to the budget gap and pass a bipartisan budget, we’ll have to see if Democrats feel the same.
Again, this is Senator Jeff Timberlake of Androscoggin County. I am honored that the people of my district chose me to return to the Legislature and look forward to doing the people’s work. Thank you for joining me and I hope you have a great weekend.
Senator Jeff Timberlake represents District 17, which includes communities in Androscoggin and Kennebec counties. He is the Senate Republican Lead for the Legislature’s Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee, and a member of the Government Oversight Committee.
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