My topic is the value of congressional earmarks to rural Maine.
This year, Senator Collins supported a legislative appropriation for a program to expand UMF’s internships to meet the needs of the community, increase the educational opportunities for our students, provide local small businesses and non-profits with help they could not otherwise afford, and strengthen the connection between students and the region. This program would help to stop the “brain drain” by enhancing the possibility that more Mainers might choose to live here after graduation if they already had fruitful employment experiences in the local economy.
This sort of legislative appropriation, or earmark, is essential in bringing financial resources to this rural area that otherwise could not be provided by state funding or private philanthropy. This kind of funding, if in fact it is granted, would directly expand opportunities for the residents of western Maine.
I thank Senator Collins for her leadership in ensuring that earmarks might continue to be funded after a careful process of scrutiny and due diligence to help the people of Maine.
Theodora J. Kalikow
President, UMF
An excellent example of why not all earmarks are pork.
It is the tendency of politicians and pundits to dumb down everything which whips up those who really should be allowed to focus their attention on Dear Abby or the local gridiron scores. The sad thing is when something like the appropriation Dr. Kalikow writes about becomes the same in the public perception as Ted Stevens’ bridge to the Ketchikan airport.
It’s not that the money is not needed and the causes valid, but it is the way it is done.
Attaching spending earmarks or “pork” to major bills is not the way to do it, even if it is the norm.
Granted not every spending line can be written up as its own bill, but the committies and sub committies should be able to figure out what should stay in a bill
All spending should be justified on its own merits, not just attached to bills that no one dares not to pass because of popularity.
After careful scrutiny, is the part that has been lacking in the process
Elaborate on the ‘help’ to small businesses you speak of. Seems hard to find. Unless you feel UMF is a small business….
Good point Bruce. We should be asking what compromises she had to make to get this piece of pork.
Just because something is a good idea doesn’t automatically translate into it being somethin to spend tax dollars on. Many of the things Ms. Kalikow praises Collins for providing are things that she, as the President of the University, should be out raising private funds to do if they are worthy needs. But, from her seat, it’s a heck of a lot easier to patronize our Senators and get goodies in return, instead of doing the job the taxpayers in Maine pay her a lot of money to do. She should be ashamed of herself. We are not paying her to “woo” our Senators. She should be cultivating philantropists for these projects.
We need to get to a culture where federal tax dollars are used only for things such as national defense, national transportation systems, courts, etc and get rid of the notion that we have pennies from heaven (funded by people who have lost their voice) that can be used to fund every good idea.
And, the real cost of pork should be measured by the HUGE spending bills that get passed only because the pork was in it. Many of those bills would never see the light of day if their votes weren’t bought with our money.
Collins is a democrat , so what do you expect. Though she claims to be Republican, she sure votes wrong each time.I still don’t know what the uni will provide the Town with. Free labor? If it’s free advice, let’s remember these students have not graduated and have no experience in business, etc. So what will the uni provide the Town? If a business is to recieve free labor and we have to pay full price, then that is wrong..
There are already a number of students who work in stores around Town and not at taxpayer expense.
Tony in Wilton: An excellent example of why not all earmarks are pork.
If you had left it there, I could have agreed, while holding my nose. The rest of your comment was pure snarkiness that overshadowed a good comment.
Both snow and Collins need to go…………we dont need any more RINO’S in Maine.