Letter to the Editor: Seeking your support

As a candidate seeking your support for this upcoming election I feel it is both fitting and proper to place my record and vision before the people of Farmington and Industry as I begin this campaign season.

This last session of the Legislature saw many major changes in our state’s direction. We passed the first tax reform in years, one that updated a code that had remained in place since the 1970’s where $20,000 for a married couple placed that family at Maine’s highest tax rate. We modernized this tax code and, for the first time in decades, provided tax relief for hundreds of thousands families.

We addressed the looming state pension crisis that threatened to devour over $300 million a year of state revenue, jeopardizing the pensions of current and future workers. We passed legislation that cut the state share of the debt in half. This has put the retirement system on a sustainable basis, making it available to future retirees without crippling future state budgets.

We passed major regulatory reforms with overwhelming bi-partisan support that will reduce red tape and streamline state functions.

We made major first steps in welfare reform in setting limits on TANF and did this while protecting the most vulnerable. Much more reform will be needed, but the hardest step on any journey is the one first taken. I was pleased to have my own place in this process, I introduced legislation to combat welfare fraud, this bill, (LD 1812) is awaiting a waiver from Washington.

We passed healthcare reform to break up the monopoly of a single healthcare insurance company and allow competition. We held the line on spending increases and paid down our debt to our hospitals.

The decisions I have made these last two years have not been easy. I do not believe they should have been. There’s no rule that says decisions must be comfortable and easy. A refusal to make them is doing a disservice to our fellow citizens and most of all our children. I have never sought to avoid tough choices in the past, nor will I in the future. That would be dishonest to those I have promised to do my best to represent.

I believe that personal responsibility and a government that lives within its means is essential to growth. I believe the path to future prosperity and jobs begins with a smaller, more responsive and efficient government that is able to meet our 21st century head on. An approach that seeks to deny a changing world may feel good but will not stop the future from arriving.

I look forward to talking with as many people as possible this summer as I visit your homes and expect to be held accountable by the people of this district for the job I have done.

Lance Harvell
State Representative District 89
Farmington and Industry