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Steve Rowe has talked to college students throughout his campaign. When he asks them what they need to stay in Maine after graduation, they usually give similar answers.
“They say, ‘A job that pays a living wage, that is sustainable and that is meaningful to me’ and then I hear ‘affordable housing’ and ‘affordable health care’ over and over again,” said the Democratic candidate for governor from Portland. “Unfortunately, I’m finding one of the state’s biggest exports is smart, young people.”
Rowe believes the University of Maine System has an unsustainable cost structure, leading to budget and program cuts system-wide.
“Quality public higher education requires a substantial public commitment of resources,” Rowe said. “We cannot cut our way to academic excellence in our universities and community colleges and we must find the structure that works best for Maine and its people.”
Lack of state funding has caused high tuition cost in the system, according to Rowe. He said increasing the number of out-of-state students has been an area studied by state officials as a way to bring money into the university system, along with more traditionally proposed methods.
“I believe that we must continue to find operational and administrative efficiencies,” Rowe said. “We also must improve our use of distance learning.”
Maine’s seven public universities and seven community colleges are the cultural centers of certain communities, Rowe said. He didn’t have a specific answer to questions about changing the structure of the system, but said “we’ve got to make changes.”
“I think we need to foster this sort of innovative, collaborative spirit of sharing resources and finding, again, administrative efficiencies in the systems,” Rowe said.
Rowe advocates the use of public-private partnerships in many areas, including education and health care. The candidate lauded UMaine for its partnerships in research and development, but said the system can do more to better suit Maine’s job market.
“We also need to make sure we align our academic and skill-building programs to Maine’s future workforce needs,” Rowe said. “We must increase the quality of education at all levels and we must support that quality with adequate financial support.”
Rowe, an attorney, served as a state representative from 1992-2000 and as speaker of the House in his last term. In 2001, he became the state’s attorney general, a position he served until 2009, when he announced his candidacy.
“My particular experience as attorney general has been eye-opening in the sense that I saw a lot of the problems that hold our economy back, such as substance abuse, domestic abuse, mental health diseases and disorders.” Rowe said these problems are largely preventable.
Rowe said he wants to redirect state funds within the Department of Health and Human Services to community-based preventative measures and prenatal health care.
“We’re heavy on hospital-based curative care and we’re light on community-based preventive care,” Rowe said. “I would like to, as governor of this state, work with the health care providers in this state to transform Maine to a community-based primary care system where we save money, help bring health care costs down and we have healthier people.”
Maine’s Dirigo Health, the state’s subsidized health program, has been “a success in many ways,” Rowe said, including better quality and reduced cost. He does not believe that Dirigo Heath can is sustainable due to its current funding mechanism.
Rowe said the state must change Dirigo Health’s funding mechanism and lauded President Obama’s signing of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 as a “monumental” bill that “leaves room for states to build” upon it.
“Maine needs to do that,” Rowe said. “We need more competition in the private health insurance market and … we need to convert our system to one that is focused on keeping people healthy.”
The candidate said his approach to financial planning is how he differs most from Gov. John Baldacci, who Rowe served as attorney general under for six years.
“We have to start thinking longer term and putting a long-term plan for this state together. We’ve got terrific challenges ahead,” Rowe said. His vision for Maine is a place where “more of our young people can stay in Maine and find their economic futures here.”
The candidate also announced his opposition to Baldacci’s January budget cuts, instead proposing an increase in the cigarette tax to help fill budget gaps and promote healthy lifestyles amongst Mainers.
“It makes sense to levy a tax to help pay for the public cost that we see — the health care costs and other costs we see – down the road,” Rowe said. “There’s no intention by me to discriminate against anyone except to encourage everyone to practice healthier lifestyles.”
Bangor Daily News