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Pat McGowan, a Democratic candidate for governor, believes funding for the University of Maine System has been lost in the shuffle of many state government cuts. He is calling for more funding of Maine’s higher education system.
“The higher education system in Maine should be at 9 percent of the general fund,” McGowan, of Hallowell, said in an April telephone interview. “I believe that the tuition rates have gone up more than they should have gone up.”
According to the Maine Office of Fiscal and Program Review, higher education made up 8.36 percent of state appropriations in the 2008 fiscal year.
McGowan lauded the University of Maine’s engineering programs as some of “the best in the country.” His son, who graduated from UMaine with an engineering degree, is “employed at the highest level in his profession” as a result of his education, McGowan said.
“I think it provides excellent value for what [students] get for their money,” McGowan said. “It is still the best opportunity for the majority of people in the state of Maine.”
Still, the candidate advocated new fields of study within the university system to keep up with Maine’s occupational needs.
“We have an aging population so I think more health care-related education courses are necessary. I think we should do some things that are close to our environment,” McGowan said. “The biggest industry in Maine today is, of course, the tourism industry and there’s all kinds of opportunities in that regard.”
McGowan said more money to the university system for research and development is “absolutely” needed.
The candidate said biotechnology, including biofuel, would be a good industry to develop through state universities. Fuel made from algae and trees is “the future” for Maine and the United States, he said.
McGowan served from 1993 to 2001 in the Clinton Administration as the New England regional administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. He served in state government as a state representative from 1980 to 1990 and as Maine Commissioner of Conservation from 2003 to early 2010.
“I know how to run the government to make it work effectively,” McGowan said. “I’ve been involved in everything in Maine from small business to large-scale conservation and I understand what the needs are of Mainers. I know the state better than anybody who’s in this race.”
According to smallbusiness.com, there were 141,936 small businesses in Maine in 2004 – 97.5 of all firms with employees. The candidate said his small business experience is crucial to a state so reliant on small entities.
“This is the place where you can take your dreams and your ambition and some capital and make an entrepreneurial venture successful,” McGowan said. “We need to make sure those opportunities are available to all Maine people.”
McGowan said he would like to see “a limited number of bills” come out of the Maine Legislature with term limits on representatives. He also said he is an advocate of smaller government.
“I think it’s very, very important we limit the impositions of a burdensome government on its people,” McGowan said. “Our population is shrinking so I think the state government should probably be reduced too.”
The candidate said he has “a great deal of respect” for Gov. John Baldacci and that critics should “withhold their criticism until they are able to walk a mile in his shoes.”
“People are quick to criticize, but they need to make sure they have a reason to do that,” McGowan said.
He said many of Maine’s traditional industries, such as agriculture, fishing and forestry have places in Maine’s future. In April, the candidate outlined the Great Maine Forest Initiative, a plan he believes will conserve resources while boosting paper production.
The plan includes a series of public-private partnerships conserving pieces of forested land through easements, thereby keeping timbers in sustainable management. He praised the paper industry in Maine as one of the best in the nation, as it supplies many national companies.
“We can supply twice as much paper to those entities if we do my Great Maine Forest proposal,” McGowan said.
The candidate said the end of the recession is nearing and the state must prepare accordingly.
“We are in a recession right now, but we will come out of it. I think it’s important that we are ready as a state to respond and my position is that Maine is a very good place to live, to work, to raise a family and we want to make sure that it’s a great place for students to get higher education and stay and work for the rest of their lives,” McGowan said. “That’s very important.”
