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Peter Mills, a Republican candidate for governor, remembers the 1968 establishment of the University of Maine System as “one of the smartest things” the Maine Legislature has ever done.
As a young man, he remembers hearing of administrators from individual state-run colleges leaving school for days at a time to fight for individual budgets.
“That was a bad system,” said Mills, the state senator and attorney from Cornville in Somerset County who has served at different times in both the Maine Senate and House of Representatives since 1996.
He said those who have been working on academic program cuts at the University of Maine, such as UMaine President Robert Kennedy and the Academic Program Prioritization Working Group, should focus on eliminating classes – not necessarily majors – with low enrollment.
“When you walk into a classroom and there are three students there, there is something very expensive about that environment,” Mills said. “That has to stop. If you don’t have customers, you shouldn’t be in business.”
He said the governor and the Legislature should stay out of “academic politics” and stick to traditional roles in government – the Legislature in funding the university and the governor in appointing people to the board of trustees.
“What I bring to this is the ability to appoint trustees as they come up – [people] who will do a really good job in tackling the management of these issues. Beyond that, I’m happy to let the trustees tackle the job.” Mills said.
Mills said the biggest challenge facing a Republican governor would be balancing the “moral obligation” of funding human services along with funding the “growth phenomenon” that is education.
“I think Republicans – me in particular – have a view that that needs to be done more effectively than is now being done,” Mills said. “Whenever you have a lot of intelligent people in a small state, a lot of exciting things happen.”
Mills said there will soon be an opportunity for economic growth in Maine.
“The budget outlook for the state is abysmal, but it will come back. I would think in the last two years of the new governor’s term, we’re likely to see some rebuilding from a very low base,” Mills said. “My highest priority would be to rebuild education as opposed to putting more people under dependency.”
One of Mills’ ideas to reform state government starts with changing the measures of accountability for some state workers – especially in the Department of Health and Human Services.
“We’re going to evaluate the top-level administrators in direct proportion to their success in weaning people from dependency. If that means that they’re going to have fewer people working for them next year, then so be it,” Mills said. “That’s what the taxpayer wants.”
Mills was the only Republican senator to vote for gay marriage in Maine, a bill passed by both houses and signed by Gov. John Baldacci, but it was repealed by voters as Question 1 in a November 2009 referendum.
He said his vote was “a matter of conscience” motivated by “the most effective lobbying campaign to the Legislature that I have ever seen.”
“Every day, when we came in [to Senate, lobbyists] gave us stacks of blue cards with red ribbons and said, ‘Here are messages from your constituents who want you to vote for this bill,’” Mills said. “Somebody should write the story because it’s a classic case of how to move something forward through the Maine Legislature.”
But, Mills said that if he were governor, he would not have signed the bill without a clause that said it would go straight to referendum.
“I thought it was a bit high-handed for the Legislature to pass this thing and then sit there and force the [opposing] people to come out of the woods and get organized,” Mills said.
He believes the signature campaign by winning side “Yes on 1” forced them to become organized and led to their success.
“I personally learned a lot from observing the public vote,” Mills said. “Think about just how divisive that was geographically. Think what it demonstrated about the difference between living in Cumberland County and living in Piscataquis [County].”
According to official state tabulations from the referendum, over 60 percent of densely populated Cumberland County voted “no” on Question 1. Meanwhile, nearly 67 percent of rural Piscataquis County voted “yes.”
Mills last ran for governor in 2006, coming in second in the Republican primary election. He says his platform is built for general elections.
“If I had been nominated four years ago, I would have been governor,” Mills said. “We would have already been four years ahead of the game on doing some things that I wanted to see done and that Republicans wanted to see done. I’m saying, ‘Let me carry the banner and I’ll get it done now.’”
Mills said his opponents in the upcoming Republican primary election “take pride” that they have not served in state government and make “vague promises” about jobs and welfare reform.
“I’m not an employee of state government. I’m a legislator – a part-time legislator – and I still have one foot anchored firmly in the private world. I know the difference. Until you know the difference, you can’t be prepared to manage the public side effectively,” Mills said. “Trust me. If I get this job, you won’t have to train me.”
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