PORTLAND (NEWS CENTER Maine)-- As the campaign for Governor intensifies, Independent Alan Caron ton Tuesday introduced his plan to grow the Maine economy.
Caron has been traveling the state, talking about creating what he calls a “21st-century economy”, and says the plan is based on that idea. Caron says it includes a focus on growing businesses in Maine as opposed to trying to attract big companies from out of state. He says Maine needs to create programs that encourage start-ups and innovation and create ways for more people to get more education and training.
Caron also wants to shrink the size of state government, and the plan includes proposals for streamlining programs and shifting some responsibilities to local governments, all of which he says could reduce the state budget by hundreds of millions of dollars. He says all those steps are “Southern Maine, along the coast, everyone thinks everything’s going great,” Caron said, “but we’ve traveled every corner of the state and for the rest of the state it’s not going that great. People are working hard and they’re working for less, they’re struggling and we are not going to change that by doing the same thing we’ve been doing for the last 30 years.”
Democrat Janet Mills released her economic plan in early September. Republican Shawn Moody and Independent Terry Hayes have talked about ways toi boost the economy, but have not yet introduced formal plans for how to do it.
On Wednesday at 7:00 pm, all four candidates for Governor will participate in a NEWS CENTER Maine Voice of the Voter forum, in partnership with the Maine State Chamber of Commerce.