Last month, Paul LePage attempted to rewrite the history of his economic record during his eight years in office. Unsurprisingly, the LePage campaign is misleading Maine voters and hiding the full story of how he mismanaged Maine’s economic recovery during his time in office, hindered job growth and hurt Maine people. Here are the facts:

  • During the first three years of the LePage administration, Maine ranked 49th in job growth as measured by the percentage of jobs recovered from the previous recession. Maine’s job recovery under Janet Mills in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has ranked considerably higher.

  • Maine’s slow recovery from the Great Recession during LePage’s tenure was not just limited to job growth. Ten years after the recession, Maine was one of only five states that had yet to recover to pre-recession GDP rates, with rural Maine lagging particularly far behind.

  • Throughout his time in office, LePage repeatedly refused opportunities to help Maine’s economy, forfeiting close to $2 billion in federal resources which could have funded new jobs in the state. LePage’s refusal to accept federal funding to expand MaineCare, which not only blocked life-saving care for tens of thousands of Mainers, but also left more than 6,000 jobs on the table.

  • Effects of LePage’s mismanagement are still wreaking havoc on Maine today. LePage gutted Maine’s public health infrastructure and championed tax policies that sacrificed needed investment in Maine’s schools and that significantly increased property taxes for Maine people.

“Paul LePage led one of the worst and slowest economic recoveries from the Great Recession while he was Governor, as much as he likes to try to convince people otherwise,” said Drew Gattine, Chair of the Maine Democratic Party and former State Representative from Westbrook who served during LePage’s term. “Governor Janet Mills, on the other hand, has worked against the headwinds LePage created to advance a stronger economic recovery, and her Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan has invested in child care, education, and housing, among many other things, to help grow our economy in the long-term – all things that Paul LePage failed to do as governor. We can’t go back to LePage’s anemic economic growth or his disregard for the serious problems confronting our economy.”

Chair Gattine recently wrote an op-ed in the Bangor Daily News highlighting LePage’s failures in improving Maine’s economy.

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