I open the paper to read yet another commentary, I mean article, against the governor’s approach to getting the legislators to fix this state. This time it was about the upset he created by saying Democrats were not only holding up the deficit reduction process but that they were responsible for it in the first pace.

Who else is to blame for the current deficit? They’ve had control for the past 30 years. They increased the range and depth of our state’s entitlements well past our ability to maintain an even fiscal keel.

Why has time been wasted trying to prove that the deficit numbers are wrong or assessing blame instead of working toward a solution? Saying the administration’s numbers and information are bloated and incorrect is getting pretty old. It happens every time the governor or his administration puts out the news of previous mismanagement of state funds.

How many Democrats said the MTA issue was “witch-hunting,” when in fact it turned out the funds were mismanaged at a criminal level?

How many taxpaying Maine citizens feel that the Maine Housing Authority’s doing the best possible job at providing shelter to those in need at $275,000 or more for each single unit? Why wasn’t this looked at over the past years?

How many times in the past has the Department of Health and Human Services not only gone well over budget, but actually had lost millions of dollars through inefficiencies and mismanagement?

Gov. Paul LePage was elected to fix this state’s financial situation. I realize that he isn’t the newspaper’s beloved Eliot Cutler and thus will constantly received the negative spin from your staff, but the man is going full bore to find and fix our shortfalls.

Bob Rapalus

Gardiner

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