To resolve Maine’s issues, we must convince politicians that re-election hinges on solutions.

Under the revenue sharing plan being considered, property taxes would skyrocket and the problem would remain unsolved. Jobs aren’t vanishing because of quality or education in our workforce; our teachers are as good as any.

Maine’s people share in the creation of our problems. Some voters support legislators who pull the rug from under them, and some politicians support legislation just to please the governor.

Should our kids work for 21 cents per hour? Then why do we support those wages by buying foreign goods from department stores that have factories in Pakistan or Bangladesh where kids are paid 21 cents per hour?

Why do we allow companies to ship our jobs to China, close our factories, produce robots that do our jobs for $2 per hour and then complain because we don’t have jobs?

That’s the paradigm we face today, and one panel of the state’s labor mural attests to that. To improve our lives, we must force our representatives to work for us rather than the party and vote out those who don’t.

We need companies to bring jobs home, re-open factories, expand our middle class, grow the tax base and solve our problems.

We need to close tax loopholes, including the Cayman and Bahama Islands; regulate corporations; overturn Citizens United; and remember our elderly, sick, disabled, those unable to heat their homes, homeless; and remember our governor’s willingness to throw them under the bus to save tax dollars.

Last year, Maine gave Democrats the majority in both houses of the Legislature. In two years, we have another choice to make.

The more I researched Eliot Cutler, the less I liked him. I’m voting for the Democrat.

Bruce K. Hixon

Bowdoin