Democrat Phil Bartlett is seeking re-election to his third term for the Senate District 6 seat where, he said, he wants to propose policies to stimulate Maine’s economy, improve access to higher education and contain rising health-care costs.
A graduate of Tufts University and Harvard law school, he also seeks to continue to work on energy issues as a member of the Utilities and Energy Committee, where he has focused efforts to implement Maine’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Bartlett, 32, supported the new tax on beer, wine and soda to help fund Dirigo Health, the state health insurance program that covers 18,000 people.
He said while he knows it has become a contentious issue in the state, he favored the tax increase because it prevented a higher tax from being placed on health-care premiums.
“We were faced with allowing that tax on health insurance to nearly double or to try and find an alternative,” Bartlett said. “My concern was, in a time when energy costs were skyrocketing, health insurance costs were skyrocketing and with people having a hard time paying their bills … the beverage tax is simply designed to move some of the cost from the savings offset payment to something else.”
He has mixed feelings about the Dirigo program itself, he said.
“People who are on it by and large are folks who are self-employed or they own a small business and that’s the backbone of Maine’s economy,” he said. “Where it doesn’t work as well is for small businesses trying to collect coverage for their employees because for them the cost of Dirigo is similar to the cost of any other health insurance premium.”
Bartlett, who lives in Gorham, has consistently voted against casinos in Maine and he doesn’t support the referendum to allow one in Oxford County, he said.
“I think in general it’s not a good economic development tool,” he said. While he doesn’t agree with casinos, he said that he would respect any decision that voters in Scarborough make to possibly allow slot machines at Scarborough Downs.
In terms of school consolidation, Bartlett said that idea is valuable.
“We want to make sure we have good student-to-teacher ratios and are providing quality education to each student in the state,” he said, “but we don’t need to have a superintendent for every tiny school district throughout the state.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
