Jonathan Kinney

Republican

Office Sought: Representative – District 22
Age: 59
Occupation: Maine State Representative, Self employed
Education: High School, Retired Senior Chief petty officer United States Coast Guard
Family: Married To My wife Rena with two children
Hometown: Limington

Political experience

I am currently seeking my third term in the Maine House of Representatives where I have had the honor and priviledge of representing the people of District 22 in the Maine House. During the recently completed 127th Legislature, I served as ranking House Republican on the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee where I worked hard to ensure the passage of a comprehensive package of reforms to help our active duty military and veterans. These reforms include tuition waivers for members of the Maine National Guard as well as increased outreach programs to help our veterans.

I am very active in my community as a member of the Limington Historical Society, American Legion, USCG Chief Petty Officers’ Association, the National Rifle Association and Sportsmans Alliance of Maine. I attend the Limington Orthodox Presbyterian church and enjoy hunting, fishing, skiing and gunsmithing.

Why are you running for office?

This term, I plan to put much of my focus on reducing the income tax in Maine to five percent. We need to make Maine more competitive with states like New Hampshire. I want to continue to work toward a solution to the drug crisis sweeping across our state. The State has made strides in reforming welfare to ensure our limted resources are not being abused and are helping those who truly need it.

• Income Tax: Gov. LePage would like to lower Maine’s income tax rate and eventually eliminate it, by increasing the state’s sales tax and expanding it across a broader range of goods and services. Do you support this proposal?
  • Other.
    I support lowering the income tax but I do not support raising the sales tax in order to do it. In York County we are already loosing business to New Hamshire due to the fact that they have no sales tax. By raising and expanding the sales tax in Maine we would only exacerbate this problem. I would like to see the income tax in Maine be cut to 5 percent and my hope is to offset that cut in the income tax through a reduction in the size and expense of state government.
• Background Checks: Do you support background checks for privately sold firearms in Maine?
  • No.
    The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution gives the people the right to bear arms and the Maine Constitution states that right “shall never be questioned.” To me this is very clear.
• Minimum Wage: In light of the ballot question facing voters this fall, do you support raising the state’s minimum wage from $7.50 to $12 an hour by 2020?
  • No.
    We should not be wasting time fighting over minimum wage, we should be working together to bring optimum wage jobs to Maine. The Maine Legislature has raised the minimum wage nine times in the past twenty years and it has done nothing to reduce poverty in Maine. I believe business owners will simply raise the costs of their products in order to counter the increase to their payrolls. A blunt wage mandate like this would only cause the prices on everyday products to increase which would just make life even more difficult for elderly and disabled Mainers on fixed incomes. The cost of every day items would increase while their income remains the same.
• Marijuana: Do you support legalization of marijuana for recreational use?
  • No.
    I do not support legalizing marijuana for recreational use. Looking at some of the states that have gone down this road they are seeing too many problems including marijuana finding its way into the hands of children. I want our children to be the future of the State of Maine and it is all our responsibility to do whatever we can to protect them.
• Addiction/Overdoses: Do you believe the state is doing enough in response to the rise in heroin/opiate addiction and overdoses? If not, what else should be done?
  • We can always do more to help combat this epidemic. We recently added 10 new agents to Maine Drug Enforcement Agency and allocated more that $2 million in additional funding to help provide more treatment for addicts. I believe we are on the right track as we work to strike that delicate balance between enforcement and treatment. I would like to see more medications like Vivitrol being used to help treat addicts. Addiction is certainly a problem we need to remain vigilant in fighting.

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