Mills touts budget proposal amid calls to abandon ‘pre-COVID status quo’

Others also weighed in on the governor’s address. In a statement, Garrett Martin, executive director of the Maine Center for Economic Policy (MECEP), called for state government to take “bold action to deliver a strong, equitable COVID recovery that repairs the cracks in our economic system that the pandemic has laid bare.”

Martin praised Mills for making “smart investments” in health care at the start of her term, calling the state’s public health response to the pandemic a “bright spot.” However, he noted that the pain of the pandemic is still being felt across the state, with about 50,000 Mainers unemployed and a litany of people facing other hardships such as food and housing insecurity while those at the top of the economic ladder recover far more quickly.

Click here to read the full story, first published February 24, 2021 in Beacon.