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Other Issues
MPA is involved in a number of issues and campaigns. More information about our health care work, our campains for a cleaner, safer environment, immigration and affordable housing work can be found in those sections of this site.
Marriage Equality
MPA worked with a wide coalition of social justice groups to help pass Maine’s equal marriage law, giving gay and lesbian couples the same rights as their heterosexual neighbors. The next step is defending this landmark legislation at the ballot box this fall.
No To TABOR And The Excise Tax Referendum
The Maine People’s Alliance will be working through Election Day this November to stop TABOR and the excise tax repeal. These two referendums, being pushed by extreme anti-government activists, would bankrupt local towns and lead to drastic cuts of social services like health care. MPA was proud to help defeat TABOR once before, in 2006.
The Employee Free Choice Act
MPA is working to pass the federal Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a law which would enable working people to bargain for better benefits, wages and working conditions by restoring workers’ freedom to choose for themselves whether to join a union. EFCA will remove current obstacles to employees who want collective bargainin, guarantee that workers who can choose collective bargaining are able to achieve a contract and allow employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.
Taking A Stand Against Racial Profiling
MPA supports legislation to prevent, study, and counteract racial profiling. We need better information on where racial profiling by law enforcement is occurring in Maine and better programs to stop it. MPA members with personal experiences with racial profiling recently spoke out in favor of a bill that would do just that.
A Budget We Can Believe In
MPA worked to pressure the Maine legislature to pass a budget that, while recognizing the tough economic times, still preserves vital programs, such as health care, affordable housing, and the clean elections fund.
Continued erosion of Maine’s public structures, like our education, health care, and public safety systems, weakens our ability to recover quickly and fully from this economic downturn. As leading economists tell us, maintaining or increasing public sector spending during a recession is preferable to spending cuts – even if that means raising certain taxes. Raising taxes, particularly on those with the higher incomes, makes better economic sense than cutting spending on our essential public structures.
The governor's budget correctly seeks to strike a balance in its use of revenue, savings and spending cuts, but more could have been done to protect Maine’s public infrastructure. Closing tax loopholes, reducing special interest tax breaks, and eliminating out of state tax exemptions should all be considered before spending cuts that further hamstring our economic potential.
Creating Jobs in Maine and America
MPA worked to organize grassroots support for the Obama administration’s stimulus plan, which provided millions of dollars to create jobs in Maine and to maintain and improve vital services such as health care and education.
Clean Elections
MPA works to protect and strengthen Maine’s first-in-the-nation public funding system, which is a model for the rest of the country and for federal elections. Strong campaign finance laws should work to reduce the influence of big money in government, eliminate corruption and the appearance of corruption, increase public access to information, and allow candidates to compete more equitably for public office. Clean elections creates trust, encourage participation in our electoral system, and enhance the accountability of elected officials to their constituents.
MPA Members March for Health Care
MPA members recently protested Anthem's huge health insurance rate hikes and stood up for universal health care... see video
MPA Members Fight Against Mercury Pollution
MPA is continuing its long struggle to hold corporate polluter Mallinckrodt responsible for mercury contamination at the Holtrachem site in Orrington and in the Penobscot River and Bay.
MPA Member Op-Ed in the Bangor Daily News