AUGUSTA — Eliot Cutler has outlined his plan for turning around Maine’s economy and attracting more young people — his top two priorities — in a campaign book released Wednesday.
In the book, titled “A State of Opportunity,” the independent candidate for governor in 2014 says the state can be a good place both to live and earn a living if a long-term plan is established to turn around the stagnant economy and attract more educated young people and immigrants to the Pine Tree State.
The book begins with an outline of what has gone wrong, in Cutler’s opinion.
“Maine’s economy has stood still for more than a decade,” Cutler writes, describing the last 10 years as a “lost decade.”
Cutler then goes into detail about why a lack of planning by government leaders is to blame for that lost decade. He follows with a series of goals that government should include in a comprehensive plan for the coming years. To achieve some of those goals, he includes proposals — including a state version of the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission that would force the Legislature to take an up-or-down vote on a series of state agency and program eliminations — that mirror his 2010 campaign proposals.
The book levels criticisms at Republicans and Democrats, arguing that leaders of the two parties in Maine are more interested in engaging in “political blood sport” than solving problems.
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