This time of year, the Maine Legislature is fairly quiet, with members getting an opportunity to spend some time in their home districts to enjoy the summer and meet with constituents. It’s also a time to reflect on all we’ve accomplished over the last two years, including significant steps towards building a more fair economy that makes life easier for Maine families and allows everyone to reach their full potential.

To help more young families build their lives here, in 2023 we created a $300 state child tax credit, a measure I sponsored that will put money directly back into the pockets of working families across our state. We’ve made investing in child care a top priority, because it’s unavailable or unaffordable for too many parents. To address this, we raised wages for child care providers – our workforce behind the workforce – to improve retention, make child care more available and reduce barriers for parents to participate in our economy. And we made a significant investment to boost the child care affordability program, so more families will be eligible to apply.

We also made Maine the 13th state in the country to establish a paid family and medical leave (PFML) program, so no one will have to choose between putting food on the table and caring for themselves or a loved one in need. Every Mainer knows someone who could benefit from this program, whether it’s to take the time they need to heal when they’re sick, to care for a loved one or to bond with their newborns. PFML will support our working families and set us on a better path to improved health and well-being, both now and well into the future. The program will be fully up and running for Mainers to utilize in 2026.

Additionally, we enacted measures that will strengthen our workforce by expanding career pathways for more Mainers. This includes broadening free community college tuition, improving access to skills training for new workers and bolstering apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs. In 2023, the number of people in Maine apprenticeship programs nearly doubled over 2022 – a promising sign that our investments are already showing results. These apprenticeships will allow us to fill open Maine jobs right now and into the future.

And finally, we passed laws to expand the ability of Maine workers to organize, hold bad actors accountable for wage theft and improve workers’ compensation, giving more Mainers a fair shot at better working conditions and receiving the wages they deserve.

Each one of these new laws will collectively help to build a stronger, more robust economy that works for all Mainers in every corner of our state – not just a select few. They also each have something else in common: every Republican in the Maine House of Representatives but one, including Rep. Ed Polewarczyk, voted against them when given the opportunity on the House floor.

This unfortunately isn’t surprising. Over the last two years, House Republicans consistently opposed nearly every proposal we passed to invest in Maine families, expand career pathways and protect the well-being of Maine workers. As a Legislature, the laws we pass and investments we make are a statement of our values. In voting against all of these measures, Republicans showed that supporting hard-working Maine families simply isn’t a priority.