The Lincoln County Republican Committee met Wednesday, Oct. 27 in Waldoboro. The featured speaker was Senate Minority Leader Jeff Timberlake.

Timberlake spoke and answered questions for almost an hour. He is very concerned about Maine’s ongoing health crisis as we close nursing homes and ration health care due to worker shortage. He fears the governor’s mandate forcing all health care workers to be vaccinated will result in a historical crisis. He has reached out to Democrats requesting that the Legislature be convened to amend the governor’s mandate. He feels that Mainers should not be denied access to healthcare because the governor refuses to act to keep hospital beds available.

Another topic was a Republican effort to return some of the excessive taxes collected from Maine workers back to them rather than keep it. The analogy was when you are overcharged at a business one would expect their overcharge to be returned. Jeff has introduced a bill titled “An act to give back excessive revenue to the people of the State of Maine.” He noted the state has collected an excess (over the amount required to support the current budget) of $1.1 billion in taxes from working Mainers and has received $2.4 billion from the federal government. Combined this gives Maine a $3.5 billion gain in revenue over spending. He feels with the current record $8.5 billion budget over the next two years now would be a good time for citizens to get tax relief especially with the highest inflation rate in decades.

Other issues addressed at the meeting were the upcoming Lincoln County Republican Caucuses early in 2022, the State Republican Convention at the Augusta Civic Center April 28 through April 30 (open to all Republicans) and the importance of all of Lincoln County’s 19 towns having active town committees and delegates representing them at the State Convention. A draft Republican 2022 Platform is posted on the State GOP website for review and comment. Lincoln County Republicans typically meet every month. Visit our website at lincolncountyrepublicans.org for more information.