County’s Henry Joy runs for governor

MACWAHOC PLANTATION — Gov. Angus King’s popularity doesn’t seem to faze a small-town educator and three-term Republican lawmaker from Aroostook County. On Friday, Rep. Henry R. Joy, R-Crystal, who last year proposed a bill to create two states within Maine, became the first to announce his bid for next year’s GOP gubernatorial nomination.

Joy says his separation bill was aimed not at dividing the state but at grabbing the attention of people in southern Maine so they would notice economic inequities between north and south — and he succeeded.

“There are lots of things that need to change in our state. First, we need to reunite it,” said Joy as he stood before a crowd of nearly 100 people in this plantation’s only general store.

As the retired educator spoke to the friendly crowd of family, friends and supporters, some who came from as far as Standish and Cape Elizabeth, he occasionally glanced out a large store window to the house in which he was born.

“This is probably the most important and most serious announcement that I will ever make in my life,” said Joy, standing in front of the store counter.

Joy believes Maine is a great place to live because 95 percent of its lands are privately owned. But, he says the current administration along with many other groups wants to change that by making more and more privately owned lands publicly owned.

He used the controversy over the use of new land in Baxter State Park as an example of what will happen as more of the state’s lands go public. Several groups believe the new park lands should be used as a wildlife sanctuary with no hunting or trapping and no vehicle access, while others say traditional uses should continue.

“There is a big effort to take control of Maine’s lands by laws, rules and regulations so it no longer has any value to private landowners, but will make them willing sellers,” Joy said.

The 63-year-old lawmaker says the two most serious issues facing the state are the forestry Compact, which voters will decide Nov. 4, and the Northern Forest Stewardship Act, a federal initiative. He opposes both.

Joy says Maine’s three natural resource industries — forestry, farming and fisheries — are coming under attack. For example, he says the Department of Agriculture has a program whereby farmers who have government loans can get them reduced if they put their fallow lands under a “conservation contract.”

“The farmer no longer has any control over that portion of land and continues to pay taxes on it, but the federal government has the say over it,” said the lawmaker.

Joy likened his campaign against King, who has an 80 percent acceptance rating, to the battle between David and Goliath. When David went to meet Goliath, he took five stones, Joy said, taking five large stones out of a bag.

“They are a little big for a slingshot,” he told the cheering crowd.

A woman from the back of the room yelled, “But they are just right for a King-size slingshot.”

The Republican gubernatorial candidate said the stones symbolize five starting points for the state.

For example, Joy says he will work to reunite Maine. He accused the current administration of dividing the state through rules and regulation. “If this governor has his administration for four more years there will be no rural Maine.”

The lawmaker says he will work to establish a governance system for the people who live in the state’s 10 million acres of unorganized territory so people won’t confuse the word `unorganized’ with “up for grabs.”

The Crystal man criticized King for taking legislative authority through the use of executive orders. Joy said lawmakers during the 117th session killed a bill creating the Land Acquisition Task Force, LD 1505, but later King, through an executive order, created the task force anyway.

He said lawmakers killed a bill to establish an environmental oversight board during the 118th session, but later King created the board through an executive order.

“Those are violations of the separation of powers in our constitution,” he said.

He also expressed an interest in restructuring tax laws to encourage business, and in reviewing the need for various state agencies.

Joy, a former schoolteacher, principal and superintendent in the Southern Aroostook Community School District and other area schools, retired in 1992 with 29 years of service in public education. He was administrator of the Milliken Hospital in Island Falls for about three years in the late 1960s. He and his wife, Mary, have four grown children and eight grandchildren.