King sees a better Maine after his two terms in office

WATERVILLE – As the race to determine who will become Maine’s next governor heats up, the man who currently holds the job is becoming increasingly nostalgic about his last seven and a half years in office.

Gov. Angus S. King told members of the central Maine business community Tuesday that since 1995, state government has been streamlined, rivers and coastal shorelines are cleaner and that Maine has weathered a national economic decline better than its neighbors.

Although he did not personally take credit for all of the accomplishments he identified for the audience at Thomas College, he made it clear that the improvements in the quality of life for all Mainers weren’t a coincidence.

“I should mention that none of these things happen by accident,” King said. “Somebody had to decide we are going to attack the problem of toxins or we are going to attack the problem of dioxin in the rivers. And those decisions were made and they happened.”

With less than four months left in his second term of office, King frequently has faced questions about his legacy. What would it be? Would he even have one?

He clearly is proud of his Maine Technology Fund that has managed to provide, at least initially, laptop computers for the state’s seventh- and eighth-graders. But the governor effectively articulated his belief Tuesday that a larger view of his years at the helm of state government shows that Maine is a better place to live now than it was a decade ago.

Environmentally, King said Maine has the toughest dioxin law in the country as part of an overall strategy that has produced some of the most aggressive environmental rules in the country. Conversely, the governor added that Maine’s environmental permitting process has become one of the most efficient in the country.

“That was always my goal,” he said. “We’ve been able to open something like 150 acres of clam flats along the Maine coast that were formerly closed. It’s a kind of indicator that your environmental situation is improving. Toxins into the air are down by 50 percent over the last eight years. That’s a very significant accomplishment.”

King said his administration has been responsible for great advances in land conservation with the state’s acquisition of about 150,000 acres of prime property in the last several years.

“Almost the entire east shore of Moosehead Lake, for example,” he said. “It’s a tremendous amount of waterfront preserved for the public for the indefinite future. When you add the easements we’ve acquired across the state that control development and provide public access, you’re over 1,000,000 acres. That’s five times the land mass of Baxter State Park.”

Other advancements made since 1995, King said, include a new state prison and juvenile correctional facilities. Extensive renovations to the State House and the Cross State Office Building have turned the formerly dilapidated structures into showpieces.

“The State Office Building hadn’t been touched in 40 years,” King joked. “When we opened it up to redo it, we found the skeleton of the national hide-and-go-seek champion.”