Keith Louis

PO Box 2426, South Portland

Education: BS Aviation Management/Flight operations

Occupation: Airline Pilot

Age: 33

Party Affiliation: Green Independent

Political experience: Concerned citizen

Statement about your candidacy: Maine is gridlocked in Augusta. Our two
party system fails to resolve the issues truly important to the Maine
voters.

The two parties are in a power struggle and forget they are in Augusta
to serve Maine people, not their part affiliation. New independent
leadership will introduce a better dynamic to our politics.

Stance on the following issues:

TABOR and tax reform: Maine needs tax reform but this is not the way to
do it. tax reform but this is not the way to do it. TABOR will cripple
Maine’s government and prevent it from providing needed services to
Mainers.

Senior citizens and people living on fixed income should have a fixed
property tax. We need to shift Maine’s dependence on local property
taxes. Increase the meals and lodging tax. Maine is a unique and
beautiful state; yet, it has one of the lowest meals/lodging tax in the
nation. This revenue comes primarily from out of state tourists. Allow
local communities the use of a local option sales tax. This tax can be
used as seen fit by the local municipalities. Higher during the tourist
season and reduced during the off peak season allowing relief of this
tax for Mainers. Both these taxes would be directly applied to property
tax relief.

Education funding: Our children are our future, I support all necessary
funding. Make our school systems a desired place for teachers to work.
Restore extra curricular programs and physical education programs.
Physical education programs should start when children are in first
grade. A student who enters high school overweight has only a slight
chance of reaching a normal weight by adulthood. High school freshman
at healthy weights are four times as likely to stay slim as adults.
Physically fit kids have better memory, focus, and are able to process
information faster. Keeping our children healthy also has long term
benefits including reduced health care costs.

Economic development: Simple, keep it in Maine! With a sustainable
vision for the future of Maine, focused on supporting local small
businesses, our state economic development will flourish. These are the
businesses that truly care about our local communities. Three times as
much money stays in the local economy when you buy goods and services
from locally owned businesses compared to chain stores.

Infrastructure priorities: Stop the big box retail store store sprawl
happening all over this state. Tourism is a huge piece of our economy.
With big box stores popping up everywhere in our state, Maine is in
jeopardy of loosing its uniqueness that attracts our tourists. Our
quaint coastal town with family run local businesses are being replaced
with every town USA retail stores. Maine has no real infrastructure
appeal to attract out of state businesses. Maine does however attract
people who want to lead a ‘simple lifestyle.’ Maine needs to create
infrastructure by attracting these ‘quality of life’ people and give
them the tools they need to be create a dynamic infrastructure. A
Universal health care system is one of these tools. People would be
more likely to leave jobs they are unhappy with and start their own
locally owned private business (adding infrastructure). People tend to
stay in dead-end jobs because they can not let their family go with out
health care. If the state had a universal health care system the best
type of infrastructure would follow, locally owned.

Spending priorities: Universal Health care for all Mainers (without
increased budget spending) Property tax relief, and, renewable energy
usage.

Spending cuts: Portion of State budgets that leaves the Maine borders.
School lunches are currently over processed foods bulk manufactured
from out of state. Why not commit this money to a local business to
provide a fresh nutritious meal? Keep it in state. Maine state
employees health care (ie. schoolteachers, police/fire, municipality
workers) is currently managed by Blue Cross/Shield. A private company
where executives make millions of dollars in salary. If Maine used a
non-profit organization to manage it’s state health care program, it
would save millions. Universal health care for all.

Goals to accomplish: This question is part of the problem of politics
and politicians, short range goals/plans. ‘What can I do now so I can
get re-elected at the end of this term? We need government leaders to
look further into the future, a long range sustainable future for the
state. Now to answer your question: 1. Property tax reform 2. Develop a
program that puts solar power panels and/or other renewable energy
sources at our schools and municipality buildings 3. Stimulate local
economies. Support local businesses instead of making it difficult to
operate one in Maine.

As you campaign, what are the issues voters bring up most often?
Property tax reform, non-partisan independent leadership, and
stimulating local economies.

Ways voters can differentiate you from your opponents: I am not a
politician. I am a concerned citizen, who is a forward thinker with a
clear vision for Maine’s future. My goal is creating long term
sustainable growth for the state of Maine, reduce the governments
dependency on local property taxes, and preserve our ‘tourist appeal.’