By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

Rising snow totals were big news on Monday, but newly appointed South
Portland Mayor James Soule brought some attention to his inaugural
address on the same day by calling for Cumberland, York and Sagadahoc
counties to “unite against our common oppressive enemy – The State of
Maine” and form a new state.

“We must open dialogue with our neighbors with the potential conclusion
being the necessity for a resolve to secede from the state of Maine,”
Soule said in a speech during an inaugural ceremony in which city
council and school board members were sworn in to their posts.

Reached by phone on Tuesday, Soule said he didn’t think he was jumping the gun with his message.

“The same issues, the same problems that South Portland faces today are
the same problems it faced the last time I was on the council [from
1989 to 1992],” he said.

In 1995, the city received roughly $4 million in state funding for its
schools and that figure holds true this year as well, Soule said.

Soule said South Portland’s need for more police officers and the
defeat of the high school bond referendum are evidence of “the
inequitable and oppressive redistribution of wealth” by the state.

With the Maine Mall and other regional retail draws, South Portland
generates more than $45 million annually in sales tax, he said. There
is a “disincentive,” he said, for communities to bring businesses and
higher paying jobs to town.

South Portland City Councilor Maxine Beecher said she didn’t know what
subjects Soule was going to broach in his speech, “so it did come as
somewhat of a surprise.”

“Truthfully, I don’t think I’m quite ready for that piece,” she said. “I don’t think I have a lot to worry about.”

David Farmer, a spokesperson for Gov. John Baldacci, dismissed Soule’s
call for secession, calling it a “rhetorical flourish” and
“ridiculous.”

“It’s unfortunate the mayor chose to use his time at inauguration to
deliver a message of division as a state,” Farmer said. “[It’s]
counterproductive to talk about something this radical.”

Farmer said Soule was pushing an “outdated and anachronistic idea of
there being two Maines” and said it is more productive to address the
issues Soule raises as a united front.

Article 4, section 2 of the United States Consitution states, “No new
states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other
state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states,
or parts of states, without the concent of the legislatures of the
states concerned as well as that of Congress.”

During his speech, Soule also called for the city council to add an
additional police patrol vehicle, join the Greater Portland Council of
Governments, host the next five council workshops in district
neighborhoods, meet with oil and gas company representatives about a
designated truck route to bypass local roads, implement a recycling
education program and establish a funding prioritization schedule.