Lead Maine

New Jersey cut its SNAP error rate in half in ONE year (14.3% to 6.9%). Virginia, Louisiana, Kansas, and Minnesota are overhauling systems to stop overpaying. Maine? Still near 11%, in the max-penalty bracket. What's Augusta's plan?

@trollshevik88 @WyattX19222 @laurel_libby @OwenforMaine eia.gov/electricity/mo…

@WyattX19222 @laurel_libby @lead_maine @OwenforMaine No, you — that is the screenshot from a ‘retail rate’ CMP bill so Grok does not have the whole story here, supply costs are not ‘isolated’ so if anyone is being deceitful, it’s them.

28.42 cents per kilowatt-hour here in Maine. The national average is 18.83 cents! 64% higher for the electrons everybody else is running their AC on this week. Augusta built this. Augusta can fix it. Check out @Lead_Maine's energy one-pager for solutions.

What's the difference between waste, fraud, and abuse? @Lead_Maine's Policy and Comms Director, Nick Murray, unpacks all of that here... follow Lead Maine socials on Facebook, X, and Instagram for more!

What these rules DO, and what they DON'T. No one is cutting care for a single senior, child, or person with a disability. Instead, we're holding providers accountable! Fact vs. Fiction ⬇️

The Supreme Court just agreed to hear that case this fall. More from @becketfund: becketfund.org/case/st-mary-c…

Maine isn't alone in the struggle for equal educational choice for families. Colorado tried a similar trick as the Mills Administration. Let religious preschools take public money, then write rules they can't follow without giving up their faith.

Full analysis + map: cato.org/blog/10-billio…

New @CatoInstitute map puts Maine in the TOP SNAP cost-share bracket. Our error rate near 11% lands us at the maximum 15% share of benefits, up to $50M a year starting FY2028. States that kept errors under 6% owe $0. Maine didn't. #mepolitics

@TheMaineWire .@PingreeHannah helped create this mess; she certainly can’t clean it up.

Sign up at leadmaine.com so you don't miss when the rulemaking comment period opens!

Lead Maine has released a detailed accounting of what it describes as 32 tax increases, new fees and other fiscal actions approved during Democratic Gov. Janet Mills’ eight years in office. According to the organization, state spending has grown by 65 percent since 2018, Maine is now ranked as the fifth-most heavily taxed state in the country, and Augusta recently removed $292 million from the state’s Budget Stabilization Fund. Some of the tracker’s entries are conventional tax-rate increases. Others involve new fees, expanded definitions of taxable products, the repeal of tax-relief programs and decisions not to adopt federal tax cuts. Read our full story for more: themainewire.com/2026/07/lead-m…

A woman in Island Falls on a fixed income, paying $750 a month to heat her farmhouse. Owen McCarthy on the issue he heard about most on the campaign trail, by a margin of two or three to one: electricity. #SpeakUp #Maine

Here is a number every Maine parent should sit with: only about 1 in 4 Maine fourth graders reads at grade level. The usual explanation for results like that is poverty. In Maine, that explanation does not hold up. 🧵

Help us build a better future by becoming a Lead Maine volunteer! #volunteer" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">leadmaine.com/take-action/#v…

What do YOU envision for the future of Maine?

Maine has tools it hasn't fully used: CON reform, scope-of-practice expansion, price transparency enforcement, and MaineCare accountability. If we want better outcomes, we need to be honest about what's producing them. Read more: leadmaine.com/issue/healthca…

The lesson isn't that Vermont is bad and NH is good. It's that regulating rates without addressing what drives costs doesn't work. Competition, price transparency, hospital market power, and scope-of-practice rules matter more than premium controls.

Maine families spend 11% of their income on health insurance. New Hampshire families spend less than 5%. Same region. Same rural challenges. Very different outcomes. Here's why. 🧵