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MAIN
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A Joint Project of the Maine
Association of Interdependent Neighborhoods |
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Volume 9 No. 1 |
February 2005 |
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MAIN
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A Joint Project of the Maine
Association of Interdependent Neighborhoods |
|||
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Volume 9 No. 1 |
February 2005 |
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Maine's Biennial Conference:
a day together to talk, think and plan!MAIN's conference was held on October 16, 2004 during a very busy election season. Around 60 people gathered to discuss a variety of issues including our voter engagement project and working to defeat the Palesky Tax Cap. The major focus of the day though was to set MAIN's legislative agenda. Throughout this newsletter, you will read about the legislative issues MAIN and MEJP will be working on in the next two years. These were the priorities that MAIN members chose at the conference.
It was clear that we would be fighting proposed cuts to health care and preventing the sunsetting of unemployment benefits for part-time workers. We knew we would have to bring people to Augusta to help show legislators how these would affect low-income people. Returning was the issue of paid family sick days. MAIN decided again to support the Maine Women's Lobby in this effort.
Conference keynote speakers (left to right): MAIN member, Donna McAvoy; Maine Equal Justice staff member, Chris Hastedt; and Maine Commissioner of Labor, Laura Fortman.
Conference participants also talked about the need to fix problems with “prior authorization” in MaineCare and support efforts by other groups to improve access to dental care. Also discussed were the need for access to higher education for those not on TANF, problems with the UMA-USM merger and General Assistance reform. You can read more about these issues in this newsletter.
Participants also talked about the need for more affordable and safe housing, jobs with living wages, and single-payer health care. We agreed to look for opportunities in these areas wherever and whenever possible. MAIN hopes you will want to join us in this work.
Special thanks to Gardiner Head Start parents and staff for providing great food and child care; to St. Andrews Catholic Church for use their meeting space; and to all of you who took part in the Conference.
