Owen McCarthy is an engineer, entrepreneur and Republican candidate for governor. His Maine 2040 plan can be read online at OwenForMaine.com.
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After seven years of one-party rule in Augusta, the results are impossible to ignore. Maine is unaffordable for many of the people who live and work here. Housing is out of reach for many working families. Energy bills have risen faster than anywhere in the country, squeezing households and small businesses alike. School spending is up, but student outcomes are down. Many older Mainers worry they cannot afford to stay in the communities they built, even as state spending has grown more than $3 billion above inflation.
The consequences are everywhere. One in four nursing homes has closed. Two in five labor and delivery units are gone, leaving families driving hours for care at the most critical moments of their lives. Maine ranks last in the nation in new business starts.
These conditions were not imposed by Washington starting last year, as the people in charge in Augusta would have us believe. They were created here, by years of accumulated decisions they made. Maine controls its energy policy, housing policy, tax policy, regulatory environment, and education system, not Washington. And we can choose a better, more affordable direction.
I did not grow up around politics. I grew up in a trailer in Patten, the son of a third-generation logger and a second-generation lunch lady. I was the first in my family to go to college. We did not have much, but I was taught that if you worked hard, played by the rules, and stayed out of trouble, you had a real shot at building a life.
That promise is slipping away. That is why I am running for governor, and why I released a serious governing blueprint: Maine 2040: Built to Lead Again. This is not a campaign slogan. It is a plan built around three priorities Maine needs: opportunity, affordability, and discipline.
Opportunity. I believe we are living through a once-in-a-generation economic shift driven by technology, reindustrialization, and a global race to build. States that move boldly will win. States that hesitate will fall further behind. Maine has the assets to compete, but we have been playing small.
Maine 2040 sets a measurable goal: 50,000 new foundational jobs — jobs that bring new money into our state by selling goods and services beyond our borders. That is how you raise wages, rebuild the middle class, and give young people a reason to stay.
We will make smart bets where Maine can lead: a Maritime Innovation Hub to strengthen our working waterfront and national security; a bigger push in life sciences, where Maine already produces world-class research and high-paying jobs; and a modern future for forest products through mass timber, advanced wood products, and biomaterials.
Affordability. This is the moral test of leadership. If honest, hard-working people struggle to afford the basics, nothing else matters.
My plan delivers immediate relief with a 10-percent income tax cut for households earning under $200,000, sets a responsible path to eliminating the income tax over time, and a property tax freeze for seniors so they are not taxed out of the homes they built.
On energy, we will stop forcing ratepayers to subsidize special interests, cut costly programs buried in electric bills, and secure low-cost baseload power so families and small businesses get relief.
On housing, we will tackle the shortage by cutting red tape, creating Housing Innovation Zones, and expanding modular and mass timber construction so we can build faster and for less.
Discipline. Maine’s budget has grown billions faster than inflation without delivering better results. That is not compassion. It is failure.
As governor, I will launch the Maine Performance Review, a full independent audit of every agency and major program. We will fund what works, fix what does not, and stop funding failure. We will put state spending on a public, real-time online ledger, so taxpayers can see where their money goes.
In education, we will stop chasing the latest social fads, and return to fundamentals: reading, math, and real preparation for life and work.
I am not running to be someone. I am running to do something. Maine 2040 shows exactly where I will lead and how we get there.
