LABOR MURAL: A $60,000 TAXPAYER-FUNDED INSULT TO WORKING PEOPLE
The removal of a 60-foot mural from the Maine Department of Labor has sparked a huge controversy. While Democrats and reporters focus on anti-organized labor intent, the bigger story is that this mural was a self-honoring monument selected by Baldacci Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman.
Fortman spent $60,000 of taxpayer funds to commission a huge mural for the waiting room of her department. That's $60,000 of taxpayer funds that won't be used to deal with pension shortfalls, or health care for state workers. To burn through $60,000 on a piece of art for a waiting room of a state department is outrageous.
What is even more outrageous is the fact that Fortman herself is painted into the mural. Fortman is portrayed nearly life-size, in a panel with labor icon Frances Perkins, as reported in today's Lewiston Sun Journal's Political Pulse: The mural, recall politics and pranks ( http://www.sunjournal.com/state/story/1008812) . Imagine that - a sitting Labor Commissioner using $60,000 of taxpayer dollars to decorate her office with a painting of herself.
Imagine if a private-sector boss used corporate funds to hang a life-sized portrait of himself on the wall, at the same time that a shortfall in revenue forced him to cut pension contributions and health care benefits for his workers. The same Organized Labor protestors that are celebrating this mural would be the first ones to cry foul. That's exactly what Laura Fortman has done.
The fact is, the real reason this state is facing budget cuts is because of three decades of foolish decisions like this one. Democrats like Laura Fortman have thrown millions of taxpayer dollars at self-serving expenses for years, from this $60,000 mural to pay homage to a Labor Commissioner, to the $54 million state house renovation that Libby Mitchell spearheaded when she was Speaker of the House, to the $157,000 in gift certificates that former Democrat Senate Leader Paul Violette gave out like candy as the head of the Maine Turnpike Authority.
The real story here is not that Governor LePage decided to move this mural. The real story is that Baldacci's Labor Commissioner wasted $60,000 of taxpayer funds to decorate her office with a painting of herself.
This is an insult to the hard working people of Maine.