Anti-Labor Think Tank Unveils “Maine Project 2026:” Bust Unions, Eliminate Healthcare & Abolish Taxes on the Wealthy

The anti-labor Maine Policy Institute (MPI), which runs the Maine Wire, has released a Project 2026-type policy blueprint to break unions, eliminate healthcare for thousands of Mainers and abolish taxes on the wealthy and corporations. The 133-page document titled Maine Policy Blueprint 2026 is a proposed governing agenda for the next Maine Legislature.

“The next governor and Legislature will inherit enormous challenges, but also an extraordinary opportunity,” said MPI CEO Matt Gagnon in the introduction. “They will have the chance to reject managed decline and begin rebuilding Maine. The Maine Policy Blueprint was created to help those leaders act.”

The Maine Policy Blueprint is similar to Trump’s Project 2025 in that it is a wish list for the wealthy and corporations to weaken the power of unions and make life less affordable.for working-class people The document calls on the next Governor and Legislature to:

Pass a union-busting “right-to-work” law that would severely weaken unions by making it illegal to negotiate union security clauses that require all workers in a unionized private sector workplace to pay their fair share of the cost of collective bargaining.

• Freeze the minimum wage by eliminating cost-of-living increases.
• Repeal Maine’s Paid Family Leave Law that provides 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave to most workers in Maine.
• Eliminate prevailing wage requirements on public works projects that ensure workers are paid living wages.
• End Project Labor Agreements that ensure public works projects support good quality jobs with living wages and benefits.
• Prohibit the permitting of offshore wind projects that have the potential of supporting thousands of union jobs.
• Eliminate the recently passed millionaire’s tax and abolish the state corporate tax
• Eliminate MaineCare expansion coverage for thousands of low-income Mainers
• Eliminate occupational licensing requirements that protect consumers and ensure work is done safely and correctly
• Expand school privatization efforts to defund rural public schools
• Eliminate universal free school meals for K-12 students
• Eliminate the free community college program
• No longer require farmworkers to be paid at least the state minimum wage
• Cut funding for veteran’s services
• Eliminate investments in clean energy
• Privatize several state services, eliminating hundreds of union jobs and pouring money into profits instead of quality services.
• Eliminate funding for adult education that helps workers train for better jobs
• Eliminate the Bridging Rental Assistance Program that helps working-class people afford rent
• Eliminate funding for Head Start which provides early childhood education to low-income Mainers
• Eliminate the Housing Opportunities Program that funds housing for working-class communities

This “Maine Project 2026” blueprint would make life a lot a harder for working-class Mainers at a time when many of us are already struggling to make ends meet. That’s why it is critical to elect pro-labor legislators who will move our state forward rather than reverse all of the progress we have made. Please consider voting for our endorsed candidates for the Maine Legislature to prevent those horrible ideas from being implemented.