In a letter to the editor today at the Kennebec Journal, reader Larry Davis tells the governor to take a meat ax to the budget and asks some questions, No.1 interests us:
The budget deficit has grown from $340 million to $580 million and is expected to grow to $800 million.
It is time, dear governor, to get out the old meat ax; no, not the small one, but the extra large, double-bladed one you can hardly pick up. That’s right, heft it on your shoulder and ask yourself:
1. Why does Catholic Charities of Maine bring in wave after wave of refugees to one of the poorest states in the nation, and put them on our Golden Cadillac of a welfare system?
Mr. Davis, it’s because you do have a Golden Cadillac of a welfare system. That’s why the Somalis went to Lewiston (see one of our many posts on Lewiston here), and the Sudanese to Portland (very latest on Portland refugees here, just two days ago). We recently learned the Iraqis are on the way too.
From our post on unhappy Iraqis in Georgia:
Refugees in Georgia are not immediately eligible for subsidized public housing, prompting some to migrate to states such as Maine where such housing is available.
See more about Iraqis going to Maine here.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can’t stop secondary migrants (refugees resettled elsewhere who hear about “welcoming” Maine), but you can say no to the Refugee Resettlement program—the state of Wyoming did.
As a matter of fact, maybe it’s time for states to look into whether it’s even Constitutional for the federal government (through a government contractor which is what Catholic Charities is) to place immigrants in your states. Or, at the very least start demanding of the federal government that this unfunded mandate be funded.