Candidate for governor in Maine says 108 towns in the state are ‘basically insolvent’

Maine gubernatorial candidate Steve Woods unveiled an economic strategy that could result in the closure of more than 100 small towns and redirect their state dollars — and potentially their residents — toward more urban centers, reports Seth Koenig of the Bangor Daily News. Woods contends the state’s “underlying problem” can be summed up as “more than 100 Maine communities that cost hundreds of millions of dollars a year to sustain while making very little contribution to the wealth and capacity of our state," writes Koenig.

Woods (BDN photo)

The study by Woods was developed using data culled from thousands of pages of statewide municipal budgets going back at least a decade. “If your expenses continue to exceed your revenues, you become insolvent," Woods said. "You can delay that by taking on debt, and you can mask it by seeking out more in grants and other subsidies. But I’ve found that there are 108 towns which — by no fault of the leaders there and by no fault of the people who have lived there, sometimes for generations — are basically insolvent.”

Woods is running as a Democrat; he ran as an independent for the U.S. Senate last year, getting 1.48 percent of the vote in a race won by Gov. Angus King, also an independent. He is chairman of the council in the Town of Yarmouth. In New England, all places are in a town. Under Woods' proposal, towns would be consolidated. Maine recently consolidated many of its small school districts.

In an editorial titled "Bridging the Rural-Urban Divide," the Daily News writes "The solution, though, lies not in talking about getting rid of rural communities, but building on the opportunities those communities provide. The solution lies also in recognizing that one statewide approach to economic development is unfair, as each region, whether urban or rural, has different strengths."