Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills, and thank you for listening.

Well, I'm pleased to report that Maine is seeing progress in our fight against the deadly opioid epidemic. Last year, fatal overdoses were down by 20 percent statewide. That's the third year in a row that overdose deaths have dropped by double digits here in Maine. It's good news, but we know that every single overdose is a tragic and preventable loss of a valued life, and we cannot become complacent.

For the last seven years, my administration has acted responsibly to stop deadly drugs from reaching Maine in the first place, and to prevent addiction, and to treat people who are addicted to drugs, and set people on a lifelong path to recovery. Above all else, we're simply working to save lives.

We're supporting law enforcement like the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, as it interdicts illicit drugs. Last year, the MDEA seized more than 24 pounds of fentanyl, which is a leading cause of fatal overdoses.

We're providing health insurance coverage through MaineCare expansion to nearly 230,000 Maine people, with more than 69,000 individuals in that group receiving treatment for addiction since 2019.

We've distributed nearly 800,000 doses of the life-saving overdose reversal medication naloxone, and that medication has been used to reverse more than 12,000 overdoses that otherwise clearly would have been fatal.

We've established the OPTIONS program to create partnerships with behavioral health liaisons, recovery coaches, and first responders in communities across the state. These folks work together to turn lives around and get individuals into treatment after an overdose.

We increased the number of residential treatment beds, and we invested heavily in proven community recovery programs. We designated 86 businesses as recovery friendly workplaces -- businesses that employ nearly 25,000 people.

And we expanded our Good Samaritan Law to encourage people to call for life-saving help if someone is experiencing an overdose.

Look, saving a life is the highest priority. I want to do everything we can to keep people from starting down the road of addiction in the first place, but fundamentally, what we need is leadership. Leadership in every community across the state. Leadership on the part of every young person who is offered a drug to get high, a drug they're led to believe will make them popular or more accepted. The leadership and the character to say, "I'm better than that, and my life is more valuable than that." And leadership from all of us to tell that person that they are loved and valued, and that their lives are indeed far better than that.

That's how we build a better future, with strong communities and communication, and a state with endless opportunity.

This is Governor Janet Mills, and thank you for listening.

WHEREAS, on July 26, 1819, the citizens of Maine voted decisively in support of Maine separating from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and becoming an independent state; and

WHEREAS, the United States Congress received Maine’s petition for statehood and voted affirmatively to accept Maine as the 23rd State of the United States; and

WHEREAS, U.S. Secretary of State James Monroe notified Maine that it would formally and legally be an independent state beginning on March 15, 1820; and

WHEREAS, the State of Maine has long been a haven for writers, musicians, painters, sculptors, poets, dancers, folk artists, culinary artists, and creative thinkers of all kinds; and

WHEREAS, Maine enjoys a worldwide reputation for the quality, quantity, and variety of its cultural community; and

WHEREAS, Maine features a broad and significant array of historic and architecturally significant structures; and

WHEREAS, on March 17th, during the annual celebration of the Feast of Saint Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland, Irish-Americans join with men, women and children of all other ethnic origins who, for one day, become Irish and celebrate Saint Patrick and the love of Ireland; and

WHEREAS, millions of Irish people emigrated from Ireland in the 1800s to escape brutal poverty and starvation due to the Irish potato famine, and most of those people came to America to start new lives and to embrace and contribute to a new land; and

WHEREAS, women make up only 15 percent of Maine’s construction industry; and

WHEREAS, as Governor, I have long advocated for more women to join traditionally male-dominated fields, including construction and the trades, and in 2024, I signed an executive order to improve the recruitment, training, and retention of women in Maine’s construction industry; and

WHEREAS, the Peace Corps stands as a lasting symbol of America’s commitment to fostering progress, creating opportunity, strengthening communities around the world, and promoting America’s global competitiveness; and

WHEREAS, since its founding in 1961, approximately 250,000 Americans have served as Peace Corps volunteers in 144 countries; and

WHEREAS, over the past 65 years, 2_,_015 men and women from the State of Maine have answered the call to service by joining the Peace Corps; and

WHEREAS, Senior Games are an integral part of communities throughout Maine and the United States that offer Olympic-style multi-sport competitions for adults aged 45 and up and engage over 100,000 people nationally each year; and

WHEREAS, the Maine Senior Games were first established in 1986, and today, the organization offers 20 competitive sports to both men and women with events throughout the state; and

This is Governor Janet Mills, and thank you for listening.

You know, it's just not enough to simply say "thank you" and pat ourselves on the back for fulfilling a promise to honor our nation's veterans. As President Kennedy once said, "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

As the proud daughter, and sister, and niece of veterans, I am committed to making sure that Maine is the best state in the nation for our veterans to live, work, and raise a family. And I'm proud to have continued the annual Hire-a-Vet campaign, which has expanded Maine's workforce, and supported businesses, and improved the financial well-being of our veterans.

This campaign has successfully connected more than 2,200 veterans with good-paying jobs in Maine since its creation a decade ago, and in 2025 alone, 100 veterans and military family members were hired across every county in our state. The average hourly wage of veterans hired through the 2025 Hire-A-Vet campaign was $27.69. Employers hiring the most veterans last year included the State of Maine, Bonney Staffing, Northern Light Health, and Bath Iron Works.

So, to those employers in every county and in every industry, I just want to say thank you. I say thank you because you did not hire veterans merely out of a sense of charity or obligation. You hired Maine veterans for jobs that are at the foundation of our economy, because you recognize what we all know to be true: veterans make good employees.

Veterans know what it means to work as a team. Veterans know that they can't leave anyone behind. They know how to serve with integrity and commitment to a vision and mission, while being able to adapt and being flexible to a mission's evolving needs. Sounds like pretty good employees to me!

According to the Maine Bureau of Veterans Services, there are more than 102,000 veterans in Maine. That includes thousands of working age men and women who are ready to apply the skills our businesses need to expand and modernize and succeed. Maine's Hire-A-Vet campaign is critical to making the connection between an army of workers and high-quality jobs across the state. So my administration will continue Maine's Hire-A-Vet campaign and continue our partnership with employers, big and small, with nonprofit and private organizations, to make those connections happen for more veterans in our state.

I look forward to the 2026 Hire-A-Vet campaign, and I thank Maine businesses and organizations for their enduring commitment to our honorable veterans. This is Governor Janet Mills, and thank you for listening.

WHEREAS, the State of Maine continues to experience an extended period of cold temperatures statewide, which has significantly increased heating demand for residences and businesses;

WHEREAS, the increased heating demand has resulted in delivery backlogs by heating fuel delivery crews statewide;

WHEREAS, the increased heating demand and delivery backlogs have resulted in propane supply chain shortages at all regional propane offloading facilities;

Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills, and thank you for listening. 

While the average price of electricity in Maine is typically among the lowest in New England, that's certainly of very little comfort to Maine people who are all suffering under the weight of high energy bills right now. 

And it's because of our significant overreliance on fossil fuels to generate electricity that we're seeing these high bills, especially our reliance on natural gas -- that's the leading factor driving up energy costs for Maine.

President Trump and Congress have repealed tax credits to help us get off of our reliance on fossil fuels, and they've imposed new tariffs that are making clean energy production more expensive and raising energy costs for Maine people. So we need to continue diversifying our energy sources and welcoming more renewable energy onto the grid in order to offset the price of natural gas, which is driving up the cost of electricity. And that's why my administration established Maine's first cabinet-level energy department, the Maine Department of Energy Resources, to promote more affordable and reliable energy for Maine.

I'm proud that we've added more than two gigawatts of clean energy — an unprecedented amount — to our grid, and that we've added two hundred and forty megawatts of grid connected storage to provide affordable, reliable power to Maine people. And this year, the Maine Department of Energy Resources will conduct a procurement for energy storage projects to help us surpass our goal of four hundred megawatts of energy storage installed by 2030, which is one of the most ambitious goals in the country, and rightly so. And that procurement will be building on other energy storage projects now breaking ground in Maine, like Cross Town Storage in Gorham. These new energy storage projects will store power for periods of high demand, like during the cold spells we've had recently, and this will keep energy costs down.

We're generating more renewable energy, and we're also leading the nation when it comes to installing energy efficient technology. We've installed more than 1,400 public charging ports for EVs. We've installed more than 180,000 heat pumps statewide — exceeding our original goal of 100,000 — and we've set a new, more ambitious target of installing 275,000 heat pumps by the end of next year. Well, I'm proud that this nation-leading effort has cut our reliance on heating oil by nearly 20 percent since I've taken office.

And I'm proud, too, that these investments are putting people to work. More than 15,600 people now have good-paying jobs in the renewable energy sector in Maine, and that contributes nearly $3 billion to our economy each year. We're also working with neighboring states to bring more renewable energy to the entire region. The Northern Maine project for renewable energy and transmission, which most of the New England states are helping us out on, will bring more renewable energy to the grid, and will reduce our dependency on fossil fuels, and will bring down energy costs for ratepayers in Maine and create jobs and economic development in northern Maine. 

We know that clean energy produced here in Maine and across New England is a more reliable and a less expensive source of energy than fossil fuels. We know that investing in the renewable energy and efficiency sector creates good-paying jobs. We know that transitioning to renewable energy reduces our carbon emissions and mitigates the damage to our climate. So look, no matter who is in the White House, Maine will keep working to attract investments in emerging renewable energy industries and will keep creating good-paying green collar jobs, and will keep reducing our reliance on expensive fossil fuels and shielding Maine from volatile energy costs.

This is Governor Janet Mills, and thank you for listening.