This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

You know, anybody who wants to continue their education after high school ought to have the chance to do that right here in Maine.

To make sure that more people have a chance to do that, my administration has been working to make transitions from high school to community college to the University System and to a rewarding career as seamless as possible in our state.

Over the past five-and-a-half years, we've provided significant funding to upgrade equipment and facilities in our CTEs, getting high school students to explore careers before they graduate.

We've made community college free, and we've kept tuition low at the University of Maine System to encourage students to pursue those careers.

We've expanded scholarships and student debt relief programs so that finances shouldn't be a barrier or a burden when it comes to getting an education in Maine.

And the Maine Department of Education operates the most generous early college program in the nation, allowing more than 10,000 high school students to take courses for credit through the community college or the university at no cost to students and families.

Thanks to these investments, thousands of young people in our state are graduating from high school and getting a high-quality postsecondary education at little or no cost.

I want to see more students move seamlessly between our higher education systems because the more easily people are able to transfer, the more opportunities will be available to them. And the more opportunities available to them, the more likely they are to find one that works for them. One that leads to a good-paying job and a rewarding career. Isn't that what we all want for our students?

Recently, I saw a national survey of students that found 83% of community college students intended to transfer to a four-year institution after they graduate, but only 32% did. The report found that while colleges and universities have worked hard to improve the transferring process, it's still hard for many students to navigate.

While the Community College System is the largest source of transfer students to the University of Maine System, in the last academic year, only about 700 community college students transferred to the University of Maine campuses. Seven hundred transfers out of thousands of students enrolled in the Maine Community College System.

Well, that's going to change. A new partnership between the community colleges and the University of Maine system to guarantee admission, reducing paperwork and making seamless the transfer of credits, along with a transfer agreement the Community College System signed with six Maine private colleges recently, will strengthen the pipeline of graduates moving from two-year to four-year programs in Maine.

Now, Maine graduates from seven community colleges across our state will know that they can attend the University of Maine System without wondering if your credits are transferable, without wondering if your application will be accepted, without wondering if you filled out the correct forms. Without wondering if you can continue your education in Maine. You can and you should, because a four-year degree and a rewarding career are waiting for you right here at home.

I want to thank Chancellor Malloy and President Daigler for working with my administration to ensure that every person in Maine can access and afford a high-quality education.

I'm excited to see how this new partnership encourages people to study and stay here in Maine.

This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.

WHEREAS, the residents of Maine value safe and healthy workplaces for all of our citizens; and

WHEREAS, the majority of workplace injuries and fatalities are preventable, however more than 5,000 U.S. workers die each year from job-related injuries, and millions more suffer occupational injuries and illnesses; and

WHEREAS, in 2023, at least 23 Maine workers died while either on the job, traveling to or from the job, or as a result of an injury or illness connected to their work; and

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

One recovery coach in Maine, whose name is Jillian, likened her own recovery from substance use disorder to walking in a field of tall grass. Walk through it enough, she said, and you've made a path, and it's easy just to keep walking down that path instead of going into a new direction. Well, that's what recovery from substance use disorder is all about. It is possible to go in a new direction.

At my Sixth Annual Opioid Summit in Auburn, I gave an update on my Administration's actions to prevent drug use and help people suffering from substance use disorder recover. At the Summit, more than a thousand organizations and health care providers, people with substance use disorder and their family members, gathered to hear the most recent news about the epidemic and to recommit to our shared efforts to address it.

I told them how last year, drug overdose deaths declined by 16 percent in Maine, the first time in five years we've recorded an annual decrease. Well, that's welcome news, but we know we can't get complacent.

Traffickers are adapting every day to evade efforts by law enforcement to stem the tide of drugs into Maine. People seeking a cure for pain, or an anesthetic for experiences that are too heavy to bear, are finding even more potent and more deadly substances - things that can worsen existing mental health problems or set off new mental health disorders.

My Administration is doing all we can, reasonably and responsibly, to stop drugs from reaching Maine; to prevent substance use disorder at an early age; to treat it when we can't prevent it; and to set people on a lifelong path to recovery--above all else, to save lives.

Over the past year, we've established prevention programs in 78 middle schools to keep young adults from starting down what can be an all too easy path of addiction.

We've been working hard to get lethal drugs off the streets, to identify new drugs like xylazine, that are leading to fatal overdoses, and to distribute overdose reversal medication like naloxone as widely as possible.

We're working with local governments to expand emergency housing to keep people off the streets and to create more permanent housing for people with chronic substance use disorder.

We're increasing access to treatment at county jails and state prisons both, and we're increasing the total number of treatment beds statewide, and launching crisis receiving centers to serve as anchors in communities for substance use disorder and mental health services. Now, I know there's a perception that there aren't enough beds available for treatment in Maine. I want to be clear: things are changing. New beds are coming online every day. Please, I encourage anyone who needs help: ask for it.

We've been adding recovery coaches and implementing recovery friendly workplaces to support the lifelong recovery of people with substance use disorder.

In the past two biennial budgets, we've invested nearly half a billion dollars in funding for mental health and substance use disorder services, in addition to the $30 million in this year's supplemental budget.

The programs I've mentioned are just some of the ways we're using that funding to address the opioid epidemic in line with the strategies of our Strategic Action Plan. Each of these strategies is a step on the path to a better future.

A future where we balance accountability with an understanding of addiction; a future with strong communities that help people, especially young people, cope with life's challenges without resorting to drugs or alcohol; and a future with a thriving economy and endless opportunities. A future where there will surely be no longer a market for those deadly substances in the state of Maine -- because we need everyone in this state to be the best person they can be.

That's the dream we share, and that's the direction we're heading in together.

The recent decline in overdose deaths in Maine is a reason to hope, but not to rest. So let's redouble our efforts to prevent addiction, to save every life, to lend our strengths to people as they start, stumble, or resume their recovery, and to bring communities across Maine together to build a brighter future for all.

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

When I took office five and a half years ago, I promised the people of Maine that we would take action to protect our state, our people, our environment, and our economy from the dangers of climate change, and we would fight to preserve this special place that we call home for the benefit of our children and grandchildren, because the stakes could not be higher.

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

You know, Maine's climate, like the rest of the world's, is changing. Monday, July 22, 2024 was the hottest day ever on the planet Earth. The waters of the Gulf of Maine are warming faster than almost any other water body in the world.

Ocean waters are rising, pushing tides higher. Storms are more frequent and more severe. Look no further than this past winter, when three devastating storms caused more than $90 million in damage to public infrastructure and millions more in damage to private homes and businesses. And they took the lives of four Maine people. These wild storms impacted our environment, our communities, our people, and our economy.

That's why I've made fighting climate change a cornerstone of my administration. We created the Maine Climate Council, we issued a climate action plan, and we've dedicated millions of federal and state dollars to making that plan a reality. From weatherizing homes, to installing heat pumps, to embracing renewable energy, to building better, stronger infrastructure that will withstand future storms. In fact, earlier this year, I proposed, and the legislature authorized, the largest investment in state history to rebuild from last winter's storms. And I've established a new commission of contractors, engineers and others, that is now traveling across Maine and developing a new resilience plan for our state.

That work is crucial. But what's also crucial is having the resources to get the work done. That's where the Biden-Harris administration comes in.

On July 26, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that my administration had won a significant climate resilience grant. $69 million. The White House's National Climate Advisor and other officials came to Maine to announce that with me, and with Senator King, and Congresswoman Pingree down on the Portland working waterfront. The money comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Biden and Vice President Harris pushed for, and Senator King, Congresswoman Pingree and Congressman Golden supported.

With this money, we're going to move even more aggressively to protect our state, our working waterfronts, our roads, and culverts, and bridges, from the impacts of these storms. We will expand our efforts to work with cities and towns across Maine through our Community Resilience Partnership, to make them safer from extreme weather, from sea level rise, from flooding, rivers, and severe heat, and other climate impacts.

During one extreme storm in January, the Crowley Island Causeway, which connects the village of Corea and Crowley Island in Gouldsboro, was flooded with at least four feet of seawater. Town officials cleaned up the debris and patched up the road, but they knew that damage was a wake-up call. Losing access to the island poses a serious risk not only to its residents, but to the commercial fishermen who use that causeway to move hundreds of thousands of dollars in bait, fuel, supplies, and seafood. Gouldsboro received a grant through our Community Resilience Partnership to redesign the causeway and other coastal roads to be better able to withstand these storms.

In addition to expanding our Community Resilience Partnership to more towns across Maine, we will also focus on strengthening working waterfront infrastructure for our fishermen and aquaculture industries.

This support is vital and I thank President Biden, Vice President Harris, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, and members of our congressional delegation for advocating for these resources and for delivering these important monies to Maine.

With these state and federal investments, we will protect the health of our people, the health of our environment, and the health of our economy for every generation that calls the state of Maine home.

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

Working waterfronts are a cornerstone of our coastal communities and of our economy. Last winter's devastating storms demonstrated just how vulnerable they are to extreme weather and climate change.

This week, I announced some major grants that we're distributing to those working waterfronts to help them rebuild and rebuild in ways to make them better able to withstand future storms and protect access to the water now and for generations to come.

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

This spring, I proposed and the legislature approved $60 million in state funds dedicated to storm relief - the single largest investment in storm recovery by any administration in Maine history. This week, I announced that we're distributing part of that funding through the Working Waterfront Resiliency Grant program. Through that program, 68 Maine Working Waterfronts from Bailey Island and Boothbay Harbor to South Bristol and Belfast and many others will receive more than $21 million to rebuild their damaged wharves and piers, and repair bait sheds and the like, and upgrade fuel and electrical systems to rebuild their structures in a way that makes them more resilient to the impacts of future storms.

In addition to this grant program, we've also designated other funds for storm recovery, about $10 million for the Business Recovery and Resilience Fund, to provide direct support to businesses that were harmed by the winter storms. And approximately $25 million to make other public infrastructure more resilient to storms and flooding. My departments are reviewing application for those additional funds now, and we expect to announce our decisions in the coming weeks.

I hope this new funding approved by the legislature can provide some sense of certainty and security as we rebuild our infrastructure—rebuild it stronger and better, to preserve our working waterfronts and other critical infrastructure across the state for years to come, in the face of worsening weather and climate change.

My Administration will do everything we can to ensure that our working waterfronts continue to provide a good living and access for our commercial fishermen, and that they will contribute to our economy for years to come.

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

WHEREAS, Martha Ballard, born in 1735, was a midwife and key figure in the history of central Maine during the early years of the American republic and lived for many years in what is now the City of Augusta; and

WHEREAS, in her capacity as a midwife, Ballard delivered 816 babies and simultaneously worked as a nurse, physician, mortician, pharmacist and healed patients who include many ancestors of people living in Maine and beyond today; and