Political Profiles Sam Hunkler

AROOSTOOK COUNTY, Maine (WAGM) - Kelly: We’re joined by Sam Hunker, who is the independent candidate running for governor. Thank you so much for joining us.

Sam Hunkler: Well, thank you for having me.

Kelly: So, we’ll go ahead and get started with our first question, which is inflation right now. It is at a 40 year high. While that is a national and global issue, it is obviously hitting every man or hard. People pretty much are having trouble paying for everything, and their paychecks aren’t keeping up with what they’re trying to buy. What specific proposals do you have to help bridge the gap between inflation and wages so that Mainers are not forced to choose what bills to pay?

Sam Hunkler: Well, as you say, the governor I don’t think can do a whole lot about Inflation per se. And I’m not sure what the state can do, but what we can do as a state is make sure that people have enough money for fuel oil and have enough money for food and basic necessities. I don’t have any specific program in mind, but you know, one of the things I really want to do is governed by council and people wonder what that is.

But there used to be an executive council, the governor used to have an executive council. It wasn’t appointed, it was somehow chosen. I’m not even sure how it was chosen, but it actually was not appointed by the government, so there’s a lot of infighting between them and then by referendum it was disbanded in 1975, but before that, for almost, I would say, almost 70 to a hundred years, there was a executive council that used to advise the governor that was from different parts of Maine, and that’s what I would like to do. I’d like to bring people together to solve these problems together because no one person has all the answers for this.

But the basic thing is that we have to have a safety net for those who can’t afford. And one of the big problems in our state as everywhere, is having a livable wage. And that’s why we have to have food stamps and Maine care to help people be able to afford those things because they can’t on their salaries.

Kelly: So according to data from the US Census Bureau, the gender wage gap is Maine is growing. In 2016, a woman working full time in Maine made just under 84% of what men here made in 2020. The most recent data available that dropped to 76%. What do you see as the biggest factors in this growing divide, and what can the state do to help main.

Sam Hunkler: You know, I’d have to look at the statistics and see what they are. As you know, statistics can tell you lots of different things, but I want to make sure that was on par with seniority. And if that was, then I think where we start with that is at the state level, we have to make sure that everything is, par at the state.

And I think that that should trickle down now, where do we need a law to deal with that again? That’s something we would have to look at, but I think, again, we start at the state level to make sure that the pay is equitable pay within the state ranks. As you know, the state of Maine is by far, the largest employer in the state, and so we just need to make sure that there’s income equity between the men and women there.

Kelly: The rainy day fund is now the biggest it’s ever been, but while Maine has more savings than ever, many Mainers are living paycheck to paycheck with no savings, facing rising costs and inflation, at what point do you reduce the amount we’re adding to the rainy day fund and use surplus state revenue to ease the burden on Mainers?

Sam Hunkler: I am thinking a lot of that Rainy Day Fund came from the feds. We had a lot of influx of money. We’re going to have another big influx of money with Inflation. I just think we need to be fiscally responsible and use that wisely. And at what point do we start pulling out of that rainy day fund?

I guess it depends on what we’re talking about, what issues we’re talking about. Income equity and again, livable wage is one of the most critical things we have. I would, and one of the things I would really like to start with is my priority is children. And with Children of Future come lots of different issues like food security, stable housing, practical, rational education.

Healthcare, not mental and physical, healthcare and then environment and global warming. Those are all huge issues that all do affect children. But I think we need to do everything we do in government at the state level has to be with a lens of children and their future. I think that’s one thing that we can find some common ground on.

There’s a lot of things we are, we’re having a hard time finding common ground on. And that’s my whole slogan is let’s find common ground using common sense for the common good. And that means bringing people together. That’s not about having dictates from the top down, it’s really about starting at the bottom and working from the bottom up.

Because if we do it from the bottom up, I truly believe we can make change and make more lasting change. Because as you know, every four years of decision to flip flop back and forth a new administration comes in, it changes things. But I believe that if it starts from the bottom and comes up from there, then we can have a more stable state and stable community. Our communities are the lynchpin of our society, and we need to focus on those communities. And it is a community that knows who needs help more so than the state. And so really it’s about finding, building those communities and strengthening those communities.

And it seemed like over the past 50 years, that’s changed quite a bit. We don’t have the community the atmosphere that we once had, because that’s a lot has to do with TV and phones and people being more scattered. But that is a priority, is just work from the bottom up to find the solutions.

Kelly: And going kind of off of what you were just saying, what are, what would be the top three priorities you would have if you are elected?

Sam Hunkler: Well, again, it would have to do that. Housing is a huge issue. I mean, if we don’t have housing, we can’t attract workers. If we can’t track workers, we’re going to have our income or our economy’s going to suffer.

And again, that’s going to take a multiprong attack. There’s no right one answer to do that. I mean, one of the things I’d really like to see us do, I’m not sure exactly how to do it, but I think we really need to, increase, somehow increase the real estate taxes. Seasonal homes, people who come here for six months in the summertime and then they go out of state.

The problem with that, and they do pay taxes, but the problem is we all pay income tax, which they don’t pay. So we are actually supporting them being here. And so it would be really great to, somehow, increase our homestead exemption, so that people can afford their homes more and also somehow increase the real estate taxes.

On seasonal homes and actually secondary homes, unless that secondary home is a rental for a Maine resident who uses it a primary home.

Kelly: And you kind of touched on this a little bit already. The cost of housing as well is a well known issue in Maine. Housing prices are going up and rental prices are sky high. We are also seeing growing homeless numbers, including here in the county. More shelters are opening, but there simply aren’t enough beds. What can or should the state do to help get people into housing and make sure that housing is affordable?

Sam Hunkler: Again, I would put this on the communities. I think it’s the community that knows the problem. And I think we need to funnel funds to the communities. You decide what you need, you decide what resources you have, you decide what buildings you have, or what’s the best way to solve this? Because coming from the top doesn’t work because we’re such a diverse, I mean, The county’s very different than Washington County, which is very different than Portland.

And so, to have that come from the top just doesn’t make sense. And you guys know what you need more so than Augusta does. And so I’d really like to see you guys come up with a plan and then have the state support you in that. There’s a number of different things we can do.

We can turn some of these big box stores into housing. There’s a lot of empty houses around that could be used. Maybe you have to buy modular homes for that. But affordable housing, this affordable housing crisis has been a generation in the making. It’s been going you know, and I talk about Beals where, I’ve been there for 35 years and I’ve seen the prices skyrocket because of people moving in that can afford their, because it’s an island there’s a lot of shore frontage. And so, those prices have skyrocketed. And now most of the people that have been there for generations, most of them probably could not afford to buy the house they’re in because it’s so expensive. And then their real estate taxes have skyrocket because the value. They’re not making any more money. They’re just paying a lot more taxes. So we’re getting a lot less state subsidy from that. And it’s a huge problem. And I think my town is a prime example. And what do we do about that? Again, I’d love to see us somehow be able to really greatly increase a homestead exemption, but in order to do that, we also have to get that money from somewhere else. And I believe that we need to look at getting that from seasonal people, seasonal homes.

Kelly: And you kind of touched on this a little bit already. The cost of housing as well is a well known issue in Maine. Housing prices are going up and rental prices are sky high. We are also seeing growing homeless numbers, including here in the county. More shelters are opening, but there simply aren’t enough beds. What can or should the state do to help get people into housing and make sure that housing is affordable?

Sam Hunkler: Again, I would put this on the communities. I think it’s the community that knows the problem. And I think we need to funnel funds to the communities. You decide what you need, you decide what resources you have, you decide what buildings you have, or what’s the best way to solve this? Because coming from the top doesn’t work because we’re such a diverse, I mean, The county’s very different than Washington County, which is very different than Portland.

And so, to have that come from the top just doesn’t make sense. And you guys know what you need more so than Augusta does. And so I’d really like to see you guys come up with a plan and then have the state support you in that. There’s a number of different things we can do.

We can turn some of these big box stores into housing. There’s a lot of empty houses around that could be used. Maybe you have to buy modular homes for that. But affordable housing, this affordable housing crisis has been a generation in the making. It’s been going you know, and I talk about Beals where, I’ve been there for 35 years and I’ve seen the prices skyrocket because of people moving in that can afford their, because it’s an island there’s a lot of shore frontage. And so, those prices have skyrocketed. And now most of the people that have been there for generations, most of them probably could not afford to buy the house they’re in because it’s so expensive. And then their real estate taxes have skyrocket because the value. They’re not making any more money. They’re just paying a lot more taxes. So we’re getting a lot less state subsidy from that. And it’s a huge problem. And I think my town is a prime example. And what do we do about that? Again, I’d love to see us somehow be able to really greatly increase a homestead exemption, but in order to do that, we also have to get that money from somewhere else. And I believe that we need to look at getting that from seasonal people, seasonal homes.

Kelly: And obviously, energy goes beyond gas and oil. There are big changes made in how electricity is generated. What do you see as the future of renewable energy for Maine?

What sources do you think we should tap to help keep costs in check while also protecting the natural beauty that our state’s known for?

Sam Hunkler: Yeah, that’s going to be a big issue. Certainly, the focus seems to be on wind and solar. The problem is there’s not always wind and there’s not always sun.

Two things that I think we really need to look into. Number one is tidal power. Most of the population of Maine lives within 20 or 30 minutes of the coastline, and we’ve got 3000 miles of coastline. That’s going to take a lot of more research and how to do that and how to keep it from rusting. But I think there’s, you know, ingenuity, there’s lots of people with lots of ingenuity.

Even our University of Maine system has a really good technical department in those areas. So, looking more at tidal. And the other thing is there’s something called small modular reactors that are actually nuclear reactors, but they’re very small and they don’t have the potential to harm as much as the big reactors.

They don’t melt down. They’re still in the research stage, but it’s something that I think we really need to look at. Especially away from the coast, but on the coast as well. I mean, we shut down Maine Yankee, but that again, Maine Yankee had the potential of melting down.

So I mean, that could have been disaster. But these smaller units don’t. And so it’s something new. The other thing is hydrogen power. I mean, that’s another very clean that comes from water, but then you have to be able to split the water to do that. But that’s another thing we really need to look at.

And maybe we can use our solar and wind or whatever the energy to do that. But those are some examples of things we need to.

Kelly: and obviously abortion has become a huge issue this year with the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, where do you stand on abortion? Would you try to change Maine’s existing laws?

Sam Hunkler: Abortion is an unfortunate circumstance in our society. And it’s going to continue, whether it’s legal or not, that’s just the way it’s been going on for thousands of years. And I’d like to think that we can get to a point in our society where it becomes obsolete and we don’t need to have abortion.

But that’s a long way off. So all we do by making illegal is we put women’s lives at. That’s not acceptable to me. So I do support, I would defend the current state constitution statutes for abortion. And I would only see us changing that if we get two thirds of the legislature or two thirds of the people by referendum wanting to change that.

Kelly: Why should people in Aroostook County vote for you?

Sam: Well, in particular Aroostook County. I’m here because, I’ll put it this way, I’m here because you are not. Most people want something different. They’re tired of the division, they’re tired of the political atmosphere. They’re tired of the money in politics. They’re tired of the special interest you know, changing things and running things and being, and owning the parties and so I’m here offering a different way. It may be what you want.

It may not, but as I say, most people want something different. They just don’t know what that looks like. And so I’m offering that. And so I’m trying to offer something different. I’m not accepting any money, so I would not be beholden to anyone. Or any special interest. I don’t have fame or fortune or a party, so I’m doing this with $5,000 of my own money trying to get politics out of it.

And so I really want to get government back to the people. Right now, it all comes from the top down and it’s just doesn’t seem to be working. Everybody’s looking for somebody, a savior, to get in there and fix everything. And the problem is when we do that, We give our power away to those authorities and then we have no power, we’ve given away, so we’re looking for somebody to save it.

But if we’re going to change or if we’re really going to change how we govern and how we go about our state business, we really have to start taking responsibility for our own selves, our own communities. And that’s why for me, the community is the key to this. As I say, children are the key and we need strong communities to raise strong children. And that is my focus, children and their future.

Kelly: Thank you so much for joining us.

Sam: Thank you.

Copyright 2022 WAGM. All rights reserved.