Maine’s Next Chapter: A State You Can Afford to Call Home

Maine’s Next Chapter:

A State You Can Afford to Call Home

Too many Mainers are working hard and still falling behind. Not because they are doing anything wrong, but because the cost of housing, health care, energy, childcare and groceries has outpaced what most families earn. The Trump Administration’s reckless tariffs, foreign wars, and economic mismanagement have made it much worse. And recent federal cuts to health care and food programs to pay for tax cuts for billionaires are only adding to financial burdens. And while we see significant wealth grow for the very richest, wages for too many Mainers have fallen behind

Hannah Pingree believes there’s more to be done for Maine people. As Governor, she will take immediate, practical steps to lower costs for Maine people. That means tackling housing and energy bills, making health care and childcare accessible, and restructuring Maine’s tax system so the wealthiest pay their fair share and working families can afford their property taxes.

Lowering costs means holding the companies accountable that are seeking to drive up costs — from the private equity companies buying mobile home parks to utilities and prescription drug companies. But it also means growing those jobs and economic opportunities that support good paying wages and benefits that can sustain families.

Her Housing Affordability Plan, Energy and Climate Plan, Economic and Innovation Plan, and her Health Care Plan for Maine are the backbone of this agenda and her campaign for governor.

This plan builds on each of them to address the full cost of living facing Maine families today.

A Maine Where You Can Afford to Live

The single biggest driver of Maine’s affordability crisis are the rising cost of keeping a roof overhead and the heat and lights on. Hannah will tackle both.

Policy Priorities:

Ensure Mainers Can Find Housing They Can Afford
- Provide consistent funding for affordable housing: Invest $100 million per year investment in housing development, first-time homebuyer programs, and redevelopment to create more housing Mainers can afford.
- Take common sense approaches to increase housing supply: Accelerate permit approvals, cut red tape, and reduce barriers to new housing by streamlining and simplifying state and local permit approvals and support land use reforms that allow homes to be built faster, smarter, and more predictably.
- Take on Private Equity and Corporate Greed: Stop out-of-state corporations from displacing families from existing homes and driving up rents. From mobile home parks to apartments, we urgently need to protect the homes that are affordable now.
- Read Hannah’s full Housing Affordability Plan here.
Lower Energy Bills for All Mainers
- Lower Bills by Holding Utilities Accountable: Tie utility profits to lower bills, better performance, and customer satisfaction. Require the PUC to penalize poor service, reject unjustified rate hikes, and demand fair, transparent budgets that put Maine people over profits — including holding CMP, Versant Power, and their corporate parent Avangrid accountable.
- Drive down electricity costs: Direct the PUC to use every available tool to reduce bills — incentivizing utilities when rates go down, not up; facilitating electrification and efficiency; maximizing use of existing grid infrastructure; and ensuring modernization investments use the lowest-cost financing available.
- Target relief for low- and moderate-income households: Expand heat pump, home efficiency, heating assistance, and community solar programs so the benefits of clean energy reach every Mainer and lower costs for all households, especially those who need it most.
- Read Hannah’s full Energy and Climate Plan here.

A Maine Where Families Can Meet Their Basic Needs

Lowering the cost of housing and energy is not enough if families cannot afford health care, childcare or food. Hannah’s plan addresses all three as essentials, not extras.

Health Coverage Mainers Can Afford

Read Hannah’s full Health Care for Maine plan here.

Launch a public health insurance option: Create a state-backed plan that puts patients before profits. One that doesn’t replace existing coverage, but adds an affordable alternative that consumers can choose and businesses can offer workers. Developed with state leaders and residents, it will answer to the people of Maine, not corporate shareholders, and help counter skyrocketing premiums caused by Republican attacks on the ACA.
Make prescription drugs more affordable: Lower out-of-pocket costs through expanded bulk and multi-state purchasing, greater pricing transparency, and state authority to limit excessive price hikes on essential medications. Use the state’s purchasing power as Maine’s largest employer to cap drug prices for state workers based on Medicare rates, and support other large employers to do the same.
Prevention saves money: The least expensive health care is the care that catches problems early. Hannah will expand access to primary care in rural and underserved communities, and strengthen maternity and reproductive health services so Maine families get the support they need at every stage of life — reducing long-term costs for families and the health care system alike.
- Read Hannah’s full Health Care for Maine plan here.

Affordable, Quality Child Care for Every Family

As a mom of two kids, Hannah knows firsthand what it means to balance work and the search for affordable, quality child care. Her plan makes the investments needed to ensure every Maine family with young children can access care they can count on, supporting children’ s healthy development and early learning while parents are at work. That means helping more families afford child care, expanding available options, and growing the workforce of early educators to meet the need.

Ensure Childcare is Affordable for Working Families: Increase funding for the Child Care Affordability Program so every income-eligible family can access help — eliminating the current waitlist that leaves hundreds of families out of luck, with a particular focus on infant and toddler care which is often hardest to find and afford.
Strengthen the child care workforce: Sustain and grow the successful child care wage supplement program, supporting livable wages to recruit and retain early childhood educators. Expand career and technical education, registered apprenticeship programs, and higher education pathways into the field.
Expand access to child care: Provide technical and financial assistance to help existing programs grow and new programs open, especially for infant and toddler care, including slots with evening hours to help support parents who do shift work.

Help Families Put Food On the Table

As the Trump administration slashes federal food assistance and ends funding for local food purchasing, Maine must step up.

Ensure free school meals for all children: Ensure state funding to feed over 115,000 public school students daily during the school year, saving families approximately $160 per month, and supporting attendance and learning.
Protect access to vital food programs: The federal Supplemental Nutrition Access Program (SNAP) is the strongest anti-hunger program in America, putting food on the table for working families, older adults, and people with disabilities. The Trump Administration is undermining SNAP with cuts and red tape to push eligible households out. Hannah will fight back by streamlining enrollment, ensuring every eligible Mainer doesn’t lose access, and helping children and seniors get the food they need.
Shore up state and local food programs: Support state and local food initiatives and nutrition programs making fresh local foods more affordable and accessible. Bolster support for local food pantries, community based options and other targeted programs, like Meals on Wheels for seniors and weekend back-pack programs for kids, providing essential connection to food and other resources.

A Maine With Higher Wages and Expanded Opportunity

Raising wages is not just about fairness, it is about strengthening Maine’s entire economy. When workers earn more, families are more stable, businesses retain talent, and communities grow stronger. America has seen growing wealth inequality, partially due to stagnating wages. Hannah’s plan focuses on raising wages by expanding skills, improving job quality, strengthening worker bargaining power, and growing good-paying jobs.

Read Hannah’s full Economic Development Plan here.

Invest in Maine’s workforce and raise wages through skills and training: Expanding apprenticeships and career pathways, education opportunities, and hands-on training in high-demand fields so workers can move into better-paying jobs and advance over time.
Grow innovative industries and strengthen job quality: Making it easier to start and grow a small business, while investing in clean energy, advanced manufacturing, health care, and Maine’s heritage industries—creating good-paying jobs.
Lower the barriers that hold back wages and workforce participation: Tackling the rising costs of child care, housing, transportation, and health care—so workers can take better jobs, increase their hours, and fully participate in the economy without being priced out of opportunity.
Build an economy that rewards work, not just wealth: Strengthening labor protections and bargaining power so workers have a real voice on the job—and ensure more Mainers can access stable careers and opportunity even as rapid changes like artificial intelligence and global economic shifts reshape the future of work.
Invest in Opportunity for Rural Maine: Direct targeted resources to communities that have been left behind to rebuild infrastructure, housing, and downtowns while launching partnerships that strengthen key industries like agriculture, fishing, and outdoor recreation. Attract private investment to help communities thrive and ensure reliable broadband and cell service to support that growth and connect more Mainers to opportunity.

A Maine Where Property Taxes Are Fair and the Wealthy Pay Their Share

For too long, Maine’s tax system has asked more of those who can afford it least, while too many working families struggle to keep up with rising costs. Hannah will rebalance the system so that work is rewarded, wealth is taxed fairly, and middle- and low-income Mainers get real, lasting relief.

Provide Urgent Property Tax Relief

Property taxes have risen faster than incomes, making it harder for homeowners, renters, and communities to keep up. Hannah will deliver meaningful property tax relief for Maine families while addressing the structural causes of rising municipal tax rates.

Boost the Homestead Exemption: Maine’s homestead exemption has not kept pace with rising property values. Hannah will double the exemption to provide immediate relief to all Maine resident homeowners.

Deepen the Property Tax Fairness Credit: The Property Tax Fairness Credit helps low- and moderate-income homeowners and renters, but too many struggling households are left out or underserved. Hannah will expand eligibility so more households qualify and increase the maximum benefit to reflect today’s property tax burden. She will also simplify the application to increase participation, especially among seniors and renters.

- Require Second Homes to Pay Their Fair Share: Hannah will adjust property tax law to allow municipalities to tax second homes owned by non-Maine residents at higher rates, ensuring seasonal and investment properties support the infrastructure and services they rely on and reducing the burden on Mainers.

Partner with Communities to Deliver Relief: Lasting relief requires real partnership between the state and municipalities. Hannah will give municipalities new local revenue options so they are less dependent on residential property taxes to fund essential services, support regional service sharing in areas like public safety and public works, planning and code enforcement, and solid waste to reduce costs for taxpayers, and she’ll maintain the state’s share of K-12 education funding to reduce pressure on local property tax bills.

Advance Fair Tax Reform

Maine has taken an important step forward with the new millionaire’s tax. Hannah will build on that progress by launching a thoughtful, transparent process to evaluate additional ways to make Maine’s tax system more progressive — ensuring those at the top pay their fair share, rewarding work, seeking opportunities to export tax burden to visitors and non-residents, and reducing the burden on working and middle class Mainers.

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