No ferry cash from embattled Maine governor

Dysfunctional governor facing impeachment?
A high-level delegation of senior Nova Scotia officials returned home from Maine empty-handed after a round-trip excursion on the luxury cruise ferry Nova Star. Ministers Geoff McClellan and Zach Churchill and a bevy of bureaucrats met in Maine with embattled governor Paul lePage, attempting to pry from him an agreement for his state to support the cash-strapped Nova Star operation.

LePage is well-known in political circles as a contentious, erascible and combative personality and, because he appears to have the knack for picking fights with everyone under the sun and is facing a possible impeachment challenge, he was described Monday in the New York Times Monday as a "party of one."

The governor has called friends and foes names and gone on a veto spree, according to the Times, canceling a record number of bills in a flurry that would rival any Maine blizzard; in turn, the Legislature has responded with an override spree, reviving many bills unanimously.

On Monday, Mr. LePage is expected to veto the $6.7 billion, two-year state budget; the Legislature will return Tuesday, when it is expected to override the veto.

But the governmental dysfunction has become a sideshow to an even bigger controversy over Mr. LePage’s actions regarding a charter school for at-risk youths and there are rumblings of moves to have LePage impeached.

The ostensible reason for the trip by Bluenose officials was to secure assurances of funding support, including, but not likely limited to, the guarantee of a $5 million line of credit for the Nova Star, whose Maine-based executives burned through almost $36 million in Nova Scotia taxpayer monies in less than 14 months. Maine officials have previous said that there is no legislative solution to the funding problem.The Finance Authority of Maine, a quasi-governmental financing agency, has worked aggressively to explore options for Nova Star with private lenders, said Bill Norbert, the agency’s spokesman. “So far, no takers,” Norbert said.

When asked what other topics were discussed, department of Transportation officals told SCT via email that they included "clarity on the line of credit and where Maine stands", other "areas of mutual interest (e.g., joint marketing)" and "shared benefits and opportunities."

While no specific positive outcomes from the meeting were forthcoming, the official did say, "The meeting allowed positive and open discussions face-to-face and resulted in an agreement to keep discussions ongoing including a commitment from Maine to send a delegation to NS in the next month and a half."

Mclellan has has also said it may open the door to other possible ferry operators if this season does not prove successful for the Nova Star. MacLellan told Maine media Thursday that the province will evaluate the service later in the summer to determine whether it will be sustainable.

“We can’t continue to write checks toward this operation with no signs that things are stabilizing and that’s really what we’re looking for,” MacLellan said then.

Portland Mayor Michael Brennan said in a statement Thursday that provincial officials assured him the ferry service would continue to connect with Portland and not Bar Harbor.

“I was pleased to learn that Bar Harbor is no longer under consideration for the ferry service,” Brennan said.

One commenter on Facebook said that it looked to him that "two ministers and several senior bureaucrats spent two days on a round-trip cruise to arrange a future meeting in Nova Scotia with a delegation from Maine."

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Nova Star ferry