I would like to thank Rep. Meredith Strang Burgess, R-Cumberland, for her support of Maine’s prevention programs funded by the Fund for a Healthy Maine.  A majority of the Health and Human Services Committee, which she chairs, voted to decimate Maine’s public health system, basically sticking Maine’s taxpayers, our children and grandchildren with unaffordable health costs forever.  However, Rep. Strang Burgess did not join the other Republicans in these cuts.  She joined the Democrats on the committee to protect the Healthy Maine Partnerships, oral health programs, Family Planning, school-based health centers, home visiting and affordable child-care initiatives.  As a strong advocate for public health and prevention, Rep. Strang Burgess listened to evidence and science and did the right thing.  It would have been easier for her to just vote party line, but she voted with her mind and her conscious and I want to thank her for that. 

Deanna Harnett
Yarmouth