by Ruth Leubecker

After a year like no other and a bottom line marked with unknowns, Gov. Janet Mills last week delivered her State of the Budget with optimism and promise.

“We, like the rest of the nation, were dealt a bad hand last year,” said Mills, referring to the year of COVID, a crippled economy, evictions, severe isolation and ensuing fear. “But we are pushing through. We will get to that other side. We will not only survive, but rise a better, greater state for all that we have endured, all that we have learned, all whom we have saved.”