Around New England

Massachusetts Governor:  Why Is Maine Still Dissing Us Over Coronavirus?

September 10, 2020

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker said he can’t understand why Maine continues to include Massachusetts on its list of travel-restriction states because of coronavirus.

“We have the second lowest positive test rate in the country, O.K.? And we are in the top five or six or seven – depending upon which one of these things you look at – in terms of our daily cases per capita. I think that would make us a perfectly appropriate candidate to get off the no-fly zone in Maine. But for whatever reason, it’s not going to happen,” Baker said during a coronavirus press conference in Boston on Wednesday, September 9.

On July 3, Maine Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat, took New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut off the travel-restriction list, but kept Massachusetts on it, citing the state’s positivity test rates. Even though numbers have improved in Massachusetts, the state has not gotten off Maine’s travel-restriction list.

Maine Republicans have criticized the governor, noting that about 40 percent of the summer tourism business in Maine comes from Massachusetts.

Boston is only about an hour from the Maine border. Massachusetts accounts for about 46 percent of the population of New England.

Travel restrictions include a 14-day quarantine for visitors to Maine or a negative coronavirus test within the past three days. Some business owners have said the restrictions have diminished reservations and walk-in customers.

In July, Mills said her policy has helped save lives.

“For the life of me, I cannot understand why Republicans care more about Massachusetts money than the life of a Maine person,” Mills said July 27, according to NewsCenterMaine.com.

Critics say the governor has seriously damaged Maine’s economy to no purpose.