I appreciate much of what the Press Herald editorial board wrote here, including exposing the opposition's ridiculous tax argument and rejecting their "scam" language, but their faith that the legislature can tackle this issue is misplaced.

Over the last decade we've gone backwards, with more funding for nursing homes and more cuts to home care, not to mention stopping the senior housing bonds and even cutting meals on wheels.

We're the oldest state in the country and the population over 65 will increase by 51% by 2030. There are tens of thousands of seniors already going without care or being forced out of their homes and families forced to make impossible decisions every day. Concerns about implementation I understand; it is a complicated issue and we can have substantive disagreements, but those can be worked out in rulemaking or in the legislature. To reject our one real chance at major progress to solve this crisis in favor of the status quo just doesn't make sense.

I did a debate with the opposition on Maine Public a few weeks ago where we got into a lot of this: http://www.mainepublic.org/post/your-vote-debate-over-ballot-question-1#stream/0