Solution To Unemployment: Remove Labor Murals

by Stuart Shapiro

Maine Governor Paul LePage has been the subject of mockery here before.  But he may have topped his previous low of not understanding the difference between politicians and civil servants.  He has ordered the removal of a 36-foot mural honoring workers from the State Department of Labor lobby (h/t Laura Clawson).

According to LePage spokesman Dan Demeritt, the administration felt the mural and the conference room monikers showed “one-sided decor” not in keeping with the department’s pro-business goals.

“The message from state agencies needs to be balanced,” said Demeritt, adding that the mural had sparked complaints from “some business owners” who complained it was hostile to business.

Demeritt declined to name the businesses.

Balance?  Maybe he should put pictures of smokestacks at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection?  Pictures of train wrecks at the Maine Department of Transportation?  Or maybe he could just focus on policy changes and helping the Maine economy instead of spending taxpayer dollars on removing a mural.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.