Maine has a cost problem, and it’s not the one you think. Yes, the rising cost of housing in Maine is an issue — especially because the things the Legislature has done recently to address the issue won’t really solve the problem, and might even make it worse.

Democrats in Augusta are more than willing to curtail local control, blame landlords and increase funding for low-income housing, but they won’t do anything about lessening regulatory burdens for, well, anyone — something that’s a direct contributor to costs and completely under their control.

When Democrats say they’re interested in reducing housing costs, they’re only interested in doing so as long as it stays within their ideological lane and they can lay blame at the feet of their preferred foils.

While they fail to solve that problem, they’re completely ignoring two other enormous problems: the rising cost of health insurance and the rising cost of electricity.

A recent report from the federal government found that Maine had the highest increase in the nation in electric costs from May 2024 to May of this year, up 36%. That’s double the increase of the next biggest state, Connecticut, at 18% — and, unlike us, they’re able to afford it more easily.

Now, state officials are, of course, quibbling with the report itself, rather than trying to address the problems. Even if the federal figures don’t quite match up with state’s, there’s no doubt that rates are on the rise .

All of this quibbling about the exact nature of the increase misses the overall point: under Gov. Janet Mills, electricity costs are on the rise, and she hasn’t done enough to counter the increase. Her signature bill this past session, LD 1, was on costs related to climate change. It passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, unlike her budgets, but it didn’t contain measures to address general electric costs.

Instead, Central Maine Power and other companies are still allowed to pass on the costs of storm damage to consumers, which has never really made much sense. Sure, there’s no particular reason to make utilities foot the bill for storms, but there’s no real reason to allow them to pass on the bill on to consumers, either.

The Legislature did pass a bill to address solar costs this session , which was a good step, but it was more a tweak to update the program and save money in the long term than it was a short-term fix for costs in general.

Mainers need real relief for rising electric costs now, but the Legislature didn’t debate a broad solution for that this session — because Janet Mills didn’t propose one.

Indeed, once LD 1 was passed, the administration didn’t really propose any other broad-based solutions for the pressing issues facing Maine, whether it’s rising costs, increasing crime or the opioid epidemic.

It’s not just electricity costs that are on the rise, either: health insurance costs are going up this year.

The health insurance companies operating in Maine requested double-digit increases, of 20% or more, a virtually unprecedented request. By the time you read this, the regulators will have probably already approved them — although they at least decided to hold a public hearing in response to the request for a change.

That’s all well and good, but it’s not uncommon for regulators to hold public hearings in response to rate increase requests and then just pretty much go along with them anyway.

The health insurance and electricity industries have the same problem: A lack of competition. While they both must have rate increases approved by regulators, the regulators know this themselves as well. If they begin to regularly deny rate increase requests, the few health insurance companies operating in Maine might just choose to pack up and leave.

Electrical utilities can’t quite do the same thing — they have infrastructure and legal monopolies, after all — but they can go bankrupt (or, more realistically, be resold).

The problem that Democrats have in trying to address these challenges is the same issue they have in addressing housing costs: Any potential solutions fall outside their ideological wheelhouse.

For health insurance and electricity, a good solution would be reducing regulations, and therefore costs. That might increase competition and reduce costs in the long run, as more insurance companies might choose to operate here and electric utilities might be less inclined to always request rate increases.

Instead, the majority party in Augusta chooses to ignore the problems, because it can’t
face that the solutions might be something its members wouldn’t like.