HOUSE DISTRICT 45

Freedom, Knox, Montville, Palermo, Thorndike, Troy, Unity

Name: Matthew W. Evans

Age: 43

Political party: Republican

Residence: Couillard Road, Palermo

Employment: Lawyer

Education: Bachelor of science, accounting, Bloomsburg University; bachelor of science, business economics, Bloomsburg; master's, business administration, Bloomsburg; jurisdoctorate, Widener University; Dallas (Pa.) High School.

Political experience: Three years, Palermo Board of Selectmen, two years as chairman.

Name: John F. Piotti

Age: 47

Political party: Democrat

Residence: Albion Road, Unity

Employment: Executive director, Maine Farmland Trust

Education: Bachelor of science, engineering, MIT; bachelor of science, public policy, MIT; master's, management, MIT; Nantucket (Mass.) High School.

Political experience: Six years, House of Representatives; chairman taxation, conservation and forestry and select committee on Maine's future-prosperity committees; chairman, Unity planning board and comprehensive-plan committee.

1. What can you, as a state legislator, do to help people struggling this year with the high cost of gas and oil?

Evans: "Provide incentives and tax breaks to reduce expenditures. Reduced state income and excise taxes for small oil companies equals lower prices. The large companies will also reduce their prices to become competitive."

Piotti: "The legislature needs to appropriate more money to the Low Income Heat and Energy Assistance Program. It only helps low-income people. It doesn't help a lot, but every little bit will help."

2. How would you handle the biggest issues facing the towns in your district?

Evans: "Employment opportunities are too low. We don't want an industrial complex. Bigger employment in nearby population centers."

Piotti: "We need additional jobs at existing businesses, plus more farming and logging jobs. Farms for Future helps farms with business planning assistance and state grants. There's talk of a similar program for loggers."

3. Do you have any plans that would result in more jobs for Maine?

Evans: "Reduce regulation, reduce taxes. The old adage is, 'Build it and they will come,' if the environment is correct. The technical-college system could be a pump, but the jobs aren't here."

Piotti: "I chaired the prosperity committee. I hope its recommendations will be implemented. We need economic-development bonding and infrastructure improvements."

4. What do you think of the beverage-tax repeal on the November ballot?

Evans: "Absolutely in favor of it. It's nonsensical that the voters of the state have to go through this because the legislature was not looking out for their best interests. Dirigo Health is a special-interest contingency."

Piotti: "The tax is a necessary solution to real problems. Dirigo Health covers about 15,000 people. You're spending a lot per person, but you'd be spending a lot more. The uninsured are incredibly costly to society."

5. Would you support legislation to change the income tax or sales tax?

Evans: "Yes. The income-tax structure is disconnected from the federal structure. Restructure the state income tax so its more beneficial to small business and small business development. If government can be reduced, the sales tax can, too."

Piotti: "Yes and yes. We have a poorly-structured tax system that desperately needs fixing. Lower the income tax and broaden the sales tax."

6. What's the biggest social issue facing the state in the next two years?

Evans: "Health care. The cost of health care and the affordability of health care, which ties, unfortunately, back to government regulation and the mandated coverage. There are too many mandates."

Piotti: "We need the political will to support low-income people to get through the energy crisis with no new revenues. I think that's a social issue."