By Alex Nunes
In November of last year, Maine
peace activists began contacting state Rep. Jennifer DeChant (D-Bath) and Sen.
Eloise Vitelli (D-Arrowsic) to voice their opposition to a proposed $60-million
tax deal being considered on behalf of General Dynamics subsidiary Bath Iron
Works.
“As your constituent, I urge you to
reject any tax breaks for General Dynamics,” Mary Beth Sullivan, of Bath, wrote
in a Nov. 30 email to Vitelli, cosponsor of the tax
bill made available online for the
first time last week. “General Dynamics spent $9.4-billion
buying back its own stocks between 2013-2016…General Dynamics, like most weapons
corporations, gets the vast majority of its operating funds from the federal
treasury. The taxpayers are paying the freight from the
start.
“Before General Dynamics gets
any more state taxpayer dollars it should be required to begin a transition
process to build commuter rail systems, tidal power and offshore wind turbines
to help us deal with our real problem – global warming.”
The message was among several emails
disclosed
by Vitelli in response to a
Maine Freedom of Access Act request filed by a reporter last month with the
intent of gaining greater insight into the development of the Bath Iron Works
tax bill. A similar notice was sent to DeChant, who acknowledged its receipt but
has yet to provide the requested documents.
After hearing from Sullivan,
Vitelli forwarded her constituent’s email to DeChant, accompanied by the
message: “Jennifer, Are you getting these?”
“Yep,” DeChant emailed back.
“I am responding ‘Thank you for your feedback.'”
Vitelli replied, “Good idea.
Do you know what spurred this action?”
“Likely they saw the bill title,”
DeChant wrote. “They are
trigger happy over corporate greed. Interestingly I share those concerns too.
They are among the people demonstrating against war machines of BIW/GD. that is
where we differ [typo in original text]. Better to have discussion early to keep
communication clean as possible.”
In response to an email
seeking comment on this story, DeChant erroneously insisted she did not make the
comment.
“I did not say that,” DeChant
wrote, “Perhaps you should ask Senator Vitelli. That is not my
phrase.”
When pressed and provided a
screen grab of the correspondence provided by Senate Democratic Office Chief of
Staff Darek Grant, DeChant replied, “Oh. I apologize. I did not understand your
question. I meant that people were responding to the bill had not even been
released yet.”
In a separate follow up email,
she said, “I apologize if that phrase was a poor choice of description. I
continue to work with opponents. I understand that this is a passionate issue
for people.”
When reached by email, two
peace activists said they found DeChant’s use of the term “trigger happy”
striking. Both characterized DeChant as a representative who willfully
prioritizes the demands of a wealthy corporation over the concerns of Maine
taxpayers.
Activist and educator Lisa Savage,
who has contacted DeChant via email and has since been blocked from
following the representative on Twitter, suggested the pejorative label was
ironic.
“My online dictionary defines
this phrase as ‘ready to react violently, especially by shooting, on the
slightest provocation,'” Savage said. “Since protesters at BIW have for decades
maintained a strictly nonviolent approach in opposition to building weapons of
mass destruction, the phrase is particularly inapt.”
She added, “Rep. DeChant is a
confused neoliberal who can’t quite understand if she’s against corporate greed
(as she claims)” or not.
Bruce Gagnon, an activist with
Veterans For Peace, appeared taken aback by DeChant’s
characterization:
“‘Trigger happy’ for doing
what I learned in high school civics class — participating in our nation’s
public affairs — democracy,” Gagnon said. “Were Democrats in Maine ‘trigger
happy’ when they occupied Sen. Susan Collins offices in Portland and Bangor
opposing Trump’s huge federal tax cut for corporations? Now Democrats are
sponsoring a corporate welfare bill for mega-corporation General Dynamics.
Double standard? I’m confused.”
Since stating publicly her
intent to extend a $60-million tax giveaway, originally enacted in 1997, that
would allow Bath Iron Works to annually keep up to $3-million of employee income
taxes for 20 years, DeChant has had an increasingly strained relationship with
opponents of the bill.
Tensions escalated in late December
when DeChant prohibited video recording of a meeting at Bath City Hall with
constituents opposing the deal. The incident was made public in a Dec. 28
article in the
Times Record of Brunswick. DeChant has apologized for blocking a videographer,
calling her reaction a “mistake.”
Fallout from the meeting is
well documented in the emails turned over by Vitelli.
“My response is that it was a
mistake,” DeChant said in an email response to Savage she cc’d Vitelli on. “It
was a misunderstanding. Human error. I thought it was meeting for 4 people who I did not know invited the camera [typos in original text]…Not sure what else I
can do but apologize and make sure the situation doesn’t happen
again.”
The email disclosures show
DeChant and Vitelli both use private Gmail accounts to conduct official
business. One email sent from Vitelli’s official legislative account contains
language notifying recipients that her messages “may become a matter of public
record as indicated in the Maine Freedom of Access Act.”
Vitelli also provided one
email exchange from an @main.edu address dated prior to her winning back her
District 23 seat in November 2016. Based on her correspondence, Vitelli’s email
contact with officials at Bath Iron Works appears limited but
congenial.
“Thank you again for your time
and for providing [Sen.] Brownie [Carson (D-Harpswell)] and me with such a
thorough background on BIW,” Vitelli wrote in a July 2016 email to Bath Iron
Works General Counsel Jon Fitzgerald sent from her @maine.edu
account.
She continued, “The shipyard
has been a presence in my life for the 40 years I have lived in Arrowsic and as
indicated I was lucky to have a tour as part of Leadership Maine back a few
years. Our conversation with you has given me a much deeper understanding and
appreciation of BIW as a business, an employer and an economic driver of our
local and state economy. I look forward to future conversations about several of
the issues we touched on.”
Carson followed up with
Fitzgerald later that day: “Have a great summer, and see you later in the fall.
Of course, we need to have success in this election cycle first–so lots of work
between now and then.
“Best regards,
Brownie.”
