Maine Governor Takes Heat for Hiring Ban After Hiring, Spending Spree

Maine Gov. Maura Healey announced a hiring freeze this week just months after giving cabinet members a raise and a hiring spree that created new positions and filled vacancies left by the previous administration. The Democratic governor is now taking heat from the state Republican Party and a nonprofit organization that advocates for transparency and fiscal responsibility. “Gov. Maura Healey spent the last year and a half, completely unrestrained in her hiring spree, with the taxpayers footing the bill. Like a child taking their parent’s credit card to the mall for the first time, Gov. Healey hired every position imaginable, created new positions, and then let overtime costs go completely unchecked,” Paul D. Craney, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said in prepared remarks....