Robert Macdonald, the mayor of Lewiston, said that he thinks the public has the right to know who is receiving government assistance.
On Thursday, Macdonald said a bill will be submitted in the future, and it will ask that a website be created that contains the name of every single person that is collecting government assistance. The site would also contain recipients’ addresses, as well as the benefits they are collecting and how long they have been receiving assistance for.
The mayor said the public has the right to know how its money is being spent.
Macdonald is a local official. This means he needs to get a state lawmaker to introduce his plan in the legislature. The mayor said he has talked about his plan with two state lawmakers.
The bill could make people think twice about applying for welfare, and this is exactly what Macdonald is hoping for. He also said he isn’t sorry about what he said in the column he wrote in the Twin City Times, where he announced his plan.
Macdonald is hoping to get reelected as mayor in November, and his democratic opponent called the mayor’s column nothing more than a political stunt.
