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麻州州長共和黨籍候選人米諾格（Mike Minogue）發表AAOK藍圖。(周菊子攝）
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（Boston Orange 周菊子麻州綜合報導）麻州州長共和黨籍候選人米諾格（Mike Minogue）9月10日在Amesbury的Shea Concrete水泥廠，以AAOK口號發表「更好未來藍圖」。奚莉州長（Maura Healey）隨後以視頻質疑米諾格未解釋作為州長，要如何抵制川普總統政策帶給麻州的經濟及公安傷害。
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| 週四早上有近百人出席聆聽Mike Minogue發表政見。(周菊子攝） |
米諾格藉著“水泥”是帶有具體計劃（Concrete Plan）味道的雙關語，在Shea Concrete水泥廠，面向約百名支持者，發表他稱為AAOK計畫的「更好未來藍圖」，意味著他要問責（Accountability）、講究可負擔性（Affordability）、關注機會（Opportunity）與維護社區安全（Keeping Communities Safe）。
米諾格在解釋AAOK內容時，還做出承諾，包括將用外部審計師來審計州議會和整個州預算，創建「麻薩諸塞州支出儀表板」（Massachusetts Spending Dashboard），讓2027財年預算透明化。他還表示將啟動全州競爭性招標程序，減少單一來源合同。
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麻州州長Maura Healey質疑Mike Minogue的
支持川普。(周菊子攝） |
在可負擔上，他承諾上任首日就削減州政府規定的能源公用事業費用，在油價超過每加侖4美元時暫停州燃油稅，並「取消無資金、無法實現的淨零授權」—這是指麻州2050年實現淨零碳排放的法律承諾。他還提出一項以財政誘因換取地方配合，可增加房源的住房政策，承諾如果地方市鎮自願取消採用較嚴格的stretch codes（比基礎能源法規更嚴的建築節能標準），並將單戶住宅的許可審批時間縮短至45天以內，州政府就將返還給該市鎮的稅收比例從目前的26%提高至35-40%。
在機會方面，米諾格表示將出租或出售非保護用途的州土地給專注於製造業、高科技、生命科學、國防、能源和太空開發的開發商與企業。他還承諾在第一任期結束前僱用25,000名退伍軍人，並通過稅收激勵和貸款償還計劃留住教師與醫療專業人員。
社區安全方面，他主張取消麻州的庇護州政策，承諾要強制監禁暴力侵害執法人員的人，全面資助執法部門，並保護執法人員的合格豁免權（qualified immunity）。此外，他主張終止無現金保釋制度。
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| 麻州州長共和黨籍候選人米諾格（Mike Minogue）。(周菊子攝） |
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| Shea Concrete水泥廠。(周菊子攝） |
麻州在位州長奚莉（Maura Healey）藉著川普總統9月9日在德州達拉斯舉行的共和黨中期選舉大會中所說「假裝我在選票上」，質疑米諾格為競選公佈的施政藍圖到底說了什麼。奚莉表示，米諾格應該解釋他為什麼支持川普，解釋川普能夠怎麼幫助麻州，如果米諾格無法說明他當州長時，可以如何抵制川普總統政策對麻州居民，醫療體系及經濟造成的損害，那就不是一份藍圖。
麻州共和黨籍候選人米諾格（Mike Minogue）畢業於西點軍校，1989年獲得工程學學位，曾任Abiomed這醫療器械公司執行長，當強生製藥（Johnson & Johnson）2022年以166億美元收購該公司時，米諾格收到約2.4億美元的離職補償金。由於他個人資產豐厚，還自掏腰包至少1500萬美元來競選州長，他一直被人形容為不諳政事的商人，但9日早上，他強調自己有軍事背景，曾於波斯灣戰爭期間在伊拉克服役，得過銅星勳章，深明紀律的重要性，還當過企業執行長，懂得管理，他絕對是個更好的州長人選。根據網路資料，他在19年間成功的把Abiomed市值從1.7億美元帶到170億美元。
這是米諾格首次參選公職，並在9月1日的共和黨初選中，以76%的得票率擊敗Brian Shortsleeve，贏得共和黨初選。
米諾格藉著在水泥廠發表施政藍圖，來強調他提出的施政方針十分具體，不過多家媒體指出，有不少米諾格的承諾，包括取消淨零授權，燃油稅減免，創建支出儀表板等構想，事實上都需要由民主黨控制的麻州議會批准，才能落實。他需要提供更多實施細節，才有說服力。
根據麻州大學，新罕布夏大學等多項民調，在位州長奚莉（Maura Healey）佔明顯優勢，領先米諾格約20%。不過米諾格競選陣營表示，民調支持度比他們原本預期得好，現在距離11月3日的大選投票日，還有至少一個半月，局勢很可能翻轉。
Mike Minogue’s Blueprint for a Better Future
Accountability, Affordability, Opportunity, and Keeping Communities Safe. AAOK.
Massachusetts is working for some, but not all. We are headed down the wrong path. We elect a leader with integrity, common sense, and compassion to make Massachusetts the best place to live, work, and raise a family. We elect a new kind of governor with a blueprint to Accountability, Affordability, Opportunity, and Keeping communities safe. AAOK.
Accountability: 72% of our voters supported the audit, but the Governor does not enforce the will of the people. The political establishment is wasting your tax dollars and growing debt at a higher rate than ever before. Mike Minogue will stop the overspending, expose the waste and corruption, and provide transparency and balance to the one-party system.
• Audit the state legislature and the entire state budget with an outside auditor
• Utilize third-party healthcare auditors to find waste, fraud, and abuse to ensure the care and dollars get to the patient.
• Establish a statewide competitive bidding process that reduces single-source contracts and validates the integrity of lowest bidder compliance.
• Utilize Commonwealth Constitution (Clause 62F) to return surplus revenue back to the taxpayers. Ballot question number five supports taxpayer refunds.
• Create a Massachusetts Spending Dashboard on FY2027 budget for real-time transparency.
Affordability: Massachusetts, with eight taxes, takes more of its citizens’ money than 90% of America. Maura Healey is overspending, overtaxing, and overregulating. Young people cannot afford to start their lives here, and seniors cannot afford to stay. People, entrepreneurs, and businesses are leaving the Commonwealth because Massachusetts has the highest cost of living: energy, housing, health insurance, car insurance, and childcare in the nation. Mike is a proven leader in business, healthcare, and the nonprofit space and has the skillset to solve problems.
• Cut taxes and spending by eliminating waste and fraud with audits and prioritization.
• Cut state-mandated energy utility fees on day one, which represent a third of utility bills
• Invest in safe, clean, and reliable energy that lowers monthly costs with natural gas pipelines and evaluate new modular nuclear energy options.
• Implement Mike’s ‘Patients First’ healthcare plan that will provide access to affordable, quality care. Healthcare will be pushed back into the communities and out of the emergency rooms in Boston hospitals. This plan will support primary care physicians, stop burning out doctors and nurses in hospitals, push procedures and surgeries into lower-cost outpatient clinics and surgery centers, mandate all generic drugs through pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and move mental health care from the emergency rooms back into the communities. The ‘Patients First’ plan will address the mental health crisis by expanding community-based care with reimbursed support from counselors and primary care physicians.
• Enact a gas tax holiday when gas prices reach over four dollars per gallon to provide people with relief during national spikes and work towards the long-term elimination of state gas tax.
• Cancel the unfunded, unachievable Net Zero mandate, which would cost taxpayers over $300 billion. Focus on energy innovation that would lower energy costs for our peopleand hospitals, stimulate manufacturing, and protect the ocean and our fishing industry.
• Eliminate the enforcement of the MBTA Communities Act and provide legal support to cities and towns that do not accept the terms because of their limitations with water,sewer, infrastructure, and school resources. Doing this will empower towns to have the ultimate responsibility and decision-making to maintain the function and culture of their communities.
• Provide communities more of their tax dollars back, up to 35-40%, compared to the 26% they retain today, provided the towns and cities eliminate the building stretch codes and reduce permitting times for single-family homes to 45 days or less, compared to 1.5 years today. This will make it easier for Bay Staters to build and buy a home and reverse the trend making Massachusetts last in the nation in permits per capita.
Opportunity: Massachusetts is last in the nation for private sector job growth and second worst for debt per capita. The critical path forward requires entrepreneurs and businesses to stay in Massachusetts and expand operations and manufacturing. A strong economy will allow people to stay and build their lives here.
• Grow jobs by retaining and recruiting entrepreneurs and businesses.
• Lease or sell state land, not conservation land, to developers, builders, and companies, with a focus on manufacturing and investment in high tech, life sciences, defense,energy, and space development.
• Launch the BEACON plan for our military veterans, including hiring 25,000 veterans by the end of Mike’s first term.
• Invest in education by opting into the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit and recruit over one million taxpayers, creating $1.7B in funding, to participate in Scholarship Granting Organization (SGO) scholarships. Eighty-five percent of parents with kids in school will be eligible.
• Expand charter, tech, vocational schools across the Commonwealth.
• Appoint a DESE board that focuses on education, skills, testing, and results, not politics.
• Incentivize teachers and medical professionals to work and stay in Massachusetts with tax incentives and loan payment programs.
• Overturn the unconstitutional totality accounting rule that keeps people from donating to Massachusetts nonprofits when they relocate to another state.
• Reduce Massachusetts’ traffic problem by utilizing AI and creating digital maps, coordinated with traffic command centers.
Keep Communities Safe: The fundamental role of the governor is to keep our communities safe and uphold the law. Maura Healey’s failed leadership has made the Commonwealth less safe by releasing known criminals back into the communities and not cracking down on fentanyl drug dealers. Mike will balance compassion and common sense, while upholding the law and prioritizing the safety of our people and law enforcement.
• Recognize and value the contributions of immigrants who work, build businesses, and help strengthen Massachusetts. At the same time, Mike will prioritize removing violent criminals and drug dealers and end sanctuary state policies. With compassion and common sense, Massachusetts can be a place where everyone can live the American dream.
• Appoint a strong parole board that prioritizes and protects the safety of our people and eliminates cashless bail. Create mandatory jail time for any convictions of violence against law enforcement agents.
• Provide girls fair and safe sports and a right to privacy.
• Protect our constitutional rights.
• Fully fund and protect qualified immunity for law enforcement.
• Ensure citizens’ privacy is respected while keeping communities safe.
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