Committee recommends next Department of Labor commissioner
Courtesy / Governor's office
John Butera, Gov. Paul LePage's senior economic advisor, picked up a key legislative committee endorsement as the state's next labor commissioner. His nomination faces additional votes by lawmakers.
John Butera, Gov. Paul LePage’s senior economic advisor, picked up a key endorsement from the Legislature’s Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee, which voted 8-1 to recommend him as the state’s next labor commissioner.
Butera’s nomination to replace former Labor Commissioner Jeanne Paquette, who resigned last month in order to accept a position with the University of Southern Maine, faces additional votes by lawmakers.
Maine Public reported that committee members questioned Butera about Maine’s workforce challenges in light of the state’s aging population.
“We need to work with everybody to make sure we get people with skills or else our economy will severely be hampered in the next five to 10 years,” he told Maine Public. “We need to kind of make sure we have to look at all those different pools of potential labor and then we also As senior economic advisor for the LePage administration. Butera advises on economic development and job-creation issues. He also has policy responsibilities for economic and community development, business finance, workforce development and labor issues.
Before joining the governor's staff in January 2011, he had been executive director of the Central Maine Growth Council since 2002. Butera's nearly 25-year career in economic development includes positions with the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, a site location consulting firm, and public-private economic development organizations.
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